The Portland Psychedelic Health Act
About the Act
This Policy:
- Creates more safety & education around psychedelics in Portland
- Codifies cultural norms already present in Portland law enforcement
- Maintains prohibition on commercial sales of natural psychedelics
- Aligns with similar measures in 27+ cities nationwide
- Relies on community-led knowledge for safety & stigma reduction
- Focuses only on natural psychedelics, excludes lab-synthesized
- Excludes endangered species (like peyote) following Indigenous communities’ recommendations
Where the Act stands
From community to City Hall.
- Done
Built with community
Seven years of organizing, from the founding alliance to the coalition of hundreds of Portlanders and national experts who shaped the Act.
- Done
Introduced at City Hall
Introduced as Ordinance 2026-186 by Councilors Green, Pirtle-Guiney, Morillo, and Koyama Lane, and referred to the Community and Public Safety Committee.
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Public hearings in committee
The committee heard the Act and public testimony on June 2, June 16, and July 7, 2026.
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Voted out of committee
On August 4, 2026 the committee amended the Act and referred it to the full City Council with a recommendation to pass, 4 to 1. Read the Act as referred (PDF).
- Now
First Reading at City Council
Scheduled for September 9, 2026. The date is set by Council staff and can change. If it moves, this page moves with it.
- Next
Full Council vote
Follows the First Reading. Endorsements are what councilors count, so add your name or your organization before the vote.
Sources: the official record for Ordinance 2026-186 and the Community and Public Safety Committee agendas at portland.gov.
In brief
The Portland Psychedelic Health Act seeks to create more safety and education in psychedelics while making personal use of these natural substances a low law enforcement priority in our city. The Act pairs those protections with a commitment to community education and harm reduction, so more Portlanders can ask honest questions and find real answers.
Portland will join a growing list of 27 U.S. cities and two states that have passed similar measures to protect personal freedom, public health, and the responsible use of nature’s gifts, allowing Portland residents to explore the benefits of natural psychedelics safely and without fear of prosecution. With the adoption of this act, Portland and Oregon will continue to help lead the way on safety-minded, community-led psychedelic policy.
What’s in the Portland Psychedelic Health Act?
A Low Law Enforcement Priority
The measure ensures that the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of individuals engaging with natural psychedelic substances will be among the City of Portland’s lowest law enforcement priorities. The measure recognizes the right to cultivate, prepare, possess, and gift natural psychedelic plants for personal use, community healing, and religious or spiritual practice as a low law enforcement priority within the City of Portland. Commercial sales of natural psychedelic plants will still be prohibited.
Public Safety and Harm Reduction
This Act is designed to increase safety, education, and best practices in the city. This Act aims to put into city code a cultural norm that already exists, and should be understood as supporting our local law enforcement as valuable and essential members of our City by reducing the policing of natural psychedelics and providing education and harm reduction training. The Act also explicitly prohibits commercial sales of natural psychedelics and directs city resources away from enforcement actions related to personal use and cultivation. Portlanders can expect that public health and safety, as it relates to psychedelics, should improve upon the passage and implementation of The Portland Psychedelic Health & Safety Act.
What the Act excludes
Ethical and Sustainable Use
At the request of Indigenous communities, the measure excludes peyote to honor and respect its sacred status in Native American cultures. In addition, the measure excludes any substances derived from threatened or endangered species. The Act was created with the input of community members who hold deep knowledge around these natural psychedelic medicines and their many uses, safety protocols, and cross-cultural contexts, from Portland and around the world, with a focus on best practices as it relates to ethics and sustainability.
After Measure 109 & 110, why do we need this Act?
Completing the Policy Picture
Our city and state have long been at the forefront of creating first-of-their-kind visionary policies and then refining those policies. Portland and Oregon’s adoption in 2020 of a state-regulated and legal psychedelic health care model (Measure 109) has been an overall success and is now being adopted in states around the country. However, the policy picture emerging in our city and state is clearly incomplete with only Measure 109, considering the challenges and changes of Measure 110 with the passing of HB 4002 and recriminalization that occurred in 2024. So, this Act seeks to create more safety and education for communities by recognizing cultural norms that already exist in Portland by making personal use of these natural substances a low priority for law enforcement.
More Education Leads to More Safety, And Vice Versa
Measure 109 does not offer any protections, education, or increased safety for the tens of thousands of individuals that are growing, gifting, or gathering with psychedelics outside of the government-regulated model. And while the recent change to Measure 110 (also approved by voters in 2020) reestablished drug courts as a response to the surge of hard drug related issues, namely fentanyl-related deaths, the Oregon Legislature inadvertently removed all protections for psychedelics. Natural psychedelic plants can be viewed as safe allies to healing when used within appropriate community containers of support that include parameters around safety, harm reduction and understanding potential contraindications. With the removal of common sense protections for psychedelics, there is less general education and awareness on the issue and, as a result, the potential for decreased safety around psychedelic use.
Policies Based in Reality Improve Public Health
This Act adopts a Harm Reduction approach by seeking to put into city code a cultural norm that already exists, recognizing that Portlanders have long consumed natural psychedelics for personal, health, and spiritual reasons and that they will continue to do so. It also commits Portland to more education, so psychedelic use gets safer in the many community contexts where it already happens.
Get involved
The community behind the Act
Photos: Portland Psychedelic Society.
First Reading September 9
This is bigger than one vote
Portland City Council holds the First Reading of the Health & Safety Act on September 9. See why our organization exists, or take action before the Reading.