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by Christina Giardinelli, KATU Staff
SALEM, Ore. (KATU) — On a rainy Thursday afternoon in Salem, former NFL star running back Ricky Williams and Travel Weekly's Editor and Chief Arnie Weissmann could be seen strolling into a bright green warehouse a stone's throw away from the Oregon State Penitentiary's western fence line.
Banners strung along the building's façade reveal the cannabis dispensary owners Sammy Kahuk and wife, Dina Odeh, latest venture, The Psilocybin Service Center, one of Oregon's newly licensed legal magic mushroom therapy centers.
Kahuk's decade-old friendship and cannabis partnership with Williams isn't the only reason the former 11-season NFL player, turned cannabis entrepreneur and legalization lobbyist, finds himself in Oregon.
"We are doing a psilocybin session. The plan is to do multiple psilocybin sessions and really using the psilocybin center. And this is the first one, so the main goal is to get our feet wet and figure out how this actually works," Williams says.
Kahuk and Williams are exploring the idea of expanding their cannabis partnership into the world of legal psychedelics.
Weissmann flew out from New York to meet Williams, go through the legal magic mushroom session alongside him, and write about the travel and tourism potential Oregon's legalization of psilocybin in therapeutic settings has opened up.
"It's a tourist experience really in the sense that it is not available everywhere," he says. "Professionally, I'd like to see from the ground floor what the experience is like."
Williams is no novice to the substance but says it's his first time doing it in a more "clinical" setting.
"I've had probably 40 sessions with psilocybin, probably the most impactful were done in a ritual setting at a reservation down in San Diego," he says.
Religious organizations are allowed to seek exemptions to the Controlled Substances Act. Tribal reservations are sovereign, or self-governing entities and, similarly to states like Oregon, can and do set their own laws regarding federally classified substances such as cannabis, psilocybin and peyote.
Many Native American and Mesoamerican tribes have historically used the plants and mycelium in ceremonial practices.
Oregon voters legalized the therapeutic use of psilocybin through a ballot measure in 2020. The state's health authority went through a lengthy rulemaking process before certifying its first legal psilocybin centers last spring.
The agency's rules require a state-licensed manufacturer to produce the substances which can then only be consumed at a licensed site or service center. The duration of the session is determined by the quantity or dosage of substance consumed. During the sessions, a licensed facilitator must be present at all times.
Kahuk and Odeh both went through the 120 hours of instruction and Oregon Health Authority credentialing that it takes to become a licensed facilitator. The role is not akin to a therapist; instead, facilitators are taught to get out of the way and allow the client space to process without their help. The facilitator's role is thought of more as a calming trustworthy presence that can help assist with making clients more comfortable.
Weissmann says he's had a few experiences with the substance at college parties. This is his first time doing it legally.
Fresh from the airport, the pair meet each other for the first time at the service center in one of the roughly 100-square-foot facilitation rooms. Light-blue walks are decked in artwork. A large couch sits at the far end of the room with armchairs and side tables scattered through the rest of the space.
A few other similarly decorated rooms are separated by a large, roughly 400-square-foot communal area set up to host group sessions, which Kahuk says will be at a more accessible cost to clients than the individual sessions.
An award-winning travel journalist, Weissmann's career for the past three decades has involved meeting and talking to new people. Williams is no stranger to the interview process either, though these days he endures it with an unwavering calmness that he admits was lacking during his NFL career.
There is no palpable initial awkwardness between the two strangers pre-session. However, when I rejoin them — as per our agreement — after their two-hour low-dose session, their collective body language has noticeably shifted.
"We just met each other for the first time today, and about an hour in we were on a level as if we had known each other for years," Williams says, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Weissmann.
"I will say, Ricky … he's a deep guy," Weissmann says, tapping Williams' arm. "I just knew him from his football career, and I knew that he was thoughtful, but he is wise beyond his years. It was really a pleasure, we really kind of got very deeply into the philosophy of life."
"It takes one to know one," Williams chimes back.
Williams says psilocybin has helped him identify the source of his social anxiety.
"What I found out through the help of psilocybin about my social anxiety was that, where I tend to live and want to be most of the time, is at a deeper level, but most people around me, especially when you are famous, are at this level (indicating with his hand). The gap from where I was to where people were interacting with me from was causing me anxiety," he says. "Just that observation, half of the anxiety was gone because I could recognize where it was coming from."
He says, for him, the goal with each session is to understand himself further, to discover different parts of himself. In fact, he says the parts of the experience he relishes the most are the ones that make him most uncomfortable.
"It's the shocking intensity of the nausea that you have to like figure out because that is when you see who is really in there, you know," Williams says. "I had a coach who would say, you don't know who is inside someone until they are squeezed, and I think that part of the session is when I get to see a side of myself that in order to do it outside of this, it had to be in a really intense situation."
He likens the intensity to what he felt on the football field.
There is a limited body of research on the naturally occurring psychedelic substance that suggests it may provide relief from depression, anxiety, trauma, and addiction. Williams says he is excited to see the opportunities the limited legalization in Oregon might bring about when it comes to future research in the field.
When asked what interactions with Kahuk, who facilitated the session, were like, Williams noted they were interesting because of his close relationship with Kahuk.
"I could tell that Sammy wanted to be like be a part of the conversation, and I could imagine that, especially when facilitating groups, and the dynamic like that where the facilitator's role is to kind of like stay out of the way; it could be difficult," Williams says.
But Kahuk says despite the close friendship, he was able to remain neutral and removed and enjoyed observing the process.
"Watching the whole thing unfold between them was amazing," he says. "Just to see two separate stories from two separate places come together, and I saw a bond develop pretty quickly."
Weissmann noted that about 20 minutes into the session, as the psilocybin started to kick in, he had a bout of nausea that lasted roughly 10 to 20 minutes.
"You took steps to try and make me more comfortable when I was (nauseous)," Weissmann says to Kahuk. "It was very experimental, lights on, lights off. Nothing really helped."
"It was just time, it took time," Kahuk says.
"But having you there to help was helpful," Weissmann says.
Before going into the session, Williams shared his goal to test the space out and understand what it might be like for future clients. Post-session he has some ideas about how to improve the space and perfect the ambiance.
For now, he sees his role in the potential partnership as one of guidance for new clients which he hopes to help bring to Oregon from his network. He says he expects to be here as often as once a month.
When I ask if he is considering becoming a facilitator Williams says, "Absolutely."
First, he would need to become an Oregon resident and be living in the state for at least two years, which is something he says he could get on board with.
Both Kahuk and Williams say they want to try and keep the costs to clients low and make sure the experience is accessible to Oregonians, as well as work with non-profits to provide scholarships for people who could not otherwise afford it.