Oregon [anti-health/choice/human rights/ecological diversity] psilocybin rules…
A: …the current rules do limit the varieties of fungi that can be utilized in this program to, they limit it to a single variety called psilocybin cubensis and so there are over a 100 other types of psilocybin producing fungi that could have been included in the program and you mentioned the cannabis industry in Oregon where people can purchase probably hundreds of different strains of cannabis. And the reason that’s important is that we’ve learned from cannabis that people report that different strains provided different benefits… people with insomnia from example might benefit from a certain strain, people with a lack of an appetite might benefit from another. And the same is probably true with psilocybin producing fungi. If you look at at the Netherlands for example and the psilocybin industry there, people can walk into what’s called a smart shop in Amsterdam for example, and purchase a wide variety of different varieties of fungi and they might have a menu that suggests different varieties for different benefits. However, people in Oregon at least right now under the current rules won’t be able to use other varieties aside from this psilocybin cubensis and that might be a problem because certain people might not react well to that variety whereas they might have reacted better to another….
Q: How will people be able to take psilocybin?
A: If we look at the cannabis industry in Oregon and throughout the country by comparison, people can consume cannabis in many different forms. It can be smoked, it can be consumed in edible form… you can have breath strips under your tongue or tinctures… in Oregon at least under the current set of rules that were recently released by the health authorities people will only be able to consume ingestible forms of psilocybin…
Q: Am I right that the State made this decision to limit the ways the… [fungi] can be taken, they did that based on their reading of the wording that Oregon voters said yes to?
A: My reading of 109 which is the law that governs this emerging industry there’s nothing that limits the variety of products that you could have but the Health Authority looked at the language, they saw the word consume in the text of that law and they interpreted it… and said that consume can only mean orally ingested… synthetic is prohibited by the current rules. The product could either consist of a whole mushroom that’s dried and processed or psilocybin extracted from that mushroom.
Q: From this one natural mushroom, will Oregonians have any choice over the strain…? I’m thinking of Oregonians who are at this point very used to recreational stores where there is just a huge variety that’s all legal and available.
Original Article (OPB):
Oregon psilocybin rules shape who can provide and access care
Artwork Fair Use: Highkick
