Colorado’s governor announced the first ever round of pardons of people with convictions related to psilocybin.
In just two weeks, Governor. Jared Polis signed into law on Tuesday a bill that gives him, and any future governors the authority to grant clemency to people who have committed crimes involving psychedelics. On Wednesday, during his speech at Psychedelic 2025 Conference in San Francisco he said that he was exercising this power.
Pardons will be granted by executive order to those who have been convicted at the state level for possession of psilocybin or psilocyn.
Polis announced the reform shortly after signing the law that allows him to now grant pardons. He said it was another step in „the direction of a more fair future”. Polis has been advocating for this policy shift since 2022, when the state began legalizing certain entheogenic drugs.
Jason Ortiz (Director of Strategic Initiatives for LPP) said to MEDCAN24: „Governor Polis has shown the type of compassion and courage that we want to see all governors in the United States show by using their executive powers to fix the mistakes of prohibition.
I look forward to working alongside his office, to help and empower the local municipalities in Colorado to continue the torch for freedom until everyone is free from criminal records that generate tax revenue.
Polis’ psychedelics pardon comes after several years of mass pardons to people who had prior marijuana convictions.
In accordance with the recently passed psychedelics bill from Senator Matt Ball (D), and Rep. Lisa Feret, (D), governors can grant clemency for people who have been convicted of low-level possessions such as DMT, DMT ibogaine or psilocybin.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will also be required, along with the Department of Revenue and Department of Regulatory Agencies to „collect data and information related to the usage of natural medicines and natural products.”
The data must also include adverse health outcomes, consumer claims, law enforcement, behavioral effects and psychedelic effects.
A committee amendment, which was adopted by the Senate before it passed, removed government funding to be used for data tracking. It replaced „ongoing budgets” with „appropriations, gifts, grants, and donations.” Ball said at the time that lawmakers have a letter of intent from the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative—a nonprofit that supports advancing psychedelic therapy—to fund the program for the entirety of its five-year duration.
The bill earmarks $208,240 in those funds for the governor’s office of information technology. The text states that the governor’s office of information technology may use the $208,240 to provide IT services to the Department of Public Health and Environment.
This legislation also amends the rules governing licensing and ownership for psychedelic centers. The legislation, for example, removes the need for fingerprint-based background checks of owners and staff at licensed centers, allowing them to only undergo name-based criminal history checks.
The law also „requires that the state licensing authorities adopt rules related product labels and products for regulated herbal medicine, and allows the licensing authorities to adopt regulations regarding what types of natural medicine products can be produced.”
A wide variety of groups, both psychedelic medicine advocates and those more sceptical of legalization, have endorsed the proposal. Public commenters at a hearing seemed to agree that the bill’s data collection provisions would help observers both inside and outside Colorado better understand the outcomes around regulated psychedelics.
Late last month, 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.
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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.
Colorado has already made psilocybin, and other psychedelics legal for adults over 21 years old through a ballot initiative approved by voters. The newly implemented reform allows drugs that contain an isolated version of psilocybin synthesized using a psilocybin crystalized form to be available on 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.
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