EDITORIAL: Psilocybin use worth considering

Published 1:30 pm Friday, July 15, 2022

Voters in Baker City and Baker County might have a chance in the Nov. 8 general election to ban the production and use, in a state-licensed business, of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic substance in “magic mushrooms.”

The Baker City Council has directed city staff to draft an ordinance that would take the matter to voters. Baker County commissioners have scheduled a pair of public hearings, one on July 20 and one on Aug. 3, to collect comments on a similar ordinance.

County voters have already expressed their feelings about this particular drug. In the November 2020 election Measure 109, which legalizes supervised use of psilocybin for people 21 and older, passed statewide with about 57% of the votes. But almost 64% of the voters who cast ballots in Baker County opposed the measure.

But voters, rather than reflexively rejecting anything involving drug use, ought to consider the potential benefits of allowing licensed psilocybin production or “service centers” if, as seems likely, they’ll see the topic on their ballot again this fall.

The state’s psilocybin system, which is under the direction of the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), is quite different from Oregon’s recreational marijuana industry.

Buying marijuana is much like buying liquor — you go to a state-licensed store, buy the product and then take it elsewhere to use it. Marijuana dispensaries are banned in Baker City, however.

With psilocybin, people, when the state starts issuing licenses in 2023, will be able to ingest the drug only at a licensed business.

Well, sort of.

During the 2020 election Oregon voters also approved Measure 110. It decriminalizes the possession of relatively small amounts of many drugs, including psilocybin, making the punishment for possession effectively the same as a minor traffic ticket. Put simply, local residents who want to take psilocybin now have little disincentive — and they don’t need to make an appointment at a “service center,” to borrow the OHA’s rather silly euphemism.

But euphemism notwithstanding, psilocybin use under the state system would be much more controlled than it is now. People who take the drug would be in a safe place during the several hours the hallucinogenic effects can persist, and monitored by a “facilitator” — the OHA surely does love its generic terms — who will have to complete 160 hours of training.

Based on predictions about how psilocybin centers will operate, and in particular the cost, the question facing Baker City and Baker County residents might well be moot. It could cost around $1,000 for one “session” — or “trip,” if you prefer ’60s vernacular. There’s not likely a big clientele for psilocybin hereabouts.

Nonetheless, psilocybin has the potential, based on legitimate medical research, to help deal with significant societal problems that affect Baker County, without creating new ones. Researchers have found that psilocybin can be effective in treating depression, anxiety and addiction to other drugs (psilocybin itself is not addictive, experts say).

To be sure, the aforementioned price for patronizing a psilocybin “center” could be prohibitive for people who might benefit most from its effects.

And to be clear, Oregon doesn’t require a prescription or recommendation from a physician to use psilocybin at a licensed business — people can go simply to experience the hallucinogenic results.

Some local voters will undoubtedly oppose anything they perceive to be a government endorsement of drug use.

But Oregon’s psilocybin system, due to its restrictions, is different. There are legitimate questions, of course — how well will the centers be monitored to ensure they don’t let clients drive home while they’re still in the altered state that psilocybin induces.

Yet voters shouldn’t blithely reject something that could help people overcome debilitating depression or other mental issues, or conquer an addiction to much more dangerous drugs. That’s a particularly vital issue to consider in an era when fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid, is ubiquitous and causing many unintentional overdose deaths in people who didn’t even realize the drug they took was tainted with fentanyl.