Colorado Bill To Let Doctors Prescribe Psilocybin After Federal Approval Heads To The Governor

The Colorado Senate has passed a House-approved bill that would allow a form of psilocybin to be prescribed as a medication if the federal government authorizes its use.

After clearing the House in January, the Senate advanced the measure from Reps. Anthony Hartsook (R) and Kyle Brown (D), as well as Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D), in a 25-9 vote this month. It now heads to the governor’s desk.

Similar to legislation that Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed into law in 2022 regarding the medical dispensing and use of MDMA, the bipartisan bill would empower doctors to prescribe drugs containing crystalline polymorph psilocybin, pending federal reform.

Colorado already legalized psilocybin and several other psychedelics for adults 21 and older through a voter-approved ballot initiative, but the newly legislature-approved reform would make it so drugs containing an isolated crystalized version synthesized from psilocybin could become available under physician prescription.

The bill’s findings section states that treatment-resistant depression is a major public health crisis, and psilocybin has been shown in clinical trials to “reduce depression scores significantly for patients with treatment-resistant depression when compared to active placebos.”

“Therefore, the general assembly declares that it is in the best interests of the people of Colorado that behavioral health professionals in Colorado have the ability to provide crystalline polymorph psilocybin to treat patients with treatment-resistant depression if the federal [Food and Drug Administration, or FDA] ultimately approves it for prescription use,” it says.

Psilocybin would still be listed as a controlled substance under state statute—with the nuance that state law permits adults to cultivate and possess certain amounts of the raw mushroom. But this bill would create an additional carve out exempting crystalline polymorph psilocybin from the definition of the psychedelic.

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As of January, meanwhile, Colorado regulars have been authorized to approve licenses for psilocybin service centers where adults can access the psychedelic in controlled settings.

The governor signed a bill to create the regulatory framework for legal psychedelics in 2023.

But lawmakers evidently are interested in setting the state up to allow for a more conventional system of distribution for certain psychedelics. In 2022, Polis also signed a bill to align state statute to legalize MDMA prescriptions if and when the federal government ultimately permits such use.

Whether FDA moves forward with any such approvals in uncertain, and the agency faced criticism last year after rejecting an application to allow MDMA-assisted therapy for people with PTSD.

Meanwhile in Colorado, a bill that would have limited THC in marijuana and outlawed a variety of psilocybin products will no longer move forward this session following the lead sponsor’s move to withdraw the bill.

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Photo courtesy of Dick Culbert.

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