A bill to regulate Colorado’s emerging psychedelic medicine industry passed the state Senate on April 25, but not without lawmakers voicing opposition to its framework.
Senate Bill 290, which was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg (D-Boulder) last week, passed by a 25-10 margin. It will next move to the House of Representatives for further debate.
Sen. Bob Gardner (R-Colorado Springs) took issue with include the composition of the Natural Medicine Advisory Board, a 15-member panel that is expected to recommend industry and trade regulations to state authorities, and the responsibilities of certain state offices.
Gardner said the advisory board is “full of advocates” and needs more input from first responders and medical professionals who understand “the deleterious effects of these substances.”
There are currently two first responders on the board: Pueblo Sheriff David Lucero and William Dunn, chief clinical officer at Eagle County Paramedic Services.
He added that SB-290 is also unclear about which responsibilities fall to the Natural Medicine Advisory Committee, the Department of Regulatory Agencies, or the Department of Revenue. That could be an issue that the Office of Legislative Legal Services picks up on later when it does a rule review, Gardner said.
“I think there’s could be lots of 17th Street lawyers who make a living off of simply reading this bill because it’s so complex,” Gardner said, referring to a street in Denver known for its high-price law firms. “Talk about a cottage industry.”
Sen. Kevin Van Winkle (R-Highlands Ranch) told the Senate that he supports the bill’s passage because it seeks to put guardrails on the “wild west” that was created by Proposition 122, which voters approved in November 2022. The proposition decriminalized the personal possession, sharing, and use of five psychedelic medicines, but was completely silent on how they should be regulated going forward.
“The bigger picture is that these things were legalized by the voters,” Van Winkle said.
During the bill’s first public hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on April 20, advocates said they also share some concerns about the bill. Tasia Poinsatte, the executive director of the Healing Advocacy Fund, which advocated for the passage Proposition 122, said the bill inadvertently criminalizes natural medicines like the San Pedro cactus, a common houseplant that contains mescaline.
Religious use and indigenous community members have also voiced skepticism that the burgeoning industry will adequately include their perspectives in the rulemaking process. Angela Beers, who identified herself as an indigenous Mexican and instructor of psychology at Naropa University, told the committee that she is also concerned about how the new industry will impact native farming communities in Texas and Mexico since some natural medicines can’t grow in Colorado’s arid climate.
So far, lawmakers have amended SB-290 six times and removed “a lot of the bad stuff that was previously in the bill,” Robert Rush, a Denver lawyer who advocates for natural medicines, told the Colorado Times Recorder.
Some of the new provisions include protecting the sale of “living plants” that were sold prior to the bill’s effective date, setting up a working group with “federally recognized American tribes,” and protecting people who perform harm reduction services from criminal prosecution.
Rush added that he thinks the bill has a clear pathway to pass the House “unless something dramatically shifts” before the end of the 2023 legislative session in May.
