When Oregon voters approved Measure 109 in November 2020, we didn’t just pass a law. We cracked open a door the world had kept shut for more than fifty years. Behind that door lay centuries of cultural practice, decades of underground exploration, and a growing body of scientific research suggesting that psilocybin — the active compound in certain mushrooms — could help heal some of our deepest wounds.
But opening the door and walking through it are two different things.
I still remember the Tuesday night the results came in. Like so many others, I felt a mix of awe and disbelief. Oregon had just become the first place in the United States — and one of the first in the world — to create a legal system for psilocybin services. Not research. Not decriminalization. Not a medical exemption. An actual framework where adults could legally sit down with a licensed facilitator, consume psilocybin, and embark on a journey of healing or discovery.
As a woman who had found relief from 40 years of Treatment Resistant Depression by using psilocybin , I found the results absolutley thrilling!
Why Psilocybin?
Psilocybin is not a new discovery. Indigenous cultures have worked with these mushrooms for thousands of years. What is new is the way modern science has begun to validate what traditional wisdom always knew: psilocybin can help people break free from depression, ease anxiety, soften trauma, and rediscover meaning.
In recent decades, research at institutions like Johns Hopkins, NYU, and UCLA have shown psilocybin’s potential to treat conditions that baffle modern medicine. Stories of transformation abound: veterans finding peace after years of PTSD, cancer patients facing mortality with newfound grace, people trapped in cycles of addiction finding release.
For me, psilocybin has been more than data points or headlines. It has been a teacher, a mirror, and a source of healing in my own life. And that’s why I became a facilitator — because I know firsthand how life-changing this work can be.
Why Oregon?
So why here? Why Oregon?
Some say it’s our progressive streak, the same one that led to vote-by-mail, cannabis legalization, and physician-assisted dying. Others say it’s our geography — a place of big landscapes and independent spirits. I think maybe it’s a mix of both, plus the timing of a world hungry for new ways of healing.
Oregon didn’t wait for the federal government or pharmaceutical companies. Instead, voters said we want a model that is community-based, accessible, and safe. And then we spent two years building it from absolute scratch.
It hasn’t been easy. The rules are complex, costs are high, and we are still learning. Sometimes it feels like we’re building the plane while flying it. But even in its imperfections, Oregon’s program has given thousands of people something they couldn’t find anywhere else: a legal, supported psilocybin journey.
Why Now?
We are living in a time of profound disconnection. Rates of depression, anxiety, addiction, and loneliness are soaring. Traditional systems of care help some people, but far too many are left behind.
Psilocybin is not a cure-all. It won’t solve the world’s problems in one trip. But it does offer something rare: a chance to step outside the well-worn grooves of our thinking, to see ourselves with new eyes, and to reconnect with what truly matters.
For decades, access to psilocybin was limited to underground circles, distant retreats, or narrow clinical trials. People like me — and perhaps like you — spent years searching, waiting, or risking legal consequences for something that could bring relief. Now, for the first time in modern U.S. history, there is a legal path. And that path is in Oregon.
A Global Conversation
Make no mistake: Oregon is not the only place exploring psychedelics. In the Netherlands, psilocybin truffles have long been sold in retreat settings. In Jamaica, psilocybin mushrooms grow freely and retreats openly advertise their services. Canada has carved out exemptions for certain patients, and Colorado has now launched its own healing centers.
But Oregon was the first to say: this isn’t just for patients or tourists. This is for ordinary people seeking healing, growth, or connection. Psilocybin can be offered to those who need it, in a regulated, legal, and safe system. It is a bold experiment, and the world is watching.
When I spoke at Harvard’s Psychedelic Bootcamp and later at Psychedelic Science in Denver, I felt that global curiosity firsthand. People from across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America came to me with questions. They weren’t asking because Oregon had all the answers. They were asking because Oregon had dared to try.
What Our Book Is About
We are writing a book about Oregon’s Psilocybin Industry as an attempt to tell the story of psilocybin in Oregon as it is unfolding. It’s part personal memoir, part history, part guidebook. You’ll hear about my own journey, the science behind psilocybin, the pioneers who shaped the rules, the challenges we still face, and the clients who finally, after years of waiting, found a safe and legal way to sit with the medicine.
I don’t claim to have the final word. Oregon’s psilocybin program is still new, still evolving, still imperfect. But it is real. And it is offering people something that, until now, was out of reach.
So why psilocybin? Because it heals. Why Oregon? Because we were brave enough to go first. Why now? Because the need has never been greater.
Welcome to the story.
