Politics
Colorado Governor Promotes Psychedelic ‘Listening Session’ Being Hosted By State Agencies This Week
The governor of Colorado is inviting people to attend a “listening session” about the state’s legal psychedelics program this week.
Wednesday’s event, hosted by several state agencies, “is a great opportunity to share information, hear feedback, and answer questions about the state of the regulated natural medicine program in Colorado,” Gov. Jared Polis (D) said in a social media post.
It comes about two months after the first psilocybin sessions took place in state-licensed “healing centers” under Colorado’s voter-approved psychedelics legalization law.
In June, Polis announced first-ever round of mass pardons for people with psilocybin-related convictions shortly after signing a bill into law empowering him and future governors to issue clemency for psychedelics offenses—which he described as a step “towards a fairer future.”
“Colorado has been a national leader in breaking through outdated laws around cannabis, and now we are doing the same for natural medicine,” Polis said in a press release at the time. “This action eliminates past state-level convictions for psilocybin and psilocin possession that would be legal today. With these pardons, we are fulfilling the will of Colorado voters and moving away from ineffective drug policy and encouraging local municipalities to follow suit.”
The agenda for the listening session this week—jointly hosted by the Department of Revenue Natural Medicine Division (DOR), Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE), Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) and the Governor’s Office—lists several topics that officials are specifically interested in hearing from stakeholders about:
- What challenges are folks encountering when obtaining licensure? (either DOR, DORA, CDPHE certification, or local requirements)
- How are operations going? What’s going well and what are the primary pain points?
- What could the state agencies be doing to better support your compliant engagement in the regulatory space?
- For both the regulated program and personal use allowances, are there areas of interest that could benefit from educational resources? (e.g. lack of clarity in law on permitted and restricted activities)
- Is there any information about the regulated program you’d like to see reported more frequently? (e.g. requiring certain information be reported to and/or by the agencies on a regular cadence, such as quarterly or biannually)
- How are licensees (natural medicines businesses and facilitators) collecting data? (e.g. are you using state-provided forms and resources, third-party resources, or both). How is that experience?
In May, Polis touted the fact that Colorado’s legal psychedelics program is “fully launched” now that regulators have issued licenses for each part of the psilocybin supply chain.
The governor’s psilocybin clemency move came several years after Polis issued mass pardons for people with prior marijuana convictions.
Earlier this session, 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.
Polis signed a bill to create the regulatory framework for legal psychedelics in 2023.
Separately in Colorado, a bill that would have limited THC in marijuana and outlawed a variety of psilocybin products died following the lead sponsor’s move to withdraw the legislation.
Image courtesy of CostaPPR.
