Psyched 4

Due to the excessive new licensing fees imposed by the Colorado State Legislature, Psyched 4 will no longer be able to provide education, guidance, or consultations after 2024.

Oregon’s psilocybin program is sinking further into insolvency, now down one licensed manufacturer and five licensed facilitators from mid September. Once again, state taxpayers look to be on the hook for millions to keep it afloat.

As a way to combat low demand, some participants in the Oregon program are now blatently defying the ban on advertising.

Oregon’s Psilocybin Program Faces Insolvency Amidst Controversial Regulatory Overreach

Oregon’s psilocybin program is facing a financial crisis. Sharing a similar model with Colorado’s newly launched natural medicine program, both states are struggling with low demand and are hungry for the participant data licensed use will provide. However, many users are opting to experience psilocybin outside of regulated service centers, charging thousands of dollars. In response, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has proposed controversial new rules that have ignited backlash from licensed facilitators and the psychedelic community.

At the center of the debate are two proposed regulations that critics argue could undermine the very foundation of the program. OAR 333-333-5120 (Facilitator Conduct) would prohibit facilitators from supervising or assisting psilocybin experiences outside of licensed service centers. At the same time, OAR 333-333-5140 (Duty to Report Misconduct) would require facilitators to report any violations of psilocybin regulations within 24 hours to authorities.

Dr. Erica Zelfand, a licensed psilocybin facilitator and physician, expressed concerns over the proposed changes. In a series of LinkedIn posts, Zelfand criticized the rules as harmful to both the legal psilocybin industry and the movement for harm reduction. She highlighted how the rules would force licensed facilitators to effectively act as informants, reporting anyone involved in psilocybin use outside the tightly regulated service centers.

“As an instructor and mentor, I have an ethical obligation to support practitioners of this work, regardless of their paperwork status,” Zelfand wrote. “I cannot uphold my oath as a doctor if I comply with OAR 333-333-5120.”

The proposed regulations come when Oregon’s legal psilocybin market is struggling. Synaptic Institute is suspending its training program because of a glut of guides. Dan Huson, of the only licensed psilocybin lab left in Oregon, said, “Over the past two “Over the past two years, I’ve paid $23k in license fees to the state while our revenues have only been $25k.” Zelfand argues that the financial strain on facilitators is the root cause of the program’s lack of demand. Zelfand predicts more facilitators will opt to operate in the unregulated, underground market.

“I already have a hard enough time convincing my students to get licensed vs. going underground,” Zelfand stated. “If this clause is adopted, more facilitators will join the underground – not fewer.”

Supporters of the rules argue they are necessary to ensure public safety and maintain the integrity of Oregon’s psilocybin program. However, many facilitators view the proposals as “McCarthyism,” forcing them to betray their colleagues and driving even more facilitators away from the official program.

As the debate continues, one thing is clear: without significant changes, Oregon’s vision for regulated psilocybin therapy could be undermined by the very policies meant to protect it.

A statement from Dr. Joshua Goodwin about his unexpected resignation from the Govenor's Natural Medicine Advisory Board.

"Thank you for reaching out and for your continued attention to the important work by the Natural Medicine Advisory Board. I truly appreciate your role in keeping the public informed.

That said, I’d prefer not to have an extended conversation about my resignation at this time. The board is doing vital work, and I don’t want to take any focus away from that or create any distractions.

Serving on the board was an honor, and I’m proud of any small contributions I may have made to the advisory process on natural medicines in Colorado. My decision to step down was entirely independent of the board’s work, its operations, or anyone involved. It was related to other policies implemented by Governor Polis and his administration that impact first responders—policies that I believe make it harder for them to perform their duties safely and effectively, which runs counter to the mission I’ve dedicated my career to.

I continue to hold the board and its members in the highest regard and believe they are making significant contributions to the field. I will truly miss the work and the great team I had the pleasure of working with. Most importantly, I do not want to distract from their work in any way.

Moving forward, I plan to focus on other endeavors where I can be of greater service to organizations that align more closely with my personal principles, specifically in supporting the military, first responders, and their families.

Thank you again for your interest and understanding.

All the best,

- Josh"

Big news from the Colorado Natural Medicine Advisory Board as Dr Joshua Goodwin, the representative for military veterans has unexpectedly resigned from the board.

