PORTLAND, Ore. – Drug reform advocates hailed Oregon as a progressive leader when it became the first in the nation to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the compound found in psychedelic mushrooms.
But four years later, voters in a growing list of its cities have banned the substance.
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Four cities, spanning Portland suburbs and rural and coastal towns, added new voter-approved prohibitions for the federally illegal compound in the Nov. 5 election. A dozen other communities that approved two-year moratoriums in 2022, when a majority of Oregon counties and over 100 cities voted to temporarily or permanently ban psilocybin, voted in this election to make the restrictions permanent.
In the wake of the fentanyl crisis, the rejection of drug liberalization measures in Oregon and states across the country this election has some experts questioning whether voters are rethinking their appetite for such policies.
In Massachusetts, for example, voters rejected a measure that would have allowed residents over 21 to grow and use plant-based psychedelic drugs in certain circumstances. All three states that had measures to legalize recreational marijuana voted against it.
Oregon voters, in particular, appear to have soured on drug reform. A law passed by voters four years ago that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of hard drugs, including heroin and methamphetamine, was rolled back by the state legislature earlier this year after heated debate over whether it played a role in a spike in public drug use and deaths.
“Perhaps the fact that the drug policy reform pendulum appears to be swinging back towards prohibition is part of a broader trend toward a preference for ‘law and order’ among American voters," said Josh Hardman, founder of Psychedelics Alpha, a consulting firm and newsletter on psychedelic research, business and policy. “Oregon, specifically, has been touted as an example of liberal drug policies gone wrong."
Despite the local bans, psilocybin remains accessible in over 30 licensed centers spanning the state’s most populous cities, like Portland, and a handful of small towns. Some rural counties also have voted to stay in the program.
However, access to therapeutic psilocybin is further complicated by high costs: One session can be up to $2,000 out of pocket. That is largely because center owners and facilitators have to pass on licensure expenses to consumers in order to stay afloat.
MJ Wilt, who just opened a licensed center in the Portland suburb of Gresham, spent tens of thousands of dollars of her own savings to get licensed and establish her center. It has been hard, she said, because her own experience with psilocybin changed her life for the better and she wants to bring that experience to others.
“The cost for the program has been astronomical and is not accessible to people across the socioeconomic spectrum,” Wilt said. “It's certainly not the cash cow that people think or thought it was going to be.”
In 2020, roughly 56% of Oregon voters approved Measure 109, which allowed for the manufacture and controlled, therapeutic use of psilocybin at licensed facilities for those over 21. But the measure allowed counties and cities to vote to opt out, resulting in a patchwork of regulations across the state.
Adding to the complexity, some cities have voted to allow psilocybin despite being in counties that banned it, as cities control the land incorporated within their borders while counties control unincorporated land.
The regulatory patchwork resembles that of cannabis law. In half of the 24 states that have legalized recreational cannabis, including Oregon, localities may opt out of most types of cannabis businesses, according to Kate Bryan, a policy specialist on criminal and civil justice at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Colorado in 2022 became the only other state to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use. It will begin accepting license applications for “healing centers” at the end of December, a spokesperson for the state's natural medicine division said in an email. The law allows localities to adopt certain regulations regarding how the centers operate, but it does not allow them to ban such centers entirely.
Multiple cities across the country also have voted to decriminalize psilocybin, meaning a person cannot be arrested or prosecuted for possessing limited amounts of plant-based hallucinogens.
Psilocybin, found in several species of mushrooms, can cause hours of vivid hallucinations. Indigenous people have used it in healing rituals, and scientists are exploring whether it can help treat depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. Researchers and military veterans are among those who have advocated for the study of the substance for therapeutic use.
Kat Thompson, the founder and CEO of Fractal Soul, a licensed psilocybin center in the Portland suburb of Beaverton, said her center has served 400 people in its first year and that the “vast majority” have had positive outcomes. Many come seeking help for depression, anxiety, trauma and addiction after years of trying talk therapy and medication, she said, while others come to process grief or explore their spirituality.
But she said a lack of public awareness about the state's psilocybin program has led many to confuse it with Measure 110, the separate ballot measure also passed in 2020 that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs. The botched implementation of the law — also a first of its kind in the nation — and rising overdose deaths amid the fentanyl crisis fueled pushback that prompted state lawmakers to backtrack on it earlier this year.
“We actually got lots of calls from people who had booked sessions with us who heard about the roll back of 110 and thought that that meant that we were closing,” Thompson said. “So we’ve had to explain and educate the public that Measure 110 was really just about decriminalization for personal use. It has nothing to do with the professional therapeutic model.”
Some people also confuse the model of the psilocybin center with cannabis dispensaries. At dispensaries, people buy cannabis and leave to consume it elsewhere. People who want to use psilocybin, meanwhile, must consume it at a licensed service center under the supervision of a licensed facilitator who administers it to them and remains with them for the duration of the trip, Thompson said.
“This is essentially a mental health clinic where someone is here all day with us,” she said. "By and large, it is extremely safe.”
Of the over 16,000 doses that have been administered since the first licensed center opened in June 2023, staff at such centers have called 911 or taken a patient to a hospital five times, an Oregon Health Authority spokesperson confirmed in an email. There are roughly 350 licensed facilitators and a dozen psilocybin manufacturers in the state, according to the agency's most recent figures.
Joe Buck, the mayor of Lake Oswego, a Portland suburb that just passed a psilocybin ban, said he wasn't surprised by the outcome, even though a majority of the city's residents supported Measure 109 in 2020.
“Oregon really has not done a great job managing its drug policy,” he said. “So I can understand how some people may be wary of the promises that are now being made around psilocybin.”
But further research on psilocybin, he said, could change voters' perspective in the future.
“It really is up to state leaders, leaders in the federal government, to work these drugs through a good system that builds community trust."