Colorado Official Says Lessons Learned With Marijuana Legalization Will Help Inform State’s New Psychedelics Program

In a new podcast interview, Colorado’s top cannabis regulator looks back on the history of the state’s first-in-the-nation adult-use marijuana market, noting that she expects the lessons learned over the years will inform how her office approaches setting up Colorado’s new legal psychedelics program.

The comments come as the state readies new rules for its natural medicine program. A final hearing on draft rules was held in late July, and officials finalized an initial round of rules on August 9.

As with cannabis, psychedelics regulation is “going to be an iterative process,” said Dominique Mendiola, who holds split roles as the senior director of both Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) and the state’s Natural Medicine Division. Both are under the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Crafting and revising regulations, Mendiola explained, requires input from all stakeholders and a willingness for officials to review the sometimes unexpected impacts of new rules as they take effect.

“Are we seeing issues that require emergency rulemaking? Are there gaps that we didn’t contemplate that we need to address?” Mendiola said. “How are we supporting applicants and licensees navigating this process?”

The work, she continued, involves “leveraging the experience and lessons learned [from marijuana] in a way that we can take that into this new process of standing up a whole new program.”

Mendiola, who was also elected president of the Cannabis Regulators Association (CANNRA) last year, was speaking on an episode of the Weed Wonks podcast with host Jordan Wellington, a partner at the cannabis policy and public affairs firm Strategies 64.

Most of the hour-and-a-half conversation focused on the evolutionary history of cannabis regulation in Colorado. Both Mendiola and Wellington were in the state when it was getting its adult-use cannabis market up and running.

Toward the end of the interview, however, Wellington asked about Mendiola’s work helping to stand up the the state’s legal psychedelics program that was approved by voters in 2022. The law not only legalized personal possession of a variety of psychedelics but also mandated the creation of state-regulated psilocybin “healing centers” where clients use the substance in a supervised setting—services to be overseen by the Natural Medicine Division.

Mendiola noted that in addition to nearing completion on the first round of rulemaking, officials are preparing to open the first round of business license applications by December 31.

While years of experience in the state’s cannabis regulatory system helped inform how she’ll approach rulemaking, Mendiola said, she also recognizes that marijuana and psilocybin “are very different.”

“We’re not suggesting we’re gonna take our marijuana rulebook and put it over here,” she said.

For one thing, unlike with cannabis, psilocybin businesses won’t sell psychedelics directly to consumers to take home with them. And because people use cannabis and psychedelics for different purposes, officials are expecting the psilocybin program will be considerably smaller than the state’s sizable marijuana market.

A series of listening sessions launched last year has been helpful “to understand what is on the minds of the community,” Mendiola explained. “We have needed to be very deliberate about that when we engage in that work.”

Experience with the nitty gritty of cannabis regulation has also taught her the importance of engaging stakeholders before rulemaking even begins.

“We’re traveling across the state and partnering with different local jurisdictions and engaging with federally recognized tribes in Colorado,” she noted. “We’re having town halls, inviting the public and any member of the community who is interested to be able to ask questions for us to present about what the law provides, understanding that a lot of folks are still wrapping their arms around these changes.”

After seeing how new industry rules are received by stakeholders, including license applicants and the general public, Mendiola acknowledged her office might have to adapt. That’s one of the many lessons made clear while regulating cannabis.

“We’re implementing the will of the voters here. We’re looking at and assessing these things,” she said. “And if it’s not required by statute and it’s something that we have rulemaking authority around, let’s explore whether it’s time to update this process.”

“It’s a bit of a rollercoaster ride at times,” Mendiola added of her regulatory work, noting that in addition to interfacing with industry stakeholders and the public, it also requires negotiating with lawmakers and the governor’s office.

Another parallel between her time in the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division and her work standing up new psilocybin industry rules is how the offices have allocated their resources. Mendiola’s former policy advisor role at MED has grown into an entire team of staff, she said. Meanwhile, the only full-time staff member at the state’s Natural Medicine Division is a lone policy advisor—a role that’s expected to similarly grow as the program’s rollout progresses.

Gov. Jared Polis (D) has been supportive of the state’s new psychedelics law, saying in his State of the State speech in January that Colorado is “leading the nation on natural medicine.”

“Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational use of cannabis, setting a standard for innovation and safety and economic mobility that’s been replicated by states across the nation and countries across the world, who come here to learn what Colorado did right,” the governor said. “Now, thanks to our voters, we’re once again leading the nation on natural medicine.”

In May of last year, Polis signed a psychedelics regulation bill into law following the 2022 voter initiative, making Colorado the first state to allow adults to legally produce, possess and use substances like psilocybin, ibogaine, mescaline and DMT.

Separately, Polis and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) earlier this summer called on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to finalize the Biden administration’s federal cannabis rescheduling move as quickly as possible.

Despite some critics of legalization, most notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), claiming that Colorado voters “regret” legalizing marijuana, recent polling actually shows that more than two thirds of registered voters see the reform as a positive change for the state.

Earlier this month in Colorado, meanwhile, a proposed voter initiative that would have allowed marijuana users to obtain concealed carry firearm permits under state law failed to qualify for November’s ballot. Organizers needed to submit 124,238 valid voter signatures by August 5, but they managed to collect only about 90,000, they told Marijuana Moment.

Polls Show Support For Marijuana Legalization, Rescheduling And Industry Banking Access In Three Key Battleground States

Image element courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.