In Oregon, psilocybin treatment is an experiment in real time

Last year, legal psilocybin use began in Oregon, the culmination of a ballot measure passed three years earlier. The Oregon Health Authority has now licensed over 20 service centers to administer the drug, and over 200 facilitators to assist clients during sessions.

Though the clients of these centers don't have to have a mental illness or medical referral, the promise psilocybin had shown in studies to treat things like anxiety, depression, was part of why it was decriminalized in Oregon. And facilitators have reported to NPR that the majority of their clients are seeking to increase self-knowledge and/or address mental health concerns – rather than just use the drugs recreationally. But tracking exactly how this psilocybin rollout is helping to treat those sorts of issues, developing best practices, and sharing them among providers, is still very much being worked out. The nascent industry in Oregon is basically running an experiment in real time.