Governor Jared Polis Signs Colorado Psychedelics Bill

Governor Jared Polis has signed a bill designed to implement and regulate psychedelic legalization and decriminalization, with the law taking effect July 1.

Passed just a week before the 2023 session ended, Senate Bill 23-290 puts guidelines on Proposition 122, the landmark psychedelics ballot initiative passed by Colorado voters last November. Although the bill received plenty of attention during its run through the Colorado Legislature, Polis's office didn't make a major announcement when the governor signed SB 290 on Tuesday, May 24.

The ballot initiative, dubbed the Natural Medicine Health Act, legalized therapeutic psilocybin and decriminalized the personal cultivation, use and sharing of psilocybin mushrooms and three other natural psychedelics (DMT, ibogaine and mescaline that is not from peyote). While licensed psilocybin therapy centers could open by late 2024, Prop 122 did not allow for the establishment of retail operations, only healing centers, so there won't be mushroom stores popping up like the hundreds of cannabis dispensaries currently in Colorado.

Approved by just under 54 percent of voters in the November 2022 election, Prop 122 didn't place limits on the personal cultivation of mushrooms or suggest criminal penalties for illegal trafficking, and was short on clinical and therapeutic psychedelic regulations, too. The measure left the creation of the bulk of Colorado's new psychedelic framework to laws passed by the legislature and rules adopted by the state Department of Regulatory Agencies, which is currently overseeing a Natural Medicine Advisory Board.

SB 290, introduced by Senate President Stephen Fenberg, created guardrails for unlicensed psychedelic facilitators, restrictions for personal mushroom and natural-medicine cultivation, and criminal penalties for the unlicensed sale or distribution of psychedelics. The state Department of Revenue, responsible for overseeing Colorado's liquor, marijuana and gaming industries, among others, will soon be charged with regulating licensed psychedelic manufacturing, distribution, testing and other business activities.

The ability for local governments to ban psychedelic healing centers was not included in Prop 122 or SB 209, though counties and municipalities may enact time, place and manner restrictions on psychedelic businesses in Colorado.

Despite the protection from local control, psychedelic advocates believe the law creates too many restrictions on unlicensed psychedelic facilitation and communal use, pointing specifically to language banning the public consumption of psychedelics and paying unlicensed facilitators for more than expenses. Under the law, unlicensed facilitators will be able to operate and take donations to recoup the costs of their services and psilocybin mushrooms provided for them, but grassroots activists believe facilitators and spiritual healers need more remuneration for their services.

Stakeholders in the psychedelics community have also argued that bill sponsors didn't include them in conversations surrounding SB 290.

The bill was amended fourteen times, with lawmakers loosening restrictions for psilocybin laboratory testing and psychedelic harm reduction providers, and creating a state advisory board tasked solely with preserving the Indigenous use of psychedelics. People on parole or probation can also take psychedelics without violations (as long as their crimes didn't involve psychedelics) and clear their records for psychedelic arrests for activities that are no longer illegal in Colorado.

Licensed psychedelic businesses would have to be at least 1,000 feet from a child-care center, preschool, primary school or residential child-care facility. Personal cultivation would be limited to natural medicines only, must be conducted on private property and in a private and enclosed space, and would be limited to a space of twelve feet by twelve feet unless a larger area is allowed by local governments.

More bills connected to psychedelics laws and regulations are expected to be introduced by lawmakers in 2024, according to Fenberg.