Colorado is getting it done, and getting it done fast. A bill just passed through both sides of the Colorado Congress, with regulation measures in accordance with the voted-in psychedelics legalization last fall. Now awaiting sign-off by the governor, this bill is the first one to get the new industry rolling. Read on for details. Bill passageIt often takes a bill a lot of time to pass congress, whether in a state legislature, or federal. In the case of Colorado’s SB23-290, this bill is moving at record speed. As the legislative session ends on May 6th, the goal was to get it passed before that deadline. Entitled the Natural Medicine Regulation And Legalization bill, it passed both sides of Congress last month. Since the House made amendments, these amendments had to be approved by the Senate. It approved them on Tuesday May 2nd, in a vote of 32-3. Then the Senate went on to vote a final time on the final write-up, and approved it 24-11. The only thing left is for Governor Jared Polis to sign it into law. The bill was only introduced a few weeks ago (April 18th), by Senate President Steve Fenberg. Meaning it went through all of Congress in far less than one month. When the voter ballot passed last year to legalize use of psychedelics, it included a measure to create an advisory board to give recommendations for regulatory laws. Though this might still happen, this bill was offered with no such advisory board in existence. Cool that you’re here! We’ve got the Cannadelics Weekly Newsletter to provide direct updates; and which comes chock full of promotions for cannabis buds, smoking devices and vapes, edibles, cannabinoids (including delta-8), amanita mushroom extracts, and a wide selection more. Let’s all get stoned responsibly! The bill filed by Fenberg contains some provisions that are different from the voted-in measure. The advisory board was meant to help create legislation with a greater lean toward holistic healing. As of right now, anything established, was established without that input. What to expect for Colorado psychedelics regulationThere’s not much reason to expect the governor won’t sign off (though its not impossible). Assuming he follows through on his end, and the bill stands, we now have information on how Colorado will govern its psychedelics industry, and with what kind of regulation attached. Here are some of the key points, some of which do wander from the original ideas of the vote: Personal Use and cultivation
Natural Medicine facilities
Licensing and regulatory agencies
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Concerns and workaroundsSome concerns are standard, or at least, standard talking points. While medications like opioids kill tens of thousands yearly and are prescribed easily by doctors; there are fears attached to possible damage caused by this legalization. Even without psychedelics providing any real death or permanent injury count, the bill stipulates: “although there may be tremendous potential in utilizing natural medicine for managing various mental health conditions, healing, and spiritual growth, this potential must be appropriately balanced with the health and safety risks that it could pose to consumers as well as the cultural harms it could pose to indigenous and traditional communities that have connections to natural medicine.” In terms of cultural harms, the bill sets up the aforementioned advisory committee. According to the bill, this is because “Considerable harm may occur to indigenous people, communities, cultures, and religions if natural medicine is overly commodified, commercialized, and exploited in a manner that results in the erasure of important cultural and religious context.” Where the original bill fell short in lawmaker’s minds, the House added a bunch of amendments to try to account for different issues. These include provisions for record sealing (mentioned above); that psychedelic use won’t violate either probation or parole; that cultivation is allowed in a place other than the cultivator’s own residence, so long as its for personal use, in a private residence, and in an enclosed space; that officials should keep track of drug use trends; and that regulators must both make clear what a federally recognized tribe is, and institute an equity plan. The last point is common in cannabis legalization measures, but has not shown to be a useful tool. Unfortunately, while its good for government optics, such equity programs undermine the cost of operations. In expensive systems of regulation, where operating costs and taxes are high, the groups which would benefit most by such equity plans, tend to be the ones without the means to use them at all. Perhaps this instance will provide a different outcome. ![]() How Colorado got hereHow did we end up talking about how Colorado will institute regulation for a psychedelics market? It’s not like every state is doing it. In fact, Colorado is the second state to pass a measure to legalize some amount of psychedelic use. The first was Oregon, which passed measure 109 via voter ballot during the November, 2020 elections. Two years later, and Colorado did the same thing. It put Proposition 122 in front of the public, called the Decriminalization, Regulated Distribution, and Therapy Program for Certain Hallucinogenic Plants and Fungi Initiative. 53.64% of the population voted yes to the measure, which totaled 1,296,992 votes. 46.36% were not up for this change, which accounted for 1,121,124 votes. Though the bill defined certain plants as natural medicines from the get-go, it came with few specifics, much like Oregon’s original voted-in bill. However, from the beginning, Colorado’s vision was a bit different from Oregon’s; and the state incorporated different ideas from Oregon on certain points. Like in not letting individual locations opt out of the legislation, allowing for more than just psilocybin, and allowing use outside of healing centers. Colorado had a big year for drug legalizations in 2022, and separately went a step further. At virtually the same break-neck speed, the state introduced and passed a bill to preemptively legalize medical MDMA. This legalization is specifically contingent on the US federal government legalizing MDMA for medical use first. So though the bill passed, it won’t be useful until a federal law passes. Even so, Colorado marks the first state to make such a legalization for MDMA. ConclusionWith not much standing in the way, and a desire to meet a deadline; it seems unlikely that Governor Polis won’t sign the new Colorado psychedelics regulation bill into law. Within a few days we should know the answer for sure. Welcome all. We appreciate you dropping by Cannadelics.com; a news platform focused on independent reporting of the cannabis and hallucinogen landscapes. Visit us whenever possible to keep up with the Joneses; and check out the Cannadelics Weekly Newsletter, to get updated on everything important. The post Colorado Passed Psychedelics Regulation Bill appeared first on Cannadelics. Via https://cannadelics.com/2023/05/05/colorado-passed-psychedelics-regulation-bill/
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ABOUT MEHallo, ik ben Rosalina Klerkx, ik ben een RHIA-gecertificeerde zorgbeheerder met meer dan 6 jaar ervaring in het creëren van een productieve omgeving voor zorgprofessionals. Leiding gegeven aan een team van 12 opname- en verkoopmedewerkers in een instelling voor langdurige zorg met meer dan 170 patiënten. Opstellen van complexe HIPAA-conforme rapporten aan patiëntendienstcoördinatoren in een zorgkliniek. Archives
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