Oregon legalizes magic mushrooms with hopes psilocybin can improve mental health care

Oregon legalized magic mushrooms for adults over the age of 21 in a move that proponents hope will improve mental health care with the use of psilocybin.

Adults of age do not need a prescription or a referral to purchase the legal magic mushrooms, as was the case before marijuana became fully legalized in nearly a dozen states.

The Oregon Psilocybin Services Section manager Angela Allbee, whose agency regulates the state's industry, told The Associated Press earlier this month that she is seeing overall positive results after the first licensed psilocybin service center in the U.S. opened this summer. 

The state has received "hundreds of thousands of inquiries from all over the world," Allbee said. "So far, what we’re hearing is that clients have had positive experiences."

Psilocybin is illegal in most of the U.S., but the Food and Drug Administration published draft guidance earlier this year for researchers designing clinical trials for psychedelics.

Studies have shown that psilocybin treatment can relieve the symptoms of major depressive disorder in adults for up to a year, according to Johns Hopkins. 

However, the Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association opposed the state's 2020 ballot measure to legalize psilocybin, arguing that it is "unsafe and makes misleading promises to those Oregonians who are struggling with mental illness."

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