Colorado Lawmakers Approve Bill To Let Governor Grant Mass Pardons For Psychedelics-Related Convictions
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Colorado lawmakers have advanced a bill that would empower the governor to grant pardons to people who’ve been convicted of psychedelics-related offenses, while also revising implementation rules for the state’s voter-passed psychedelics legalization law.
About a week after Sen. Matt Ball (D) and Rep. Lisa Feret (D) filed the legislation, SB25-297, it cleared the Senate Health & Human Services Committee in a 7–2 vote on Wednesday after members adopted a minor amendment.
If enacted, the measure would authorize Gov. Jared Polis (D) or future governors to grant clemency to people with convictions for low-level possession of substances such as psilocybin, ibogaine and DMT that have since been legalized for adults under state law.
In 2023, Polis called on lawmakers to take steps allowing him to issue mass pardons for people with prior psychedelics convictions as the voter-approved legalization policy was being implemented.
The governor said at the time that he needed the legislature to act to provide him with pardon authority, “so anybody who has something on their criminal record that is now legal can have that expunged and doesn’t hold them back from future employment opportunities.”
Ball said at Wednesday’s hearing on the bill that the retroactive pardons would affect “a very small group of people” in the state, likely fewer than 20. But he noted that clemency language was included in the voter-passed ballot measure, Prop. 122, that legalized the state’s so-called natural medicine program.
“This gives the governor the authority to enact the will of the people as enacted in Proposition 122,” he said.
In addition to granting the governor that authority, the committee-passed measure would also require the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Department of Revenue (DOR) and Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) to “collect information and data related to the use of natural medicine and natural medicine products.”
That would include data on law enforcement activities, adverse health events, consumer protection claims and behavioral impacts related to psychedelics.
“Subject to available appropriations, CDPHE shall also collect relevant data and information related to the use of natural medicine from facilitators and healing centers,” the bill says. “CDPHE is required to create and maintain a database of the information collected.”
The legislation would further amend rules around licensing and ownership of psychedelic healing centers. For example, it removes a requirement for fingerprint background checks for owners and employees of licensed facilities, making it so they would only be subject to a name-based criminal background check.
It additionally “requires the state licensing authority to adopt rules related to product labels for regulated natural medicine and regulated natural medicine products and permits the state licensing authority to adopt rules regarding the types of regulated natural medicine products that can be manufactured.”
An amendment from Ball adopted before Wednesday’s committee vote made adjustments to the proposals conflicts of interest section, clarifying that funding for the program—which would be made up of gifts, grants and donations from third parties—not come from parties with a direct financial interest in the natural medicine program or those that can improperly influence data collection.
The proposal overall has support from an array of advocates, including psychedelic medicine proponents as well as groups more skeptical of legalization. Public commenters seemed to agree that the bill’s data collection provisions would help observers both inside and outside Colorado better understand the outcomes around regulated psychedelics.
“Colorado is at the forefront of psychedelic policy. Other states are watching us closely,” said Joshua Kappel, a co-founding partner at the law firm Vicente LLP and one of the drafters of Prop. 122, who read from a letter from five Colorado-based psychiatrists. “If we want to lead with integrity and responsibility, we must demonstrate that a regulated psychedelic program can be not only innovative, but accountable and effective.”
“The data we collect here will shape national conversations, inform legislation, further guide scientific research and treatment protocol development and, most importantly, help save lives,” the letter said.
Rachel O’Bryan, co-founder and strategic projects director at the group One Chance to Grow Up, which aims to protect kids from risks associated with marijuana and THC, told lawmakers the organization’s members and advisory council support the bill.
“One Chance believes best policy is informed by evidence and not opinions or assumptions,” O’Bryan said, “and that requires the collection of data. This bill would improve the collection and dissemination of data regarding the impact of Colorado’s natural medicine code on Colorado citizens and institutions.”
“Colorado is a leader in the data collection for marijuana impacts,” she added, “and this bill would ensure that Colorado is a leader in the data collection for natural medicine impacts.”
Andrea Stojsavljevic, a senior policy coordinator at Children’s Hospital Colorado, also urged lawmakers to support the bill.
“These types of data collection can be critically informative to guide future policymaking,” Stojsavljevic said. If data show increasing youth use, diversion of products or accidental ingestion, for example, “then we can return to the legislature to assess additional protections to avoid potentially serious health risks and children and youth.”
Members of the committee spent minimal time discussing the bill before the vote, though some questions came from Republican Sens. Scott Bright—who ultimately voted in favor of the measure—and Lisa Frizell, who cast her vote against it.
Bright asked for more details about the changes to data collection and also asked for an update on revenue from psychedelics licensing, which he said “a couple years ago” was projected to be “north of $1 million.”
Allison Robinette, director of policy and regulatory affairs at the state Department of Revenue’s marijuana and natural medicines divisions, said officials are “still working through the process” but “believe we’re on track for our projections.”
“I believe we’re on track, but, you know, we’re so early in the process that there’s a lot to play out and to be seen here,” she said.
Frizell’s questions centered on whether the bill would allow publicly funded institutions, such as universities, to make gifts, grants or donations—a move she said would sidestep how funding decisions are supposed to be made.
“It’s not OK to get around our budgetary issues by passing the funding off to publicly funded institutions, whether it is an academic institution or some other organization,” she said after asking a number of related questions to witnesses. “So I think that that’s a problem. And if you can’t explain that, then that’s a bigger problem.”
Sponsor Ball, for his part, acknowledged that his office hadn’t considered public universities as possible funders when drafting the bill.
“Most of the discussions we’ve had have all been around national nonprofits,” he said, listing a handful of organizations. “I know there’s more, but there’s a number of groups who are interested in this type of research, who see an opportunity in Colorado because we have the ability to collect aggregate data due to what we’re rolling out.”
Besides Frizell, the only other no vote on SB25-297 was from Sen. Lisa Cutter (D). The bill next proceeds to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Meanwhile in Colorado, earlier this 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.
While Colorado already legalized psilocybin and several other psychedelics for adults 21 and older through the voter-approved ballot initiative, the newly enacted reform will make it so drugs containing an isolated crystalized version synthesized from psilocybin can become available under physician prescription.
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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.
But lawmakers evidently are interested in setting the state up to allow for a more conventional system of distribution for certain 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.
Whether FDA moves forward with any such approvals in uncertain, and the agency faced criticism last year after rejecting an application to allow MDMA-assisted therapy for people with 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.
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Photo courtesy of Dick Culbert.
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