Portland Psychedelic Society Action Fund

Who we are

Portland Psychedelic Society Action Fund grew out of five years of volunteer work by a diverse coalition of community members, in Portland and nationally, who hold deep knowledge around these plant medicines, community-based practitioners, traditional healers, academics, legal experts, doctors, teachers, and enthusiasts committed to increasing safety and protections for plant- and fungi-based psychedelic medicines.

We are not a company and we do not sell anything. We are neighbors who spent years in living rooms and community halls working out what a responsible psychedelic policy actually looks like for a city like ours, then wrote it down, and asked our city government to adopt it.

That work is rooted in safety, tradition, and science. Safety, because the people most at risk are the ones with no one to ask. Tradition, because Indigenous communities have carried this knowledge for thousands of years and their guidance shapes what we ask for. Science, because the evidence base has grown enough that policy no longer has to guess.

Board of Directors

What a 501(c)(4) is, in plain English

Nonprofits come in different types, and the type determines what an organization is allowed to do.

The trade-off is straightforward, and we want to be clear about it up front:

That is not fine print. It is the reason we can do this work at all. When you give to PPSAF, you are funding advocacy, and advocacy is not tax-deductible under U.S. law.

How we relate to Portland Psychedelic Society

Portland Psychedelic Society is the community organization, education, gatherings, harm-reduction resources, and the long relationships that hold all of it together.

PPSAF is the advocacy organization. Same community, different legal lane. When the work is teaching and convening, that is the Society. When the work is changing policy, that is the Action Fund.

Keeping them separate is not a technicality. It is how we make sure community education stays open to everyone, regardless of anyone’s politics, while still being able to advocate forcefully for a policy we believe will save lives.

What we have done

• Built the coalitionFive years of volunteer organizing across practitioners, traditional healers, clinicians, legal experts, educators, and community members in Portland and nationwide.
• Wrote the policyThe Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act, drafted with input from people who hold direct knowledge of these medicines, their safety protocols, and their cross-cultural contexts. City Council adopted it on September 30, 2026, by a vote of 10 to 0, as Ordinance 192232 (document 2026-186), which adds Chapter 14B.140 to Portland City Code. The details are in the official record.
• Listened where it countedAt the request of Indigenous communities, the Act excludes peyote in recognition of its sacred status, and excludes anything derived from threatened or endangered species.
• Made the case publiclyPlain-language education for neighbors, journalists, and city officials about what this policy does, what it does not do, and why the current policy picture is incomplete.
• Kept it non-commercialThe Act maintains the prohibition on commercial sales. We are not building a market. We are reducing harm.

Our City Council endorsements

In 2024, in Portland’s first ranked-choice election for the new twelve-member Council, the Action Fund made its first endorsements. We backed eleven candidates who agreed to consider carrying personal-use protections for natural psychedelics: Timur Ender in District 1; Michelle DePass, Mike Marshall, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, and Jonathan Tasini in District 2; Rex Burkholder and Jesse Cornett in District 3; and Mitch Green, Chad Lykins, Stanley Penkin, and Eric Zimmerman in District 4.

Three of them now serve on Council. Councilors Pirtle-Guiney and Green were chief sponsors of the Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act, and Councilor Zimmerman spoke in support of it at the September 23 first reading. All three voted yes when Council passed the Act 10 to 0 on September 30, 2026.

As a 501(c)(4), endorsing candidates is part of how we do this work, and we expect to endorse again in upcoming elections. If you are running and want to talk about natural psychedelic policy, get in touch.

How we are funded, and how we spend it

PPSAF is funded by individual contributions from community members who wanted this policy to pass and want the work to continue. We are volunteer-heavy by necessity and by design.

Money goes to the things a campaign actually needs: public education materials, community organizing, and the legal and policy expertise required to write policy that will hold up.

We publish this because a c4 is not required to disclose its donors, and we would rather tell you how we work than let you assume.

Press

Journalists: we are glad to talk, and we would rather you get it right than get it fast.