Effort to Add Psilocybin Mushrooms to Oregon Ballot in 2020 Begins
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]V[/dropcap]oters in Oregon may be deciding whether or not psilocybin mushrooms should be legal in the state on their 2020 ballot.
According to The Oregonian, the ballot title for the Psilocybin Service Initiative, also called Initiative Petition #34, was certified officially on Sept. 6. Now, those who support a measure to legalize psilocybin in controlled settings can get busy collecting ballot signatures.
Mushrooms wouldn’t be completely legal, but the initiative would legalize the “manufacturing, delivery, and administration of psilocybin at supervised, licensed facilities.” I passed, it would be implemented by 2022. “As therapists, we know that personality doesn’t change easily,” explained Thomas Eckert, one of the chief petitioners in support of legalizing mushrooms along with his wife, “Where typical pharma-type interventions fall short, psilocybin is really breaking through with pretty amazing frequency.”
Eckert is one of the chief petitioners of the initiative, and said that the goal is to have those interested in consuming psilocybin attend an orientation and other sessions to help get them used to the process and the experience.
It’s not surprising that Oregon officials are considering taking such a progressive step. Not only have they legalized cannabis, they’ve been working to clear past cannabis convictions as well as to implement cannabis lounges. As individual cities, both Oakland, California and Denver, Colorado have recently decriminalized psilocybin, but California and Colorado still consider psilocybin illegal at the state level.
Those who support the Psilocybin Service Initiative have until July 2, 2020 to get the required 112,020 signatures in order to make sure this ends up on the ballot. Officials in Oregon could be making history in allowing Oregon to be the first state to take a giant plunge into totally new, uncharted territory in the realm of legal psychedelics.
