DMT is decriminalized in Colorado for adults 21 and older, so the short answer to whether DMT is legal in Colorado is: not fully legal, but no longer a state crime for personal use. Adults can possess, consume, grow, share without payment, and transport DMT within the state under the Natural Medicine Health Act of 2022. It remains a Schedule I substance under federal law, and Colorado’s protections come with firm limits on where you use it, how you grow it, how you extract it, and who you share it with.
What Adults 21 and Older Can Do
Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-18-434(5)(a) states that a person who possesses, consumes, shares, cultivates, or manufactures natural medicine for personal use and without payment does not violate state or local law.1Justia. Colorado Code 18-18-434 – Offenses Relating to Natural Medicine and Natural Medicine Product – Definitions “Natural medicine” is a legal category created by Proposition 122 that covers five substances: DMT, ibogaine, mescaline (not from peyote), psilocybin, and psilocyn.2Colorado General Assembly. Natural Medicine Health Act of 2022
The statute also bars police from arresting you and prosecutors from charging you for any natural medicine conduct that is expressly lawful under the act. Lawful personal use alone cannot be used to deny you a right or privilege, seize your assets, or impose a civil fine under state law. Transporting DMT within Colorado is protected, and no local government can ban transporting natural medicine through its jurisdiction on public roads.3Colorado General Assembly. Proposition 122 – Access to Natural Psychedelic Substances
The law does not set a numeric possession limit. There is no gram threshold that flips personal use into a crime. Instead, the definition of personal use looks at whether the amount fits consumption or sharing in permitted contexts — spiritual guidance, counseling, community healing — rather than commercial inventory. If the quantity and circumstances suggest sale, the protection falls away, but the line is drawn by intent and context, not by weight.
Sharing Without Money
You can share DMT with another adult 21 or older as long as no money, goods, services, or barter changes hands for the substance itself.1Justia. Colorado Code 18-18-434 – Offenses Relating to Natural Medicine and Natural Medicine Product – Definitions Someone providing bona fide harm reduction or support services can accept payment for those services alongside a shared substance, but only if they do not advertise and they tell the recipient they are not a state-licensed facilitator.
What Still Gets You Charged
Several things sit outside the personal use protection and can lead to serious criminal charges.
- Selling DMT for money, trade, or barter without a state license exposes you to standard controlled substance distribution charges.1Justia. Colorado Code 18-18-434 – Offenses Relating to Natural Medicine and Natural Medicine Product – Definitions
- Giving or selling DMT to anyone under 21 is prohibited regardless of whether money is involved. The age of the recipient is what triggers the violation.
- Distributing DMT as a business perk, giveaway, promotion, or commercial incentive is not covered by the personal use protection.
- Openly displaying or consuming DMT in public — parks, sidewalks, public buildings, school grounds — is a drug petty offense carrying a fine of up to $100 and up to 24 hours of community service.
- Driving or operating a motor vehicle, boat, or aircraft under the influence of DMT falls entirely outside the act. Colorado’s DUI and DWAI statutes apply to any drug. A first DUI is a misdemeanor; a fourth or later DUI is a class 4 felony.4Office of Legislative Legal Services. Colorado Drunk Driving Laws
People under 21 who knowingly possess or use DMT face a drug petty offense with a fine of up to $100 or up to four hours of substance use education. A second offense adds up to 24 hours of community service.1Justia. Colorado Code 18-18-434 – Offenses Relating to Natural Medicine and Natural Medicine Product – Definitions
Growing DMT Plants at Home
Cultivation for personal use is legal within physical limits. The total growing area cannot exceed 12 feet by 12 feet — 144 square feet — measured across all cultivation spaces on a single property.1Justia. Colorado Code 18-18-434 – Offenses Relating to Natural Medicine and Natural Medicine Product – Definitions Going over the limit is a drug petty offense with a fine up to $1,000, though a local government can pass an ordinance expressly allowing a larger area.
The cultivation space generally must be enclosed and locked. If you live in the dwelling and nobody under 21 lives there, the external locks on your home count as the required enclosure. If someone under 21 lives in the home, the growing area itself must be locked. If a minor visits temporarily, you have to take reasonable steps to restrict their access while they are there. Growing outside an enclosed and locked space is a separate drug petty offense carrying a fine of up to $1,000.
Extraction Can Turn a Petty Offense Into a Felony
Extracting DMT from plants for personal use is legal, but the method decides everything. Using an “inherently hazardous substance” in the extraction without a state manufacturing license is a level 2 drug felony.5Colorado General Assembly. SB23-290 Natural Medicine Regulation and Legalization The presumptive sentence is four to eight years in prison with fines of $3,000 to $750,000.6Justia. Colorado Code 18-1.3-401.5 – Sentencing in Drug Cases The statute does not list which solvents qualify, but common extraction methods using volatile or toxic chemicals fall within the category. The penalty gap between a $1,000 cultivation fine and a multi-year prison sentence hinges on this choice.
Healing Centers Do Not Yet Cover DMT
Colorado licenses healing centers where trained facilitators administer natural medicine in supervised sessions, and the state has approved 9 standard and 32 micro healing center licenses.7Department of Natural Medicine. Home Until June 1, 2026, the regulated access program covers only psilocybin and psilocyn. DMT is not available through healing centers.2Colorado General Assembly. Natural Medicine Health Act of 2022
After that date, the Department of Natural Medicine may add DMT to the program, but only if the Natural Medicine Advisory Board recommends it. That recommendation is not guaranteed. Until it happens, the only legal ways to use DMT in Colorado are growing it yourself, receiving it as a gift from another adult, or the informal supported-use setup where a guide provides services alongside a shared substance.
What Decriminalization Does Not Shield
The Natural Medicine Health Act explicitly states that nothing in it requires an employer to permit or accommodate use, possession, transport, or cultivation of natural medicine in the workplace.3Colorado General Assembly. Proposition 122 – Access to Natural Psychedelic Substances An employer can keep a drug-free workplace policy, test for DMT, and discipline or fire you based on a positive result. Federal contractors and grant recipients have an even broader carve-out to prohibit any activity the act otherwise allows in order to comply with federal requirements.
Property owners and landlords can prohibit or regulate cultivation and use on property they own or control.5Colorado General Assembly. SB23-290 Natural Medicine Regulation and Legalization A lease that prohibits growing psychedelic plants or using controlled substances in the unit still binds you. Renters and residents of multi-unit buildings should read their leases before growing anything.
Parents and guardians get a specific protection: lawful use of natural medicine does not by itself constitute child abuse or neglect and cannot be the sole basis for restricting family time in a custody dispute. The operative word is “solely.” Other factors — neglect while intoxicated, for example — can still make your use relevant in family court.
Professionals with state occupational licenses, registrations, or certifications cannot face discipline or license revocation solely for personal use of natural medicine. That protection ends if the conduct violates the scope of practice or other professional standards.
Federal Law Still Applies in Colorado
DMT is a Schedule I controlled substance under 21 CFR § 1308.11(d)(19), DEA drug code 7435.8eCFR. 21 CFR 1308.11 – Schedule I Manufacturing, distributing, and possessing the substance violate federal law regardless of what Colorado allows.
That conflict becomes concrete on federal ground. National parks, military bases, federal courthouses, and airports past security operate under federal jurisdiction. Being found with DMT in any of those places means you can be charged in federal court, where Colorado’s decriminalization is not a defense. Crossing state lines carries the same risk: taking DMT out of Colorado, even into another state with its own decriminalization measure, violates federal trafficking statutes. Colorado’s protections end at the state line and at the edge of any federal property inside it.