Colorado Bill To Limit Marijuana Potency, Tighten Age Restrictions And Limit Psilocybin Products Is Withdrawn By Sponsor
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A proposal in Colorado that would have limited THC in marijuana and outlawed a variety of psilocybin products will not move forward this session following the lead sponsor’s move to withdraw the bill.
At a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee, Sen. Judy Amabile (D) asked members to indefinitely postpone SB25-076, which would have made a number of changes to laws around cannabis and psychedelic products. Among them, it would have limited THC in inhaled marijuana to 10 milligrams per serving and 500 mg per package.
Marijuana product packaging would have also been required to include a color-coded label indicating THC potency: blue for products under 5 percent, yellow for products between 5 percent and 15 percent, orange for products between 15 percent and 50 percent and red for products with 50 percent or more THC.
The measure would have also limited the potency of products available to people 25 or under, capping THC at 10 percent.
Committee members voted 6–0 in favor of the motion to postpone the bill indefinitely, with one member excused.
As for psychedelics, known as “natural medicine” under Colorado law, the legislation would have prohibited the production and sale of psilocybin-infused candy, gummies, chocolates and other confections, as well as products containing an added flavor or sweetener. Product packaging would also have needed to include a universal natural medicine symbol.
State regulators also would have been directed under the bill to create requirements for collecting and reporting data about adverse effects related to natural medicine, a category that currently includes only psilocybin and psilocin but could eventually expand to include DMT, ibogaine and mescaline.
In addition to Amabile, the proposal was sponsored by two other bipartisan lawmakers: Sen. Byron Pelton (R) and Rep. Kyle Brown (D).
Amabile told Colorado Public Radio (CPR) ahead of the hearing that there’s been “a big reaction” to the bill since its introduction, adding that while sponsors made adjustments to put forward “a much smaller policy,” she nevertheless felt criticisms had been “misguided.”
She said further at Tuesday’s hearing that she’s received “incredible, very personal, mean and vicious emails about this bill.”
She told the panel that there were “parents, hundreds of parents, who wanted to come and testify today and tell you their stories, but we didn’t want to put them through it for a bill that we heard loud and clear from this committee had no chance of passage.”
“That makes me sad, and it makes me a little bit mad, too, because I had hoped that people might be able to walk a mile in the shoes of these families who have been devastated,” Amabile continued.
Most marijuana flower available on the adult-use market is between about 10 percent and 25 percent THC, with concentrate potency climbing considerably higher.
Amabile said a large group people in Colorado have been affected by psychosis, schizoaffective disorder and cannabis hyperemesis since legalization. “We’ve made a lot of progress on that in the last few years,” she told CPR, framing SB25-076 as “just another step along the way to make sure that we’re regulating this industry in a smart way.”
“I will say I have no interest in making anything illegal or going back to prohibition,” she said. “I just want us to move forward in a careful way.”
At the hearing, Amabile noted that her own son was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. “I tried really hard to protect him, but I couldn’t do it, because this product is everywhere,” she said.
Jon Spadafora, founder and CEO of the edibles company Flower Union Brands, emphasized that the proposal would hurt businesses and Colorado itself.
“Between the childproof packaging, the challenge of purchasing them, the purchase limits associated with them, I don’t think that edibles getting into kids’ hands is nearly as big of a concern as looking at the amount of jobs that would be lost and companies that would close,” he told CPR.
Spadafora also noted that most products already list THC levels on packaging.
“I’m all for communication to the customer. I think it’s a really important thing to do,” he said. ”But as I look at those numbers, I don’t really think there’s a tremendous amount of information the average consumer is going to gain from it.”
Critics in the cannabis community have noted an uptick in proposals seeking to roll back drug reforms across the country.
Paul Armentano, deputy director of the advocacy group NORML, for example, wrote in a recent Marijuana Moment op-ed that lawmakers in both red states and blue states were stepping up restrictive efforts:
“In Republican-led states like Montana, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota, lawmakers are seeking to either repeal or significantly roll back voter-approved legalization laws. In Democrat-led states like California, Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey, lawmakers are seeking to undermine existing legalization markets by drastically hiking marijuana-related taxes.”
In each case, Armentano wrote, “elected officials are treating cannabis consumers as targets, not constituents.”
In South Dakota, for example, lawmakers earlier this year attempted to repeal a voter-approved medical marijuana law, while Nebraska officials are considering legislation that would roll back that state’s voter-approved medical cannabis reform.
Ohio lawmakers are also moving forward with a resolution to limit home cultivation, cap THC potency and outlaw the sharing of marijuana between adults.
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has proposed raising cannabis taxes by nearly five times, while a Maryland budget proposal would almost double the state’s retail marijuana tax.
Separately, in Montana, two other controversial cannabis bills also died earlier this month: one that would have set a 15 percent THC limit on all marijuana products and another that would have required adults to obtain a $200 license each year to legally use recreational cannabis.
At the local level in Colorado, two residents of Colorado Springs are suing the city over a measure set for April’s ballot that would overturn a recent voter-approved ordinance to allow recreational marijuana sales.
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