A Colorado Senate committee has advanced an amended version of a bill that would 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.
At a hearing Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee adopted two amendments to the bill, SB25-297, before voting 5–2 to pass the measure. It next proceeds to the Senate Committee of the Whole.
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.
One of the amendments approved by the panel removes a government appropriation to pay for that data collection and tracking. The change replaces “ongoing appropriations” with “appropriations or gifts, grants, or donations.”
Asked by the Senate committee chair whether there would be sufficient funding to cover the program, Sen. Matt Ball (D), a sponsor of the measure, replied that lawmakers already 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 similarly 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 earlier this 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.
“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.”
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.
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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