FDA rejects M**A

Don't miss the latest Denver Post article on the hurdles Colorado's growing psychedelic industry faces from local governments.

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Could Colorado communities not friendly to medicinal mushrooms put up roadblocks to stymie the industry?

Parker out first with rules limiting operational hours, locations of healing centers. Castle Rock could be next.

By JOHN AGUILAR | [email protected] | The Denver Post
UPDATED: July 22, 2024 at 7:53 p.m.

No city or town in Colorado is allowed to prohibit natural medicine healing centers from opening and offering supervised consumption of mushrooms and other psychedelics to adults — that much was plain in an initiative passed by the state’s voters two years ago.

But local governments have enough tools in their regulatory toolbox to make the process of establishing such facilities nothing short of a bad trip, as recent rule-making in Parker, and discussions to do the same in Castle Rock, have shown.

Using time, place and manner powers, municipalities can curtail hours of operation and limit the locations of healing centers to a point where players in the nascent industry may feel it’s not worth giving it a go.

“It’s way too restrictive and unrealistic,” said Beth Jauquet, a psychedelic counselor and registered dietician who last week pleaded with elected leaders in Castle Rock to dial back plans to rein in an industry that voters approved in a statewide vote in 2022.

Her business, Primalized Health Consultants, which offers acupuncture, nutrition counseling and massage, also provides guided psychedelic journeys that are permitted under the new state law’s provision that allows adults 21 and older to share the substances. But Jauquet told the council that new location and time restrictions as part of formal regulations for the industry could hobble that side of her business.

The fast-growing town of 80,000 is considering drawing 1,000-foot setbacks for the facilities from day care centers, schools and homes, leaving just a sliver of industrial zoning in Castle Rock available for psychedelic healers to ply their craft. The town is also talking about restricting operating hours at healing centers from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday — no evening or weekend services allowed.

Jauquet, whose business has been operating in Castle Rock for 14 years, said many of her patients are military veterans, some of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression. Psychedelics have been found to be effective in treating symptoms of those conditions. Putting up roadblocks to them getting treatment is unconscionable, she said.

“The veterans are tired of being on all their medications,” Jauquet said.

Castle Rock is following in the footsteps of Parker, which in February became the state’s first municipality to draw up local rules regulating the natural medicine sector. Both towns are in Douglas County, the conservative swath of southern suburbs that voted down the psychedelics legalization measure by a 10-point margin two years ago.

Douglas County has also been consistent in rejecting Colorado’s legal ma*****na marketplace, banning the sale and cultivation of the drug over the past decade.

“I don’t want it here at all,” Castle Rock Town Councilman Tim Dietz said last week during a town council meeting, echoing the publicly stated sentiments of most elected leaders in both towns.

But Proposition 122, which passed statewide by a 7-point margin in 2022, did not allow for a local opt-out as was the case with Colorado’s 2012 recreational pot legalization measure. Parker Assistant Town Manager Jim Maloney made that clear in addressing the town council in February.

“We are time, place, manner,” he said matter-of-factly. “Sorry. That’s all we can do.”

Maloney said the rules the town put forward comply with last year’s legislative bill codifying how Colorado’s newly legal psychedelics industry will take shape.

Colorado’s new natural medicine law legalizes psilocybin and psilocin, two compounds found in “magic mushrooms,” for use in therapeutic settings and paves the way for the creation of healing centers where adults 21 years old and up can trip under the supervision of licensed professionals. It does not allow psychedelics to be sold in a retail setting.

The law also decriminalizes the personal growing, use and sharing of psilocybin and psilocin, as well as ibogaine, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, for adults.

The state, through both the Department of Revenue and the Department of Regulatory Affairs, has yet to issue a set of rules for the natural medicine industry. It will hold its final rule-making workgroup meeting this week and promulgate its rules in the fall, said Heather Draper, a spokeswoman for the state’s Natural Medicine Division.

Applications for healing center licenses will be accepted starting in December with the first licenses expected to be issued early in the new year.

“We’re only the second state to try and stand up a natural medicine program so there’s not a lot we can go on,” Draper said.

Oregon was the first — four years ago.

