Enhancing Our Understanding of Oregon’s Psilocybin Therapy Program
Launching a state-regulated business in a brand new regulatory environment comes with no shortage of challenges. There’s a lot of information to track to ensure that service centers, facilitators, manufacturers and testing labs in Oregon comply with regulations—and there’s also a lot of misinformation that could derail efforts of those trying to establish psilocybin therapy businesses or practices in the state.
As part of Healing Advocacy Fund’s ongoing work to support the entire psilocybin therapy community, we are partnering with Emerge Law Group on a new webinar called Oregon Psilocybin Program Facts & Myths, scheduled for August 3rd from 4:00—5:30 pm Pacific Time.
The webinar will dispel any confusion or misinformation you may have encountered (including cost of services, what’s really in Senate Bill 303 and more) and offer a comprehensive opportunity for you to ask questions, whether it's about the Oregon Health Authority's administrative rules, practical advice for psilocybin businesses, or the program's current stage of development.
REGISTER HERE
Panelists Include:
• Dave Kopilak, business attorney at Emerge Law Group
• Kaci Hohmann, business attorney at Emerge Law Group
• Sean Clancy, business and intellectual property attorney at Emerge Law Group
• Alex Berger, regulatory compliance and land use attorney at Emerge Law Group
• Sam Chapman, Executive Director, Healing Advocacy Fund
• Heidi Pendergast, Oregon Director, Healing Advocacy Fund
We hope to see you there.
HAF FELLOWS SPOTLIGHT
Oregon supports diverse facilitators
We all know that a pool of diverse, trained facilitators are essential to safe, accessible and high-quality psilocybin therapy services, because Oregon’s program will not be a success unless we have psilocybin therapy facilitators who come from the communities they want to serve in the future. To support this goal, the Healing Advocacy Fund has supported two cohorts of facilitator trainees with financial assistance designed to reduce the barriers to completing a training program. To date, HAF has supported 28 fellows with a total of $150,000 to defray tuition.
If you want some inspiration, just read some of what our second cohort fellows told us about their future practices:
“I have become a psilocybin facilitator to help people heal from their past and embrace their future. I have a personal understanding of how psilocybin encourages us to access new ways to view old beliefs. Psilocybin facilitation and integration coaching allows me to utilize my past experience in social services to help people find and maintain inner peace.”
— HAF Fellow Susanne Ulvi
“I am most passionate about working with marginalized communities that have been historically underserved by the medical system. I am particularly interested in working with the LGBTQIA+ community, as I believe that psilocybin can be a valuable resource for addressing the unique challenges faced by this community.”
— HAF Fellow Jade Stay
In order to streamline this kind of support for facilitators in the future, the Healing Advocacy Fund will be merging our fellowship program with the Sheri Eckert Foundation. That means going forward, the Sheri Eckert Foundation (SEF) will manage fellowship applications and grants. You can find out more about their scholarship program by visiting their website.
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
Synaptic Institute and Ubiquity University Announce Partnership
Graduates of Synaptic Institute's Psilocybin Facilitator training program are now eligible to go on to complete a Master's Degree or PhD in Entheogenic Medicine through Ubiquity University. In mid June, the two institutions hosted a panel discussion with all the information about the programs, how to apply, and FAQs (recorded information session here). If you are interested in the graduate degree program, please indicate your interest in this form and reserve your spot.
> Ubiquity Graduate Degree Program & Application
> Synaptic Institute Psilocybin Training Program & Courses
Interested in Synaptic Institute’s next training cohort? Classes start August 30th and they are accepting applications through the end of July 2023.
EVENTS
CHACRUNA COMMUNITY FORUM:
Unpacking the Implementation Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act
July 26th, 12-1:30 PST
Join Healing Advocacy Fund Colorado State Director Tasia Poinsatte and leaders in the Colorado psychedelic space for a conversation about some of the challenging questions surrounding implementation of Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act.
