Attorney, Policy Strategist, Educator, Advocate

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Courtney Barnes specializes in advising clients on regulatory compliance and risk management in highly regulated and emerging industries.

She has extensive experience drafting and helping to implement state and local policy reform measures relating to the decriminalization of psychedelics and the establishment of cannabis regulatory regimes (inclusive of hemp and marijuana).

Most notably, she assisted with the drafting and implementation of Denver’s social use ordinance, titled The Neighborhood Approved Cannabis Consumption Pilot Program Initiative (I-300) in 2016; the drafting of Denver’s Psilocybin Decriminalization Initiative (I-301) in 2018; the drafting of Texas House Bill 1325, establishing a state commercial hemp program in 2019; the drafting of the Oakland Community Healing Initiative, a local ordinance designed to regulate and protect facilitators and participants engaging in community-based healing ceremonies involving the use of entheogens in 2020; and the drafting of California Senate Bill 519 and Michigan Senate Bill 631. Both bills would decriminalize the possession and non-commercial use of psychedelics.

In addition to her legal practice, Ms. Barnes serves as a policy advisor for Decriminalize Nature, General Counsel for the Society for Psychedelic Outreach, Reform, and Education (SPORE), and sits on the advisory board of Heroic Hearts Project, Inc.

She is currently licensed to practice law in California, Colorado, and Texas.

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