Push to legalize use of psilocybin in Oregon makes ballot

An initiative petition to allow the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the active chemical in hallucinogenic mushrooms, will appear on Oregon ballots in November.

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There's a campaign to make licensed regulated psilocybin therapy accessible in oregon.

Sam champion is the campaign manager for them, the initiative.

Thanks for joining us so far, pull that aren't aware of it.

What is psilocybin therapy and who does it help?

Sure.

So there's a lot of research coming out of procedures to institutions like johns hopkins, university, nyu, and many others that are showing that psilocybin has real promise for people who are suffering from anxiety and depression and those people, and those numbers are skyrocketing as an unfortunate.

Um, result of covid-19 as well.

And so we believe that people here in oregon that are suffering from anxiety and depression also should have access to psilocybin therapy.

And that's exactly what our initiative seeks to do.

Uh, now that we will be on the ballot this november, you got enough signatures for it to be on the november ballot, as like you mentioned, what exactly will be people voting for.

Right.

So the things that our initiative does is it sets up a, since your program for suicide and therapy, where i'm licensed and trained facilitators will be able to get a license from the oregon health authority and clients who are seeking that therapy will be able to have access to psilocybin therapy.

And so it's a three step process where, um, a licensed facilitator will go through the background and check to make sure that, uh, the risk.

Uh, assessment and things that people are really ready to be able to have this type of experience.

And so we're really excited that oregonians will have another tool in the tool belt for combating mental illness, oregon, as many know, um, is one of the largest, um, states of mental health illness, uh, in the county country in terms of the rates that we have, they're extremely high.

And so we're, we're really hopeful to add an extra tool in the tool belt for folks who are combating and struggling with mental illness here in oregon.

And as with any kind of drug treatment, how to professionals prevent abuse of those elucidations like mushrooms. it's a great question.

So the thing that our initiative does not do is this is not legalized psilocybin mushrooms. this is specifically within a therapeutic context.

No one will be taking mushrooms home with them.

No one will be taking psilocybin home with them.

Uh, and all of this will happen under the licensed supervision of a trained professional.

So it's a very specific laser focused.

Therapeutic setting.

And we're really excited to be able to