Psychedelic medicine related legislation is heating up after voters chose to provide access to these treatments in Colorado and Oregon. This legislation takes different forms.

When it comes to access to psychedelic medicine, the central question decision-makers ask is: How do we administer this treatment safely? Oregon became the first state to comprehensively address the question when it released its final regulations for psilocybin-assisted treatment late last year, after more than two years of study and deliberation. While the full regulatory framework is worth a read (the document swells to over 100 pages and makes clear how serious and thorough regulators have been in addressing safety), here are three of the most critical guardrails that lawmakers and regulators everywhere should consider.

A “single, moderate dose of psilocybin significantly reduces depressive symptoms” for at least two weeks for people with major depressive disorder, according to new research recently published in The Lancet.

After historic wins in Oregon and Colorado, the effort to increase access to psychedelic medicine is heading to a handful of new states in 2023—and a new statistical model published in the Journal of American Medicine predicts that most states will allow access over the next 10-15 years. Here’s what you need to know.

When Oregon voters approved Measure 109, they voted for state-regulated access to psilocybin that is administered in a state-licensed center. In other words, voters authorized safe, effective, and equitable access to psilocybin treatment. Unsurprisingly then, confusion arose when Shroom House opened its doors in West Burnside in late October, selling magic mushrooms, with funny names like “Penis Envy” and “Knobby Tops.”

Last month, Colorado voters both decriminalized psilocybin and other natural medicines and authorized access to psilocybin therapy in licensed healing centers across the state. Here’s what to expect, and when, as Colorado begins to implement Proposition 122.

Colorado Voters pass the Natural Medicine Health Act; Most Oregonians will have access to psilocybin-assisted treatment where they live; and three states to watch next year.

“Psilocybin Can Alleviate Severe Depression When Used With Therapy: Nearly one-third of patients in the largest trial using the psychedelic compound went into rapid remission”— Ian Sample writes in The Guardian about a new study published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine: “The most significant impact was in those on the highest 25mg dose of psilocybin. Three weeks after having the drug, 29% of this group were in remission.”

As Oregon cities and counties ask residents to ban local access to psilocybin-assisted therapy this November, critics say forcing residents to travel long distances to access care only harms the people who need it most.

As ballots hit mailboxes across the state, here’s what Colorado media is saying about Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act.

Putting up hurdles for veterans and others who desperately need help just isn’t who we are in Oregon. We’re the people who tear those barriers down. The Oregonians who served our country deserve the best shot possible at healing. I know that some of the men in my battalion who lost their lives to suicide would still be here today if they had access to psilocybin treatment.

A new group of veterans and mental health providers has joined together to protect access to state-licsenced psilocybin treatment facilities in their communities, to help people who are struggling with mental health, in particular combat veterans, who are in the midst of a suicide crisis in the state. Veterans and their doctors believe psilocybin can help.

Colorado’s veteran suicide rate far outpaces national averages, according to a state-level analysis from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Combat veterans and their doctors believe psychedelic medicine can help.

Oregon’s veteran suicide rate far outpaces national averages, according to a state-level analysis from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Combat veterans and their doctors believe psilocybin can help. As the first state in the country to provide access to psilocybin-assisted therapy, Oregon is well positioned to get veterans the care they need.

Conditions like clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorder plague veterans, and can be difficult to treat effectively. While existing medical interventions can be effective, far-too-many veterans are left without adequate treatment options. But a growing backbone of research from scientists indicates that psychedelic medicines hold the potential to more powerfully treat these conditions.

Proposition 122 is on the ballot this November. It would provide adults over 21 with state-regulated access to natural medicine-based treatment; give state health regulators the ability to study, approve, and put guardrails on the use of other natural medicines; and remove criminal penalties for possessing natural medicines, like psilocybin, a research-backed psychedelic medicine with significant therapeutic promise. Here’s what you need to know.

“The last thing I want is to be terrified and scared and anxious, especially when I pass,” Erinn Baldeschwiler, a 48-year-old with terminal breast cancer, recently told Time Magazine. As Baldeschwiler’s fears underscore, a terminal cancer diagnosis is devastating, often leaving patients consumed by chronic depression and anxiety. For Baldeschwiler, like a growing number of end-stage cancer patients, psilocybin-assisted treatment provided significant relief. And the clinical trials that these patients participated in are generating a backbone of promising research.

The Sacramento Bee recently published a three-part series on psychedelic medicine from reporter Yousef Baig. It dives into how psychedelics are providing hope to veterans struggling with mental illness, details the latest scientific research on psychedelic medicine, and covers a California bill with serious momentum sure to be re-introduced in the legislature next session.

There is a growing backbone of research suggesting that psilocybin can be extremely effective at treating clinical depression, including treatment-resistant depression—the number one cause of disability in the world.

The dust has settled after months of debate in city and county governments across Oregon, and it is now clear that nearly two million Oregonians will have access to psilocybin treatment where they live. Breakthrough Bulletin sat down with Lindsay Berschauer, a Republican, who serves as Chair of the Yamhill County Commission—one example of a more rural, somewhat more conservative county that chose to allow psilocybin production and treatment within its borders. Voters in Yamhill County voted 50.1% to support psilocybin therapy, a decision its commissioners ultimately chose to support. Here’s Berschauer in her own words.