A Top Colorado Senator Has Put Forward A Bill To Regulate Psychedelics, Which Has Gotten Mixed Reactions!
After voters approved a legalization ballot initiative last year, the president of the Colorado Senate has filed a bill to establish regulations for the possession, cultivation, and use of specific psychedelics for personal, therapeutic, and spiritual purposes. This bill provides a preview of the potential policy environment that may develop.
The legislation aims to establish guidelines for healing facilities where people age 21 and older could receive psychedelic treatment, tighten regulations on cultivators and facilitators, establish licensing requirements, specify state agency regulatory responsibilities, and impose fines for illegal activity.
While the initiative called for an advisory board to develop regulatory recommendations to inform more comprehensive legislation covering access to supervised psychedelic services and other issues, possession, cultivation, and sharing of certain entheogenic substances became legal for adults after Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a proclamation certifying the voter-approved ballot measure late last year.
However, as that procedure continues, Senate President Steve Fenberg (D) filed a bill on Tuesday that would create a unique regulatory framework for psychedelics. This bill includes measures that differ from the ballot initiative and others that are opposed by some proponents.
The proposed legislation would make significant changes to the initiative that voters approved last November, according to Mason Marks, a law professor at the Florida State University College of Law and co-founder of the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) at the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School.
A handful of the suggested adjustments, according to him, clearly enhance the original language. Others seem to go against the will of the voters, possibly re-criminalizing some psychedelic-related behaviors. Some adjustments seem to add complexity that isn’t necessary and raise the possibility of confusion.
Some of the important parts of the bill are listed below:
The therapeutic program would be governed by a new Division of Natural Medicine under the Department of Revenue (DOR), which would also be in charge of awarding licenses to growers, producers, testing facilities, and medical facilities. That is one way that the program differs from the original plan, which gave the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) the lead role.
For those with prior convictions for psychedelic-related offenses that have been deemed legal, there would be a route for record sealing.
If they are working outside of the regulatory system, facilitators of psychedelic services, such as community-based healing programs and psychotherapy, cannot be paid or reimbursed.
A $100 fine would be imposed for underage usage and public use of psychedelics.
Adults could only grow natural psychedelics, and they would have to do so at home in an enclosed area no larger than 12 by 12 feet (unless their neighborhood changed its laws to permit larger grows). Beyond that point, cultivating would result in a $1,000 fine.
In order to identify and address unintended consequences of the reform, particularly as it relates to the potential commercialization of psychedelics and religious or spiritual exploitation of native people, DORA would establish an Indigenous community working group, which was not anticipated in the ballot initiative.
The law makes it clear that synthesized psychedelics are prohibited. And having psychedelics in the presence of dangerous substances like solvents is a Class 2 crime.
Additionally, it differs from the ballot initiative in that it would allow authorities to approve the supervised use of ibogaine in healing centers at any time, rather than having to wait until at least June 1, 2026, as is the case for mescaline and DMT.
There would be four types of licenses: for treatment facilities, growing establishments, product producers, and testing facilities.
December 31, 2024, would be the new date for regulators to begin accepting and reviewing license applications as opposed to September 30, 2024.
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The findings section of the bill states that although using natural medicine may have enormous potential for treating various mental health issues, healing, and spiritual development, this potential must be appropriately balanced with the risks to consumers’ health and safety as well as the cultural harms it may cause to communities that have ties to indigenous and traditional medicine.
It states that if natural medicine is excessively commodified, sold, and exploited in a way that results in the erasure of crucial cultural and religious context, significant harm may befall indigenous people, communities, cultures, and religions.
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On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the proposal. To get the bill approved by the legislature before the session ends in approximately two weeks, lawmakers have a short window of time.
Early responses to the idea have been divided, with some proponents hesitantly endorsing its fundamental principles while others vehemently rejecting it because of what they see as overly onerous requirements.
The clear recriminalization of frequent, conventional applications of natural medicine, according to citizen advocate David NadelsontoldWestword, is currently the main cause for alarm. The straightforward act of ceremonially exchanging sacred medication in a forest is forbidden. Except in small, fenced-in spaces, it is illegal to grow plants outside. When using natural medicine, guides and healers cannot be paid.
The Healing Advocacy Fund of Colorado’s Tasia Poinsatte stated in a press release on Wednesday that while the legislation is a significant step toward achieving that goal, more work needs to be done to guarantee that it implements Proposition 122 in a fair and efficient manner that accurately reflects the preferences of the voters.
By the end of the legislative process, we hope that this law will strengthen the sturdy framework established by Proposition 122, said Poinsatte.
Prior to Thursday’s committee meeting, Melanie Rose Rodgers, a proponent of psychedelics reform who was among those who opposed the ballot initiative, planned a lobby day for interested parties to express their views.
