Colorado Senate approved a measure that allows the Governor to pardon people convicted for psychedelic-related crimes. The bill also updates the implementation rules, data tracking provisions and other aspects of the voter-approved psychedelics law.
The full Senate passed, on Wednesday, the bill from Rep. Lisa Feret and Sen. Matt Ball, both Democrats, in an 23-12 vote.
SB25-297, if passed into law, would allow Gov. Jared Polis, (D), or any future governors may grant clemency for people convicted of low-level possession for substances like psilocybin and DMT which have been made legal for adults by state law.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment(CDPHE), Department of Revenue(DOR) and Department of Regulatory Agencies DORA would have to also “collect data and information related to the usage of natural medicines and natural medicine product.”
Included in this data would be information about law enforcement, adverse events and health claims, as well as behavioral effects related to psychedelics.
This is the third instance that this Legislature has implemented Prop. 122. Regardless of what you think about it, Prop. Ball stated that the voters passed Prop 122 and we must implement their will.
The bill establishes a method to gather health data, which will allow us to determine whether the natural medicine being rolled out has harmful or beneficial effects on our health.
In one of the committee amendments, a funding source for data tracking and collection was removed. In the new version, “ongoing budgets” are replaced by “appropriations, gifts, grants or contributions.” Ball said that lawmakers have a letter of intent from the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative—a nonprofit that supports advancing psychedelic therapy—to fund the program for the entirety of its five-year duration.
One amendment focuses on appropriations. It allocates $208,240 as gifts, donations, and grants to the Governor’s Office of Information Technology. This amendment reads: “To implement the act, this office may use the appropriation provided to provide IT services for the Department of Health and the Environment.”
It would also amend licensing rules and the ownership of healing centers that use psychedelics. The legislation, for example, removes the need for fingerprint-based background checks of owners and staff at licensed centers, allowing them to only undergo name-based criminal history checks.
This law “also requires the licensing authority of each state to establish rules relating to labels on regulated medicines and products that contain regulated medicine, as well as allowing the licensing authority the authority to set rules governing the types regulated medicine products which can be produced.”
A wide range of groups, both those who support psychedelics and others more hesitant to legalize them, have endorsed the proposal. At a public hearing in Colorado last month, many of the commenters agreed that the data-collection provisions included in the bill would enable observers to understand how regulated psychedelics are performing.
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Meanwhile in Colorado, last month the governor signed into law a bill that would allow a form of psilocybin to be prescribed as a medication if the federal government authorizes its use.
Colorado had already approved psilocybin for use by adults aged 21 or older, through an initiative that was approved on the ballot. However, the reform now in place will allow drugs synthesized with psilocybin to be prescribed under physicians.
As of January, meanwhile, Colorado regulars have been authorized to approve licenses for psilocybin service centers where adults can access the psychedelic in controlled settings.
The governor signed a bill to create the regulatory framework for legal psychedelics in 2023.
Legislators are clearly interested in setting up the state to permit a conventional distribution system for some psychedelics. In 2022, Polis also signed a bill to align state statute to legalize MDMA prescriptions if and when the federal government ultimately permits such use.
It is uncertain whether FDA will move forward with such approvals. In fact, last year the agency was criticized after it rejected an application for MDMA therapy to treat PTSD.
Meanwhile in Colorado, a bill that would have limited THC in marijuana and outlawed a variety of psilocybin products will no longer move forward this session following the lead sponsor’s move to withdraw the bill.
Texas House Committee passes Senate-passed marijuana decriminalization bill
Carlosemmaskype, Apollo and other photographers provided the images.
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