Measure 109 – Vote No
Title: Oregon Psilocybin Services Act
Advance Liberty Explanation
Allows manufacture, delivery, administration of psilocybin at supervised, licensed facilities; imposes two-year development period.
Advance Liberty Commentary
This Measure will result in the dangerous wide-spread use of psilocybin, more commonly referred to as “magic mushrooms”. The practitioners who could provide this hallucinogenic drug would not be required to have any medical background.
It is true that the FDA has given “breakthrough therapy” status to this drug for a single condition, Major Depressive Disorder. But this just means that the FDA is now engaged in research, studying both the efficacy and safety of the drug for this one limited condition. Measure 109 wants to leapfrog over the safety standards that result from such research, and allow the general distribution of a very powerful hallucinogen for a wide variety of conditions, dispensed by people with no required medical background. Clearly, this is a very bad idea.
These sorts of radical law changes belong properly to our Legislature. There controversial new ideas are vetted through the legislative process of committee hearings. Experts can be heard from, the advice of the medical community, law enforcement, and the business community sought. This would lead to the development of a reasonable approach to the topic. Leaping over the FDA process, Measure 109 also leapfrogs the legislative process. We are warned by large numbers of doctors, including the Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association (OPPA) that the likely outcome of this approach would be severe mental health issues.
One need only look to our recent experience of unintended negative consequences of medical and legalized marijuana as a cautionary tale. These include accidents at work and on the road as well as addiction and marijuana toxicity (which can lead to coma and even death). Citing numerous studies, a recent article in Psychiatric Times reports “Numerous lines of evidence suggest a correlation between cannabis consumption and a variety of psychiatric conditions, including cannabis-induced psychosis (CIP).” Hallucinogenic magic mushrooms are far more potentially dangerous to both the users and the broader public than marijuana. The OPPA also raises the concern that this dangerous and powerful drug will become available to minors. Again, the history of marijuana legalization would seem to support this.
Proverbs 22:3 tells us “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the naïve goes on and suffers for it.” Perhaps psilocybin will be useful in treating some persons. But in our view the place to work through the myriad issues involved is the Legislature, not the ballot box. We urge a No vote on Measure 109.
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