Magic Mushrooms: The REAL Winner of the 2020 Election
Authors Note: Taking psychedelics can have serious effects on your mind, psyche, and overall well-being along the spectrum (good and bad). This is why it is critically important that, if you are interested in this medicine, you do your research and consult your doctor, psychiatrist, therapist, etc. Especially, if you are already in some form of a psychiatric program. Even though the results of the psilocybin research and my personal experience are very promising, taking this medicine should not replace your on-going treatments.
As we await the final results of the Presidential election (eeekk). I am more than delighted about the election results across the nation regarding Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.
The People of Oregon have spoken: Psilocybin is here to help heal.
On Election Day 2020, over 1 million voters in Oregon approved Measure 109 which permits "licensed service providers to administer psilocybin-producing mushroom and fungi products to individuals 21 years of age or older.”
This is a big deal.
Oregon Measure 109 has been an effort that has taken years to materialize. The couple behind the effort, Tom and Sheri Eckert, two married therapists, were inspired by a personal mushroom trip and formed the Oregon Psilocybin Society in 2016. Campaigning since mid-2017, they and their team raised millions of dollars for the effort.
By becoming the first state to legalize psilocybin therapies and creating a Psilocybin Advisory Board, Oregon is poised to become the leader in this growing industry. This measure will produce guidelines, licenses, and procedures so that the average person can take psilocybin under clinical supervision in the state.
My hope is that this measure will have similar effects as when Colorado legalized Marijuana in 2013 that sparked nationwide reform which many states followed suit be legalizing medical mariajuana. Subsequently, this resulted in the 2018 Farm Bill legalizing low-THC which deschedules CBD from the Controlled Substance Act.
In a similar fashion, the voters in our nation’s Capital voted to have psilocybin and other psychedelic plant medicines decriminalized. By passing initiative 81, Washington D.C. became the fifth jurisdiction in the nation with some form of decriminalized psychedelics, joining Denver; Oakland, Calif.; Santa Cruz, Calif.; and Ann Arbor, Mich., where the city council approved decriminalization in September.
Having Oregon legalize psilocybin and leading the way to produce a framework to best serve its citizens in administering the medicine, married with major cities decriminalizing psychedelics is a major step towards creating access to psilocybin therapy which has been proven to help patients with depression, anxiety, addiction, and other mental health matters.
This is a small step with massive ripple effects for the industry. By legalizing and decriminalizing psychedelics Oregon’s leaders are signaling what we’ve known all along: natural remedies with proven sustainable results exist.
On Wednesday, November 4, one day after the election, John Hopkins Psychedelic Research published the findings of their Psilocybin study for moderate-to-severe depression in the JAMA Psychiatric journal. The study found that after four weeks post-treatment,”54% of participants were considered in remission – meaning they no longer qualified as being depressed.” According to Alan Davis, Ph.D., an adjunct professor at JHMS, “The magnitude of the effect [they] saw was about four times larger than what clinical trials have shown for traditional antidepressants on the market.”
I am excited about this development and will continue to be an advocate for psilocybin reform. More people need to have access to these alternative methods of healing that don’t create dependencies on pharmaceuticals. My personal experience with microdosing psilocybin helped me in a profound and sustainable way.
The road ahead is one that calls forward more research, advocacy, and measures on ballots before we see psilocybin removed from being listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
There is a quote I love that states, “Plant medicines heal to create a human, pharmaceuticals create a customer.” I am very keen to see how the pharmaceutical industry will respond to overwhelming support from voters and the data from medical researchers on psilocybin’s exceedingly effective results.
To me, this is an important opportunity for a paradigm shift in how we, as a society, engage with mushrooms, treat mental health patients, and have individuals explore their psyches in safe, supported, and regulated spaces.
Curious about the incredible world of Mushrooms but don't know where to start?
With insight gathered from the world leading mycologist and mushroom researchers, I’ve put together this exciting overview to teach you everything you need to get started on your journey with this powerful kingdom.
In this course, we cover a basic introduction to mycelium, the history, variety of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms, and the magic of psilocybin. We’ll go into detail about mushrooms in culture, the legal matters, and what you need to know for micro-dosing.
