The statewide goal

Why this matters

Oregon voters have already made two decisions about psychedelics, and both were serious attempts at a hard problem.

In 2020, Measure 109 created the country’s first state-regulated psilocybin services program. It works, and other states are now copying it.

But regulated services were never going to be the whole picture. They are expensive, rarely covered by insurance, and by design they only serve people who go through a licensed facilitator.

Then, in 2024, HB 4002 changed Measure 110 in response to the fentanyl crisis. That was a real crisis and a real response. But in the process, the Legislature inadvertently removed protections that had applied to psychedelics, substances with a very different risk profile than the ones the bill was written to address.

So here is where Oregon actually stands: tens of thousands of people are growing, gathering, and gifting natural psychedelics every year, and state law offers them no education, no safety guidance, and no reason to ask anyone for help.

That is the gap. Closing it is the goal.

What “science-based” means here

“Science-based” is doing real work in that sentence, so let us be specific about it.

• Thresholds grounded in research, not intuitionAny statewide allowance should define personal quantities using the actual pharmacology and the actual patterns of how people use these plants, not a number picked because it sounds cautious.
• Harm reduction as the organizing principleThe evidence on drug policy is consistent: approaches that destigmatize use help people make safer choices, let them disclose to their doctors, and build bridges to health services rather than walls. Approaches built on prosecution do the opposite.
• Honest about contraindicationsNatural psychedelics are not safe for everyone in every context. Certain medical and psychiatric conditions, certain medications, and certain settings raise real risk. A science-based policy says that out loud and funds the education to back it up, rather than leaving people to guess in private.
• Non-commercial, stillEverything we advocate for concerns personal, non-commercial cultivation, possession, and gifting. We are not asking the state to create a new retail market.

What Portland does, and where a city’s power stops

The Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act makes personal, non-commercial use of natural psychedelics among the City of Portland’s lowest law enforcement priorities, and commits the city to education and harm reduction as the policy takes effect.

What it cannot do is change state law. Natural psychedelics remain illegal at the state and federal level for personal use, and a city cannot legalize what the state prohibits. A city can decide what its own officers prioritize. That is meaningful, and it is the ceiling.

So the limits are real:

• The policy stops at the city line. Cross into a neighboring jurisdiction and none of it applies.
• It does not change what happens in state courts.
• It does not reach the majority of Oregonians, who do not live in Portland.

A statewide allowance is how you address the actual scope of the thing.

What Colorado’s experience shows

Oregon is not the only state that has tried to work this out, and we do not have to reason from first principles.

Colorado’s approach paired a regulated therapeutic program with personal-use allowances for natural psychedelics, the two coexisting rather than competing. The relevant lesson for Oregon is structural: a personal-use allowance does not have to undermine a regulated services program. They answer different questions for different people, and a state can do both.

That matters here because the most common objection we hear to a statewide allowance is that it would undercut Measure 109. The experience next door suggests otherwise.

The pathway

• Now, PortlandPass the Act, then build a track record of safety and education a state legislator can point to.
• 2027, the LegislatureOregon’s 2027 legislative session is the realistic window for a statewide bill. Between now and then the work is coalition-building, public education, and getting the policy language right.
• Throughout, the evidencePortland’s implementation, documented honestly, produces exactly the kind of local record that makes a statewide case concrete rather than theoretical.

We are being straightforward that this is a multi-year effort. Anyone telling you a statewide change happens quickly is selling something.