About the Portland Psychedelic Health Act
The Portland Psychedelic Health Act seeks to create more safety and education in psychedelics while protecting the possession and use of these natural substances, making them the lowest priority for law enforcement in our city. The measure also establishes a local Psychedelic Advisory Commission, with experts in mental health, pharmacology, public health, and community advocacy to inform the public and solicit feedback, advise on safe practices, monitor policy implementation, and support law enforcement with understanding these medicines and successfully complying with this act.
Portland will join a growing list of 23 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 set the gold standard for safety-minded and science-driven psychedelic policy.
What’s in the Portland Psychedelic Health Act?
Freedom from Prosecution
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 substances for personal use, community healing, and religious or spiritual practice.
Establishment of the Portland Psychedelics Advisory Commission
Experts in mental health, pharmacology, public health, and community advocacy will advise on safe and responsible practices, harm reduction, public education, and the strategic integration of natural psychedelics into public health initiatives, as well as monitor and recommend policies to ensure that natural psychedelics are used responsibly and that this act helps address Portland’s addiction and mental health crises.
Public Safety and Harm Reduction
The Act’s establishment of the Portland Psychedelic Advisory Commission is designed to increase safety, education, and best practices in the city, statewide, and beyond. The Act also explicitly prohibits commercial sales of natural psychedelics and directs city resources away from enforcement actions related to personal use and cultivation. Through the advisory commission’s charge and clear deliverables, as outlined in the Act, 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 Act.
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 experts in 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 and with the challenges and changes of Measure 110.
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, which are non-toxic and non-addictive. With the removal of common sense protections for psychedelics we are already seeing less general education and awareness on the issue and, as a result, we expect to see decreased safety around psychedelic use.
Policies Based in Reality Improve Public Health
This Act recognizes that Portlanders have long consumed natural psychedelics for personal, health, and spiritual reasons, and that they will continue to do so. It also establishes a policy and commission in Portland to increase education and make psychedelic use safer. In addition to creating more safety and education around psychedelics, this Act protects the possession and use of these natural substances, making them the lowest priority for law enforcement in our city.