But Parker and Castle Rock didn’t wait for the state regulations to come down before addressing the issue in their own backyards.

“We saw this and we said, ‘Let’s get ahead out of this,’ ” Parker Mayor Jeff Toborg said in an interview with The Denver Post.

The town, he said, thought the best approach would be to file future healing centers in the same category as medical or dental offices — with buttoned-down banker’s hours and dark weekends.

“What office hours would a doctor’s office have? What hours would a dentist’s office have?” Toborg said. “That’s 8 to 5.”

The mayor acknowledged that there are no town requirements that doctor’s offices open or close at a certain time. Castle Rock will likely vote on the issue in September.

“I don’t love the idea of being — for lack of a better word — the guinea pig,” Castle Rock Mayor Jason Gray said at the town council meeting last week. “But I also don’t want to be shutting down businesses that are legitimately going to open in Castle Rock and legitimately help people.”

Not all Colorado communities will take the cut-and-dried approach Parker took, and that Castle Rock may adopt, too. Denver has spent the last five months discussing a medicine licensing framework through a Natural Medicine Work Group run through the city’s Department of Excises and Licenses. The work group’s final meeting was last week.

“There is a critical need for a lot of people who need treatments for PTSD, for depression, for drug addiction,” Escudero said.

Jauquet, in Castle Rock, said she understands the resistance to a new industry like natural medicine involving psychedelics, especially in politically conservative communities like hers. But she said it’s largely based on fear of the unfamiliar.

If Parker’s and Castle Rock’s rules become the playbook for other small Colorado communities seeking a backdoor way of getting around the opt-out prohibition in Prop 122, she said, it would be detrimental for those who need the treatments. But it may just work, she said.

“We’re lovers, not fighters,” Jauquet said. “Instead of having that fight, the people in the industry will just leave.”

https://www.denverpost.com/2024/07/22/castle-rock-parker-mushrooms-psychedelics-healing-centers/

🌟 One Year of Regulated Psilocybin Therapy in Oregon 🌟

It’s been just over a year since Oregon launched its first regulated service centers for therapeutic psilocybin sessions.

Here is a transcript of an interview with Angie Allbee, manager of the Psilocybin Services Section at the Oregon Health Authority, as she provides an update on this program and shares its goals for the upcoming year.

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Q: Angie Albie is the manager of the Psilocybin Services section at the Oregon Health Authority. She joins us now with an update on Oregon's first in the nation program. Welcome back. Thank you. Happy to be here. So I mentioned some of those numbers. It all come from from the OHSU about licensure. One of the ones that has stood out to me and to a lot of people is the ratio here of about ten times more licensed facilitators than licensed service centers, even if some of those centers have to hire a lot of staff for big groups or for, a high number of high dose clients. Does that ratio make sense to you?

A: Well, thank you for the question. First of all, it's important to acknowledge that, the Oregon Psilocybin Services Act, which is now part of Oregon law, requires that the Oregon Health Authority that our section license any applicant that meets the licensing criteria. So we can't limit licenses and we really don't have control over the evolving ecosystem in that sense.

However, I think that because we've only begun licensing, you know, in the early spring of 2023 and really haven't, issued as many licenses in that early part of 2023, really starting to license more folks. That's where the latter part of the year and then the beginning of this year that we have a lot of of room for growth.

And there are a lot of folks interested in being licensed, and setting up a service center that are looking for property, looking for to be placed in a city or county that, they're able to be licensed and, and, and so I think that there's a lot of interest and I think that there's a lot of folks graduating from psilocybin facilitator training programs, in order to be licensed under this model.

And so I do think that, even if we have smaller service centers that don't serve as many clients, as far as group administration sessions, that we will see more service centers licensed that are offering larger spaces with group administration sessions that could lead to a need for more licensed facilitators. So I think that because we're still a very early and new, growing ecosystem within the regulated model, that we have a lot to see in the coming years.

In order to truly decide, you know, if we have adequate numbers and if the ratios, you know, are meeting the needs and not exceeding, although, as you noted today, if you don't have the authority to to change that business ecosystem, your authority, it has to do with making sure that everybody who needs to be licensed, everything that needs to be licensed is.

Q: And then the free market, I guess, will sort out the rest?

