The Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act
About the Act
This Policy:
- Creates more safety & education around psychedelics in Portland
- Codifies cultural norms already present in Portland law enforcement
- Maintains prohibition on commercial sales of natural psychedelics
- Aligns with similar measures in 27+ cities nationwide
- Charts a path from Portland to statewide protections
- Relies on community-led knowledge for safety & stigma reduction
- Focuses only on natural psychedelics, excludes lab-synthesized
- Excludes endangered species (like peyote) following Indigenous communities’ recommendations
Where the Act stands
From community to City Hall.
- Done
Built with community
Seven years of organizing, from the founding alliance to the coalition of hundreds of Portlanders and national experts who shaped the Act.
- Done
Introduced at City Hall
Introduced as Ordinance 2026-186 by Councilors Green, Pirtle-Guiney, Morillo, and Koyama Lane, and referred to the Community and Public Safety Committee.
- Done
Public hearings in committee
The committee heard the Act and public testimony on June 2, June 16, and July 7, 2026.
- Done
Voted out of committee
On August 4, 2026 the committee amended the Act and referred it to the full City Council with a recommendation to pass, 4 to 1. Read the Act as referred (PDF).
- Now
Adopted by City Council, 10 to 0
Council held the first reading on September 23, 2026 and heard testimony from sixteen people. On September 30, 2026 it passed the Act as amended, 10 to 0. Every councilor present voted yes. Two were absent. The Act is now Ordinance 192232. Watch the vote. Under the City Charter it takes effect thirty days after passage, on October 30, 2026.
- Next
Education, and the rest of Oregon
Our work now turns to public education, starting with the Guide, and to statewide personal-use protections in Oregon’s 2027 legislative session. Get updates as that work takes shape.
Sources: the official record for Ordinance 192232 (document 2026-186) and the Community and Public Safety Committee agendas at portland.gov.
In brief
Portland City Council adopted the Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act on September 30, 2026, by a vote of 10 to 0. The Act makes personal use of natural psychedelics a low law enforcement priority in our city and seeks to create more safety and education around them. The Act pairs those protections with a commitment to community education and harm reduction, so more Portlanders can ask questions openly and find real answers.
Portland joins 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. The Act sets enforcement priorities for the city. It does not legalize or decriminalize anything, and it does not change state or federal law. With the adoption of this act, Portland and Oregon continue to help lead the way on safety-minded, community-led psychedelic policy.
What’s in the Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act?
A Low 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 a low law enforcement priority within the City of Portland. Commercial sales of natural psychedelic plants will still be prohibited.
From Portland to the rest of Oregon
Passing these protections in Portland was step one. Council did that on September 30, 2026. From here, our goal is to take this framework statewide in Oregon, to keep improving how our state approaches psychedelics, and to support communities and policy efforts in other states across the country. We are working toward statewide personal-use protections in Oregon’s 2027 legislative session. An advisory body focused on education and implementation was removed in committee and is not part of what passed. It may return to Council for a separate vote at a later date.
Public Safety and Harm Reduction
This Act is designed to increase safety, education, and best practices in the city, statewide, and beyond. This Act puts 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. Portlanders can expect that public health and safety, as it relates to psychedelics, should improve as The Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act is implemented.
What the Act excludes
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 personal use of these natural substances a low 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 putting 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 commits Portland to more education, so psychedelic use gets safer in the many community contexts where it already happens.
Stay informed
The community behind the Act
Photos: Portland Psychedelic Society.
September 30, 2026
It passed, 10 to 0
Portland City Council adopted the Psychedelic Health & Safety Act. Every councilor present voted yes. See what passed and what comes next.