Colorado Senate Passes Bill To Let Governor Pardon People For Low-Level Psychedelics Offenses

The Colorado Senate has approved 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 and data-tracking provisions for the state’s voter-passed psychedelics legalization law.

One day after advancing through the Senate Appropriations Committee, with amendments, the full chamber passed the legislation from Sen. Matt Ball (D) and Rep. Lisa Feret (D) in a 23-12 vote on Wednesday.

If enacted, SB25-297 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.

It 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.

“This is the third time this legislature has implemented the will of the voters in Prop 122, and regardless of how you feel about Prop. 122, the voters did pass it and it’s incumbent on us to implement it,” Ball said during second reading consideration on Tuesday.

“What this bill does is it sets up a mechanism to collect health information, which should give us the data to see whether or not natural medicine, as it’s rolled out, has adverse health effects or beneficial health impacts,” he said.

One of the amendments approved in committee removes a government appropriation to pay for that data collection and tracking. The change replaces “ongoing appropriations” with “appropriations or gifts, grants, or donations.” 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.

The other amendment discusses appropriations for the bill, earmarking $208,240 in gifts, grants and donations to the governor’s office of information technology. “To implement this act, the office may use this appropriation to provide information technology services for the department of public health and environment,” the amendment says.

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.”

The proposal overall has support from an array of advocates, including psychedelic medicine proponents as well as groups more skeptical of legalization. Public commenters at a hearing last month 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.

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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.

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.

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 elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.