On December 31, 2024, Colorado will begin accepting licenses for licensed facilitators, licensed facilities and other associated licenses. As the regulations have yet to be drafted and are currently being considered through recommendations by the Colorado Natural Medicine Advisory Board at the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, key questions are under consideration.
Who will be permitted to conduct a “ceremony” beyond church leaders with religious exemptions?
What can Colorado learn from Oregon and from key community stakeholders who initially opposed Proposition 122?
How will Colorado establish indigenous reciprocity and navigate the commodification of sacred plant medicines?
How will the current legal developments in Colorado potentially affect other states in the country and beyond the US?
Join us for this lively and informative discussion around these questions and many more.
IN THE NEWS
I’m Giving $100 Million to Psychedelics Research
NEWSWEEK
I believe business and philanthropy can be an agent for positive change, and I've structured my life around this. I started Toms Shoes in 2006 after seeing firsthand how many children in Latin America were going without shoes.
The business model I pioneered was simple: For every pair of shoes sold, we would give one pair to a child in need. So far, Toms has given over 100 million shoes to children around the world.
Today I see a much graver problem facing our society, a mental health crisis rapidly growing in scope, severity, and cost.
That's why I'm pledging to give away and invest $100 million, a quarter of my net worth, to support research into the medical and mental health benefits of psychedelics such as MDMA, psilocybin, and plant-based substances such as ibogaine and ayahuasca.
Here’s What Psychedelics Are, How They Work, and Why You Need to Know About Them
THE DENVER POST
Last month, nearly 12,000 people gathered in Denver to talk about magic mushrooms (psilocybin), ecstasy (MDMA), ibogaine and ayahuasca, and to discuss the latest scientific research into these and other plant-based or synthetic substances, all known as psychedelics.
Organizers hailed the conference, called Psychedelic Science, as a coming out party for a subculture that has become increasingly visible over the last decade as studies and clinical trials have unveiled the potential applications of these substances in the mental health field.
KY Commission Hears From Experts on Promise of Psychedelic to Treat Opioid Addiction
LEXINGTON HERALD LEADER
Karen Butcher, whose son died in 2020 of an opioid overdose, asked a panel of experts on Monday in Frankfort: If cost wasn’t a factor, why shouldn’t Kentucky explore the use of an illicit psychedelic drug as a treatment for opioid addiction?
Butcher posed the question to Dr. Kenneth Alper, a neuropsychiatrist; Dr. Deborah Mash, a cellular and molecular pharmacologist; Dr. Srini Rao, a neurobiologist and neuropharmacologist; and Dr. Nolan Williams, a neuropsychiatrist and behavioral neurologist.
“It is my simple, personal, individual opinion that if this commission can pay for a highly consequential criminal justice initiative in 11 counties to the tune of $42 million over four years,” Hubbard said, “then perhaps we can explore devoting $42 million . . . over the next six years to potentially revolutionize how we treat opioid use disorder for the people of this state, this country and for the people of this world.”
> Read the full article
The Rogue Valley’s First Psilocybin Service Center Set to Open This Month
KOBI-TV MEDFORD, OREGON
The first psilocybin service center in the Rogue Valley is set to open this month. It aims to make psilocybin treatment available and accessible to everyone. Satya Therapeutics already has a psilocybin production facility in Medford. Once it opens its Ashland service center in a couple weeks, it hopes to expand across the state.
The Importance of Physician Education Regarding Psilocybin Therapy
KEVINMD.COM
Psilocybin is a psychedelic compound produced by several species of mushrooms, which has been used for millennia across various cultures. It first gained broader awareness in the Western world during the 1960s and is now the subject of scientific inquiry due to renewed interest in the clinical applications of psychedelic medicines and psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Research into psilocybin and psilocybin-assisted therapy has found it to be effective in addressing a number of difficult-to-treat conditions, including alcohol use disorder, end-of-life anxiety, tobacco cessation, treatment-resistant depression, major depressive disorder, and cluster headache, among others.