Two of Oregon’s most groundbreaking drug-policy programs are being bundled into one agency. Industry insiders worry the state is about to price them out of sustainability.
In an email sent to Oregon Psilocybin Service partners, the Oregon Health Authority announced on July 1 that it is merging Oregon Psilocybin Services and the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program into a single new unit: the Oregon Psilocybin and Medical Cannabis Section.
“Both OPS and the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) are experiencing budget shortfalls. After taking steps to reduce costs … the next step in our resource-limited environment is to look for other impactful ways to increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness. To that end, OPS and OMMP will come together to form one section,” Angela Allbee, MPA and Section Manager of Oregon Psilocybin Services Section, outlined in the email.
The announcement came less than a week after the OHA published OPS’ latest proposed psilocybin facilitation rules, which included significant fee hikes across the board. With a target date of Sept. 1 for the OPS/OMMP merger, there will be a revised draft of rules and a 21-day public comment period to follow.
While the program merger manifests concerns of its own, it seems to be set in stone. What’s just as hard but not solidified are the sweeping fee increases for the psilocybin side.
Under the currently drafted rules, annual licenses for service centers and manufacturers would double from $10,000 to $20,000. Facilitator licenses would double to $4,000. A worker permit needed just to work inside a center would jump eightfold, from $25 to $200. Discounted rates for nonprofits, veterans and low-income license holders would disappear entirely. If adopted as written, most fees would take effect Jan. 1, 2027. These fees aren’t final — for now.
But the numbers nudging the panic are real. As the psilocybin program paddles its lifeboat, it leaks trainees across state lines, and increased prices probably won’t patch the holes — especially when more centrally located states that cater to a wider geographical range are launching programs.
InnerTrek, one of Oregon’s psilocybin program’s original architects, is closing its Portland facilitator center and shifting to remote training.
“The truth is, a lot of our students would prefer to go to Colorado than Oregon for their practicums,” Lisa Snyder, InnerTrek’s director of operations, told Willamette Week.
Facilities are folding, too. Of 35 psilocybin service centers ever licensed, only 22 remain operational, according to Psychedelic Alpha’s tracker, with more than a dozen closing since early 2024. Of those that remain open, the future of their product testing is fuzzy.
In an interview, Daniel Huson, head of Rose City Laboratories, Oregon’s only accredited psilocybin testing laboratory, told the Oregon Capital Chronicle that the money his lab made last year didn’t even cover costs or the $10,000 yearly licensing fee, a rate regulators are looking to double by 2029.
In the same interview, Huson said that his lab will have to stop providing psilocybin testing services in 2029, likely leaving Oregon without a licensed lab.
“There’s no incentive to be a testing laboratory because it’s expensive,” he said. “And they’re going to be in trouble.”
Meanwhile, OPS’ merger mate, OMMP, may not be facing as many changes, but it certainly won’t be propping up the psilocybin side of things, as it’s slowly withered away since recreational legalization. At its peak, the program had roughly 80,000 patients, but it has plummeted to only about 15,000 today, according to Compassionate Oregon.
Despite both programs’ problems, regulators said the merger and fee hikes are the only option for programs required to fund themselves primarily through licensing fees and minimal tax dollars.
