Nation’s First Psilocybin Service Center Now Licensed in Oregon
Psilocybin mushrooms are ready to go in Oregon. At least at one clinic.
The Oregon Health Authority announced that it had issued its first license to a service center. Service centers are places where you can take psilocybin mushrooms with a trained sitter.
A place called EPIC Healing Eugene says it expects to start providing mushroom journeys in June. The cost will range from $300 a person for a group microdosing session up to $3,500 for an individual high dose session. EPIC planned to offer a sliding scale.
The license is a landmark in the history of psychedelics. While millions of people take psychedelics every year, most of that is illegal, and there are very few ways for people to use psychedelics within the bounds of the law. The passage of Measure 109 in Oregon in 2020 broke new ground by creating a pathway for anyone over 21 to experience psilocybin mushrooms. No medical diagnosis is needed. No doctor has to prescribe them.
Exciting news: Two states have legalized psilocybin therapy for the first time ever. Click here to get on the waiting list for Oregon psilocybin therapy. And click here to get on the waiting list for Colorado psilocybin therapy.
Oregon’s experiment is part of a stunning wave of change in psychedelic law. At the state level, Colorado followed Oregon by passing the Natural Medicine Health Act in November. The NMHA will also create licensed centers for guided trips. Other states, including Arizona, California, and Washington are either researching psilocybin or looking at their own statewide programs.
At the national level, the FDA is close to approving MDMA and psilocybin-assisted therapies as treatments for PTSD and depression. Those programs would require a diagnosis and a doctor’s prescription. They would be available in all 50 states and may be covered by insurance.
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What the First Psilocybin Center in Oregon Looks Like
In this rapidly shifting landscape, Oregon is out front. And for the moment, the eyes of the psychedelic world are on EPIC–an acronym for Eugene Psychedelic Integrative Center. Their office is surprisingly nondescript. It is in a plain-looking building that is also home to massage therapy and a mental health counselor, on a leafy, unremarkable street in Eugene near low-slung apartment buildings. Pictures of EPIC’s “Healing Space” show a soft bed, cushy recliners arranged in a semi-circle for group journeys, and a small outdoor garden with potted plants. EPIC Healing promises a “safe, supportive healing environment where participants can explore their inner world and connection with source energy,” they report on their website, a place for clients to get in touch with their “inner healer.”
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A Well-Trained Psilocybin Facilitator
Cathy Rosewell Jonas is the owner of EPIC Healing Eugene and an author of a book on her personal relationship to ayahuasca. She completed 300 hours of psychedelic-assisted therapy training and an accelerated advanced psilocybin-assisted therapy program, reported the Healing Advocacy Fund, an advocacy group working to implement the Oregon program.
“We are just so excited to roll out our services,” Jonas said in a YouTube video. “It’s been quite the journey we’ve been on to get to this point.”
EPIC Healing Eugene did not immediately return a message from HealingMaps.
Interested in trying psilocybin in Oregon? Sign up here to connect with vetted service centers providing legal psilocybin therapy in Oregon.
There are many ketamine clinics in Oregon. Yet a guided trip is the only way to access psilocybin in Oregon; Oregon won’t have mushroom stores. The rollout of Oregon’s program of guided mushroom journeys has been slow, and not nearly big enough to meet demand. EPIC can only serve 30 clients a month; they already have a waiting list. Hundreds of people have applied to the OHA to work in psilocybin. OHA has approved nearly a hundred. The regulatory body publishes the names and contacts of licensed facilitators willing to share their information. The health authority licensed three psilocybin mushroom growers and one testing lab.
OHA said they expect to issue more licenses soon.
