Health & Wellbeing

Oregon to officially vote on legalizing psychedelic psilocybin therapy

Oregon to officially vote on legalizing psychedelic psilocybin therapy
Psilocybin psychotherapy was granted Breakthrough Therapy status by the FDA in 2019 after strong clinical trial data for treating major depression
Psilocybin psychotherapy was granted Breakthrough Therapy status by the FDA in 2019 after strong clinical trial data for treating major depression
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Psilocybin psychotherapy was granted Breakthrough Therapy status by the FDA in 2019 after strong clinical trial data for treating major depression
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Psilocybin psychotherapy was granted Breakthrough Therapy status by the FDA in 2019 after strong clinical trial data for treating major depression

The state of Oregon will officially vote on legalizing psilocybin psychotherapy in the upcoming November election, after well over 150,000 signatures were collected to secure the landmark ballot measure. The initiative focuses on licensed and regulated psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in clinical environments.

After more than a year of work, and significant pandemic disruptions, the Oregon Psilocybin Society has successfully collected the signatures necessary for IP-34, an initiative legalizing psilocybin psychotherapy, to be on the statewide ballot in the November 2020 election.

IP-34 is solely focused on legalizing psilocybin within a clinical and therapeutic context. Unlike other, more broad, calls for legalization or decriminalization, this ballot measure does not allow for recreational uses of psilocybin, or home cultivation. Instead, it lays out a two-year timeline for the planning and development of licensing and regulatory processes for establishing clinical spaces to administer psilocybin psychotherapy.

“We are thrilled that Oregon voters have come together to tackle mental health and depression by qualifying this ballot measure for the November election,” says Tom Eckert, co-chief petitioner on the initiative. “Oregonians deserve access to psilocybin therapy as a treatment option – and now we officially have a chance to win it.”

On Wednesday the 8th of July, the Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division officially verified and accepted the petition comprising more than 160,000 signatures, substantially higher than the required threshold for acceptance. If successful in the November election, the ballot measure will enable legal manufacturing of psilocybin, and operation of psilocybin clinics, by January 2023.

Other groups around the United States have been working to get similar ballot measures up for the November election, with varying degrees of success. Most successful is a Washington DC measure called I-81, which has just been submitted to the DC Board of Elections for final verification and approval. I-81 is a more general decriminalization initiative targeted at a broad classification of entheogenic plants and fungi.

Activists in California, on the other hand, failed to gather enough signatures for a decriminalization ballot measure after the COVID-19 outbreak, and subsequent stay-at-home orders, stifled their grassroots campaigns.

7 comments
7 comments
guzmanchinky
And why can't we have places like in Amsterdam where they offer week long sessions to give you this experience in a calm and controlled environment?
Wolf0579
we will find that, much like pot, this mushroom has incredible medical potential. It's a shame ignorance and sheer meanness has kept these compounds illegal for so long, and needlessly prolonged suffering for so many.

In fact we are starting to find that fungi might be the real controllers of the forest biome, and maybe beyond. The work of Paul Stamets and others like him is eye-opening to say the least!
Edward Vix
That'll help, things in Oregon are far too normal already.
Kpar
I think it is wonderful that the state of Oregon has approved a new therapy for major depression. The population of Portland must be greatly relieved. They need help.
ljaques
Can't recall any negativity in its use historically, and can't see it harming anything, so I'll probably vote in favor of it. Big Pharma drugs should be licensed, not nature.
Warren Dexter
Oregonians are being used by the pharmaceutical industry to officially allow trials and drug development using psilocybin. It is sad but very obvious. You can tell from the way they have structured the trials. This is not a repetitive experience, but merely an individual trial, to determine toxicity I believe.
Warren Dexter
They just want to say “See, nobody died”.