When it comes to drug use, you could argue that Oregon is fairly liberal. For instance, recreational marijuana use has been legal since 2015. Now, in another first, history has been made yet again. This time, Oregon has legally approved a license for growing psilocybin.

In short, psilocybin is found in magic mushrooms and is used for a variety of reasons. Most notably in this case, it is used to combat depression and is used as a form of alternative therapy. Back in 2020, Oregon residents voted for this to be legalized, under the use of certain psychedelic healing centers. In January of this year, it was given the all-clear. Now this week, further progress has been made in the form of licenses being granted.

Speaking on this, OPS Section Manager Angie Allbee said, “We are committed to fostering an inclusive partnership with our regulated community to ensure safe, effective and equitable psilocybin services throughout the state”

Since traction has been made within this movement, a total of 48 permits have been granted for the use of medicinal psilocybin – and there have been a total of 224 applications made (that are still being looked at). With this in mind, there seems to be quite an interest within the Oregon community.

It goes without saying that things are still in their early stages and it should also be noted that the use of psilocybin and magic mushrooms would only be used under a strict, medicinal framework. In other words, you shouldn’t expect to just be able to randomly buy (legal) magic mushrooms either. In fact, some have claimed that using it for treatment could cost around $1000 in the early days which would not be cheap.

Nonetheless, this marks a fairly large step in the right direction in terms of medical advancements and trying to fight depression.