About the Act

The Portland Psychedelic Health Act seeks to create more safety and education in psychedelics while making the possession and use of these natural substances the lowest priority for law enforcement in our city. The measure also establishes a local Psychedelic Advisory Commission, with experts in mental health, pharmacology, public health, and community advocacy to inform the public and solicit feedback, advise on safe practices, monitor policy implementation, and support law enforcement with understanding these medicines and successfully complying with this act.

Portland will join a growing list of 27 U.S. cities and two states that have passed similar measures to protect personal freedom, public health, and the responsible use of nature’s gifts, allowing Portland residents to explore the benefits of natural psychedelics safely and without fear of prosecution. With the adoption of this act, Portland and Oregon will continue to help lead the way on safety-minded, community-led psychedelic policy.

What’s in the Portland Psychedelic Health Act?

Lowest Law Enforcement Priority
The measure ensures that the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of individuals engaging with natural psychedelic substances will be among the City of Portland’s lowest law enforcement priorities. The measure recognizes the right to cultivate, prepare, possess, and gift natural psychedelic plants for personal use, community healing, and religious or spiritual practice as the lowest enforcement priority within the City of Portland. Commercial sales of natural psychedelic plants will still be prohibited.

Establishment of the Portland Psychedelics Advisory Commission 
Community members in mental health, pharmacology, public health, and community advocacy will advise on safe and responsible practices, harm reduction, public education, and the strategic integration of natural psychedelics into public health initiatives, as well as monitor and recommend policies to ensure that natural psychedelics are used responsibly and that this Act helps address Portland’s addiction and mental health crises. 

Public Safety and Harm Reduction 
This Act establishes an advisory commission, made up of experts in relevant fields, for the purpose of advising and making recommendations to the City of Portland on the topics of psychedelics, the role of psychedelics in treating addiction, and harm reduction. The Act’s establishment of the Portland Psychedelic Advisory Commission is designed to increase safety, education, and best practices in the city, statewide, and beyond. This Act aims to put into city code a cultural norm that already exists, and should be understood as supporting our local law enforcement as valuable and essential members of our City by reducing the policing of natural psychedelics and providing education and harm reduction training. The Act also explicitly prohibits commercial sales of natural psychedelics and directs city resources away from enforcement actions related to personal use and cultivation. Through the advisory commission’s charge and clear deliverables outlined in the Act, Portlanders can expect that public health and safety, as it relates to psychedelics, should improve upon the passage and implementation of The Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act. 

Ethical and Sustainable Use 
At the request of Indigenous communities, the measure excludes peyote to honor and respect its sacred status in Native American cultures. In addition, the measure excludes any substances derived from threatened or endangered species. The Act was created with the input of community members who hold deep knowledge around these natural psychedelic medicines and their many uses, safety protocols, and cross-cultural contexts, from Portland and around the world, with a focus on best practices as it relates to ethics and sustainability.

After Measure 109 & 110, why do we need this Act?

Completing the Policy Picture
Our city and state have long been at the forefront of creating first-of-their-kind visionary policies and then refining those policies. Portland and Oregon’s adoption in 2020 of a state-regulated and legal psychedelic health care model (Measure 109) has been an overall success and is now being adopted in states around the country. However, the policy picture emerging in our city and state is clearly incomplete with only Measure 109, considering the challenges and changes of Measure 110 with the passing of HB 4002 and recriminalization that occurred in 2024. So, this Act seeks to create more safety and education for communities by recognizing cultural norms that already exist in Portland by making the possession and use of these natural substances the lowest priority for law enforcement.

More Education Leads to More Safety, And Vice Versa
Measure 109 does not offer any protections, education, or increased safety for the tens of thousands of individuals that are growing, gifting, or gathering with psychedelics outside of the government-regulated model. And while the recent change to Measure 110 (also approved by voters in 2020) reestablished drug courts as a response to the surge of hard drug related issues, namely fentanyl-related deaths, the Oregon Legislature inadvertently removed all protections for psychedelics. Natural psychedelic plants can be viewed as safe allies to healing when used within appropriate community containers of support that include parameters around safety, harm reduction and understanding potential contraindications. With the removal of common sense protections for psychedelics, there is less general education and awareness on the issue and, as a result, the potential for decreased safety around psychedelic use.

Policies Based in Reality Improve Public Health 
This Act adopts a Harm Reduction approach by seeking to put into city code a cultural norm that already exists, recognizing that Portlanders have long consumed natural psychedelics for personal, health, and spiritual reasons and that they will continue to do so. It also establishes a policy and commission in Portland to increase education and make psychedelic use safer in various community contexts.