A: That's true. And it's really important to recognize that while we license and regulate licenses, we adopt minimal requirements in our administrative rules and conduct a lot of community outreach and, you know, provide presentations and materials. This is a growing ecosystem or industry. And just like other businesses, these folks are getting set up around the state and there's a lot of interest in these services.

And so, you know, it's really up to these licensees as small business owners to set their operating guidelines and to make business decisions that are going to, lead to the success of their models. And while a lot of that has to do with, you know, our focus on creating more equitable licensing fees over time and ensuring that our administrative rules meet the needs and the requirements for public health and safety without creating too much administrative burden, that's unnecessary and really figuring out that balance.

You know, really these are small businesses. And so, I just want to mention we have collaborated closely with the Office of Small Business Assistance because we're not a business agency. We're a health focused agency, and we're really focused on clients accessing services, and meeting public health goals under this model. And so the Office of Small Business Assistance has supported us in conducting, efforts for, to put on for folks that needed information that we're thinking about setting up businesses.

And then we've created an ops business resource guide for those folks that are either already licenses or considering being licensed so that they understand other requirements, whether that's only requirements, OSHA tax filing, employment information. And so we want folks to be successful. And again, a lot of this work is outside of the licensing and regulatory functions.

Q: We've heard that individual sessions can be upwards of $1,000, sometimes significantly more.

A: It's a hugely important question because it gets to the exact equity and accessibility issues you were just talking about.

Q: I mean, basically, what are we looking at? A system that could primarily be a luxury for people who have lots of money to spend?

A: So I think that it's important to talk about our social equity plan requirements. We require all licensees to submit a social equity plan, when they submit their application for licensure. And this social equity plan acknowledges systemic inequities and, really sets goals. These are licensees setting their own goals and ways that they'll contribute to social equity. So while some service centers might have higher prices than others, the social equity plans allow for, philanthropy, to subsidize cost of services or completely cover those services, creating sliding scales and also ensuring that, there's a lot of information being shared about, ensuring that culturally responsive and appropriate services are being provided to clients coming in the door for services.

Q: So is there any way, though, for you to see if the service centers are actually following through? From my, my understanding is that lawmakers have not required that you ask how much. For example, each client costs, each service costs, how much clients are paying or how many are getting scholarships. So will you even be able to track that?

A: Well, we don't have the authority to set or regulate the cost of products or services. However, the social equity plans have to be evaluated every year, upon renewal of the license. And they have to these licensees have to determine and evaluate how they've reached their goals and, maybe update their plans. Those are part of our that requirement as part of our administrative rules.

But to your point, we don't have the authority to set to regulate the cost of products or services, and insurance doesn't cover at this time, which I think as we continue to build a continuum of care and we have providers and physicians referring folks into services and following up providers following up with clients after services. And we continue to build this, you know, hopefully there's a discussion and more opportunities, for insurance coverage of services over time.

Q: One issue that I've heard about is frustrations on the part of Service Center owners about advertising. They have to, for example, make sure that fewer than 30% of people viewing any ad that they put up, are under the age of 21. Basically, that that the vast majority of people who are likely to see the ads are going to be old enough to be able to, to take part in these services.
I have to say that I see a ton of billboards for cannabis shops, which has the same age restriction. Do they just have more lenient rules?

A: So I can't speak to the cannabis industry and the regulation of that advertising. What I can say is that this requirement is important because in the whereas four, seven, five in the law, that created this regulated model, there's a prohibition no one under the age of 21 years of, you know, 1 in 121 years of age can be a licensee or can be at the licensed premises.And so because of that prohibition, I think it's really important to, ensure that we're not incentivizing folks under the age of 21. You know, and that's been a part of our rulemaking process. We sort of took that requirement from work that has already been done previously in other industries. You know, as kind of an accepted standard.
And it's just requiring that those licensees, work with whoever their advertising companies or vendors are to ensure that, they're taking steps and can demonstrate that they're not marketing to or advertising to, minors or folks under 21.

Q: Angie, Albie, thanks very much. Thank you. Have a great day. You too. Angie Albie is a manager of the Psilocybin Services section at the Oregon Health Authority. It's been just over a year since Oregon's first regulated service centers began providing supervised psilocybin trips to clients. Coming up after a short break......