Some aspects of Oregon’s voter-approved legal psilocybin program are already underway, but the public won’t get a chance to experience the therapy until late next year, according to the executive director of Healing Advocacy Fund, Sam Chapman.
The Healing Advocacy Fund is a nonprofit that focuses on education and advocacy and, according to spokesperson Leslie Carlson, “supports all stakeholders involved in Oregon’s psilocybin services program, from the state, to local governments, to future licensees and even participants.”
During a press conference Thursday, Chapman said he believes that it will take some months after the official start of the program on Jan. 2, 2023 for the infrastructure of the nation’s first statewide legal psychedelic mushroom program to be fully in place and ready for participants.
“We do not anticipate services to be available to the general public until fall, if not winter of 2023,” Chapman said. “There’s so many things that have to happen after an application or during that period to where we’re just not going to be seeing services until later on in 2023.”
The Oregon Health Authority, which is developing and will administer the state’s psilocybin program, said technically it is possible the services will begin sooner.
“Oregon Psilocybin Services will be adopting rules by December 31, 2022 and will begin accepting applications for licensure on January 2, 2023,” said Erica Heartquist, a spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority. “If licensees meet all of the criteria in statute and rule, we will issue a license to them. If applicants are ready to apply on, or close to, the January 2, 2023 date, services may be available earlier than fall/winter.”
“Since we do not know when applicants will be ready to apply, it is difficult to provide an estimated timeline for when services will be available in Oregon,” Heartquist added.
But, before clients can enter the doors of a legal psilocybin facility, providers and manufacturers will need to move through a process that can only begin once the state starts issuing licenses.
First, manufacturers, facilitators, testing labs and service centers all must be licensed.
Currently, Oregon Health Authority is accepting applications for facilitator training programs, though there is a possible hitch — these programs may need to be also licensed by Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, the body that licenses private career schools.
The commission has identified two possible challenges for gaining licensure: the ability of training programs to get insurance and “a restrictive definition of ‘qualified instructor.’”
In a statement, the commission said, “HECC is committed to resolving these questions as quickly as possible, and in a manner that supports the licensure and operation of psilocybin facilitator training programs.”
Currently, higher education officials are in the process of resolving those questions. The Oregon Health Authority Psciloybin Services Section is encouraging applicants to address any questions with the Higher Education Coordinating Commission but has said in a newsletter that “HECC licensure is not a prerequisite to getting curriculum approval from OPS.”
If the licensing of facilitator trainers can be worked out, businesses will still have to be built from the ground up.
Oregon’s psilocybin law has clear perimeters about what and where a facility cannot be. Service centers cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school or in an exclusively residential-zoned neighborhood. Facilities must have secure storage for the substance and it cannot be sold in a retail manner or marketed or consumed off-site.
And, as some Oregon counties consider trying to ban psilocybin facilities within their borders and others have the option to add restrictions, there’s an open question of where a facility can be located.
“There’s so many aspects that go into running this type of business,” Chapman said, “that it will take some additional time for doors to be open to the general public.”
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052 lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
