Psilocybin tea, wind chimes and tie-dye mattresses await those who come to the Eugene office suite to experience the joys of psychedelic mushrooms. For about six hours, adults 21 and older can experience what many users describe as vivid geometry, loss of identity, and oneness with the universe.
Epic Healing Eugene—the first licensed psilocybin service center in the United States—opened in June, marking Oregon’s unprecedented step Make this puzzling drug available to the public. The center currently has a waiting list of more than 3,000 people, including people with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or end-of-life phobias.
No prescription or referral is required, but supporters hope legalization in Oregon will spark a revolution in mental health care.
colorado voters Last year passed a measure allowing the regulated use of psychedelic mushrooms starting in 2024, and the California Legislature this month approved a measure allowing the possession and use of certain plant- and mushroom-based hallucinogens, including psilocybin and For mescaline, health officials plan to develop guidelines for therapeutic use.
The Oregon Psilocybin Services Division, which regulates the industry in the state, has received “hundreds of thousands of inquiries from around the world,” agency manager Angela Allbee said in an interview.
“What we’re hearing so far is that customers are having a positive experience,” she said.
While psilocybin remains illegal in most of the United States, the Food and Drug Administration designated it a “breakthrough therapy” in 2018.This summer, the FDA issued draft guidance For researchers designing clinical trials of psychedelic drugs.
Researchers believe psilocybin How to change your brain Self-organizing to help users adopt new attitudes and overcome mental health issues.
However, the Oregon Psychiatrists Association opposed Oregon’s 2020 ballot measure decriminalizing psilocybin, calling it “unsafe and making misleading promises to Oregonians struggling with mental illness.”
Albee noted that psychedelic mushrooms have been part of tribal spiritual and healing practices for thousands of years. She said her agency is focused on safety.
First, the client must have a preparation session with a licensed counselor, who stays with the client as they experience the drug. Coordinators can turn away people who have active psychosis, have thoughts of harming others, or have taken lithium (used to treat mania) in the past month.
Customers cannot buy the mushrooms to take away; they must stay at the service center until the effects of the medicine wear off.
In addition to approving psilocybin, Oregon voters decriminalized possession of hard drugs in 2020, cementing the state’s reputation as a leader in drug law reform. Oregon was the first state to decriminalize possession of marijuana and one of the first to legalize its recreational use.
But today, the regulated cannabis industry Facing serious oversupply problem.and Decriminalizing drugs It has not dramatically expanded addiction treatment or reduced overdoses as hoped. a new poll indicating that a majority of voters would repeal it.
It’s too early to evaluate mushroom legalization in Oregon.
Oregon Psilocybin Services spent two years developing regulations and began accepting license applications in January. There are currently 10 authorized service centers, 4 growers, 2 testing laboratories and dozens of service providers.
While the waiting list at Epic Treatment Center in Eugene is long, in part due to early media attention, other service centers say business is picking up as awareness spreads.
Omnia Group Ashland opened in southern Oregon this month, with a potential client list of 150, said co-founder Brian Lindley. Jeanette Small, owner of Lucid Cradle in Bend, said she plans to see only one customer a week to keep an eye on each one, and has reservations through December.
The law allows local jurisdictions to ban psilocybin operations, and some rural counties have already done so.
Some complain the cost is too high, but industry insiders expect prices to fall as more businesses are established. Customers can end up paying more than $2,000 for service center fees, a coordinator and lab-tested psilocybin. Annual license fees for service centers and growers are $10,000, with a half-price discount for veterans.
Albee said her agency requires each licensee to work toward social equity goals, and some already offer sliding-price models. She expects Oregon’s psilocybin program, which currently receives millions in taxpayer funding, will be fully supported by licensing fees by mid-2025. She promised to step up efforts to lower prices later.
Cathy Jonas, owner of Epic Healing Eugene, said she doesn’t expect her service center to start making money for a while. Providing legal access to psychedelic mushrooms was a calling, she said: “Plant medicine has told me this is what I should do.”
State regulations allow for doses up to 50 milligrams, but when Jonas tested a sample of 35 milligrams of pure psilocybin (usually equivalent to about 6 grams of dried mushrooms), she found it was so potent that she It was decided that this would be the maximum dose her facility could provide.
Jonas’s first clients took 35 mg and described seeing “an infinite-dimensional fractal that was constantly spinning and twisting.”
“It seemed kind of fascinating, but it became so intense,” said the client, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his privacy. “I started having this experience of death and rebirth. And then I would see most of my life flying by.”
The session was “not particularly pleasant,” he said, but it helpfully changed the way he viewed painful memories and provided a much-welcomed mystical experience.
After 16 years as a police officer in San Francisco, licensed grower Gared Hansen has come full circle. He once busted a psilocybin dealer in Golden Gate Park.
Today, he runs Uptown Fungus, a one-man psilocybin grow operation located in a nondescript building near Springfield, Oregon, surrounded by towering cedar trees. The mushroom varieties he grows include ‘Golden Teacher’, ‘Blue Bitch’ and ‘Pink Buffalo’. The cost is $125 for a 25 mg dose.
Hanson said he sometimes meditates on mushrooms in hopes of infusing them with healing energy.
Tiny brown psychedelic mushrooms grow in fields or woods, but they are very similar to poisonous varieties. Hansen and others warn against buying cheaper psilocybin on the black market or going it alone. Service centers deliver measured doses (usually strong doses) in a controlled environment.
“Sometimes part of healing can be a negative experience that someone has to go through in order to let go of the negative emotions or re-experience some of the trauma in a healthier way,” Hansen said. “I don’t want to take it from someone who has never tried it. Go home, have a bad trip and hurt yourself.”
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