Colorado Gov. Signs Psychedelics Legalization Bill

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a psychedelics legalization and decriminalization proposal last week, Westword reports. The new law will take effect on July 1.

The proposal, Senate Bill 23-290, is the Legislature’s response to Proposition 122, the successful Colorado ballot initiative passed last year to legalize psychedelic mushrooms and establish state-regulated “healing centers” where patients can consume psilocybin in a controlled environment. Prop 122 had called for the legalization of therapeutic psilocybin use and decriminalized the personal cultivation and use of natural psychedelics including magic mushrooms, DMT, ibogaine, and non-peyote-based mescaline, but ultimately left implementation and regulation responsibilities to lawmakers.

Introduced by Colorado Senate President Stephen Fenberg (D), SB 290 establishes restrictions for the personal cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms and other natural psychedelics and creates new regulations and criminal penalties to address unlicensed dealers. Additionally, the bill puts the state Department of Revenue in charge of overseeing the licensed manufacturing, testing, and distribution of psychedelics in the state.

Neither SB 290 nor Prop 122 created carveouts for local governments to ban the psychedelics industry outright but officials can still enact “time, place, and manner restrictions” on such businesses, the report said. The bill does not allow for the public consumption of psychedelics.

Psychedelic medicine advocates in the state have argued that the new law sets too many restrictions on unlicensed activity and communal use.

Oregon became the first U.S. state to allow therapeutic psilocybin use earlier this year after voters there approved a medical psychedelics legalization measure in 2020.