Now
46
Tue
60
Wed
66
The Articles of Impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will be read on the floor of the Senate.
President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
by Christina Giardinelli, KATU Staff
The rollout of legal therapeutic psilocybin has been almost three years in the making in Oregon.
Voters approved the legal therapeutic use of the federally Schedule I drug through a ballot initiative in 2020. Before the hallucinogen commonly known as "magic mushrooms" could be available to consumers, the Oregon Health Authority was tasked with creating rules and regulations.
OHA began issuing the first licenses in April. Before a full rollout could occur, the department needed to license facilitators, service centers, manufacturers and testing labs.
Facilitators are in the room with clients while they are under the effects of psilocybin, and the client needs to arrange for a safe ride from the facility once the effects of the mushroom have worn off. On average, a session lasts six or seven hours depending on the quantity ingested.
OHA has now licensed 57 facilitators and six service centers. The product they use has to come from a state licensed manufacturer and must be tested by a licensed laboratory.
Andreas Met co-owns one of the licensed service centers in Ashland and a licensed manufacturer in Medford.
"We just recently received our type one permit from Jackson County, so we are rolling, in terms of operations as a manufacturing facility, growing small amounts of mushrooms. With respect to the service center, we started seeing clients last week," he said.
Met says one of the biggest obstacles right now in keeping costs to consumers low is that the providers he is working with are all in Portland because facilitators in Jackson County have not yet been licensed.
"What that means is we don't have a lot of people to give to our clients that are coming in every day," he said, noting that Portland providers have been traveling approximately four hours to the valley to provide services.
The average cost for services at most license providers right now ranges from just over $1,000 to just under $2,000.
Met says he eventually wants to offer services at no more than $700 to $1,000 depending on the length of a session.
"I got into this for health and social equity reasons, so did it to get involved for people that have terminal illness diagnosis so that we can treat end-of-life anxieties, and the cost of services is the most important thing on my mind," he said.
He says because his company also operates a manufacturing plant, the cost of the product can be kept affordable.
Once facilitators in Jackson County are licensed, he plans to have them employed directly with his company instead of contracting.