politics

Oregon Takes 1st Major Step Toward Legalizing Psychedelic Mushrooms

By Kristian Foden-Vencil (OPB)
Portland, Ore. Nov. 29, 2018 10:09 p.m.

Oregon's attorney general has approved language for a ballot measure to make psychedelic mushrooms legal.

The measure would reduce criminal penalties for the manufacture, delivery and possession of psilocybin — the hallucinogen contained in psychedelic mushrooms.

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In a tweet, the Oregon Psilocybin Society said it will start gathering the 140,000 necessary signatures in December, to get the measure onto the ballot in 2020.

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The number of signatures required is nearly equal to the population of Salem.

On its website, the society says there's a growing body of evidence the drug is safe and effective to treat things like depression, anxiety, PTSD and, ironically, drug addiction.

Oregon has a history with mushrooms. The author and Eugene counterculture figure Ken Kesey participated in government studies of hallucinogens in the 1960s.

The federal government controlled use of mushrooms in the 1970s.

A spokeswoman for Oregon’s top prosecutor, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, said the agency doesn’t typically comment on ballot measures.

A similar effort to legalize in California failed recently.

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