Rural Oregon counties are lining up against state’s psilocybin launch

By ANTONIA SIERRA/Oregon Public Broadcasting

The next drug debate is coming to an eastern Oregon ballot in November.

The Umatilla County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously this week to put a ban on psilocybin manufacturing and service centers on the Nov. 8 ballot. Psilocybin is the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, and research has indicated it may be a useful drug in treating a variety of conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

Oregon voters legalized supervised therapeutic use of psilocybin in 2020, but the commissioners reasoned that since 62% of Umatilla County voters rejected the measure, they deserve another chance to weigh in.

Because our citizens spoke so loudly about (how) we don’t want it, we want them to have the opportunity to opt-out again,” Umatilla County Commissioner John Shafer said.

Umatilla County joins several other counties in asking their voters to consider banning the psychedelic drug from being sold in the county’s unincorporated areas before a state-managed system takes effect in January.

In Linn County, a commissioner said he feared access to psilocybin might lead youth to “doing things that may cost them their life” as the board sent the issue to the ballot. Jackson County commissioners approved a psilocybin referendum even as a company makes plans to turn a resort in Ashland into a psilocybin therapeutic retreat.

Shafer anticipates more local ballot measures in the future.

“I think you’re gonna see a lot more counties take the same action we took,” he said. “Our neighbors to the west, Morrow County, did it before we did. I think you’re going to see a domino effect come on, especially on the eastern side of the state.”