City asked to decriminalize psychedelic plants and fungi

Presenter: While psilocybin services are available in Oregon, they cost too much. With public comment March 10, Josh Easterlund:

Josh Easterlund (Equitable Access Eugene): I’m Josh Easterlund with Equitable Access Eugene, and I’m here to (again) request that you consider decriminalizing psychedelic plants and fungi so that people can have more equitable access of it.

I actually kind of wanted to focus in on our name and how we came up with it. In 2020, 60% of Lane County voted to legalize the psilocybin service centers. But I think a lot of those people didn’t realize just how expensive it was going to be, you know, like about $1,000 at the baseline to do one psilocybin treatment.

[00:00:42] By decriminalizing here at the city level, what we’re doing is allowing kind of more community-centered ability where people can grow and access their own. They can share with their friends and their neighbors and they can, you know, kind of keep it here locally.

[00:01:00] Another statistic I found is that we’ve served, as of May 2023, 9,000 people accessed the psilocybin service centers, but somewhere between 80% to 95% of those people were from out of state.

[00:01:15] So we’re not even really helping our local community quite as much as we could be, partially, I think, due to the expense.

[00:01:22] Claudette De Claudio Vera: Hi, everyone. My name is Claudette De Claudio Vera. I am here with Equitable Access Eugene to ask you to decriminalize psychedelics, plants and fungi. I’ve been working personally with psychedelics for a long time and the change of self that I had before and after has a lot of benefits in my childhood traumas, depression, anxiety, self-esteem problems and beyond other feeling more connected to myself and to the Earth and my community.

[00:02:03] And there’s literally a bunch of different stories that I can tell you about how this medicine has helped me considering that they also are sacraments for a lot of different Indigenous communities.

[00:02:15] Maybe another time I would have come with more like information. Right now I just wanted to speak from my heart, in different ways that these plants have helped me. And yeah, thank you all for listening.

[00:02:27] Walker Mort: My name is Walker Mort and I’m here with Equitable Access Eugene to ask you to consider the decriminalization of psychedelic plants and fungi. I’m a veteran of the Army. I served for eight years as a medical logistics officer and I now work with the VA as a social worker with the homeless program here in Eugene.

[00:02:47] And I believe strongly in the healing power of these plants, in healing from anxiety, from depression. I’ve experienced it myself as well, as I have personal connections with several other veterans that have also received massive benefits from this.

[00:03:04] And as I was coming over here this evening with my wife, I was reflecting on meeting a couple years ago with Dr. Lisa Miller, who conducted a nearly decade-long study with young people, and she was looking at suicide. And the military was very interested in this study because we have a high percentage of folks that commit suicide, unfortunately.

[00:03:26] And so what her research found, and she published this in a book called The Awakened Brain, was that the number one protective factor protecting against suicide was spirituality, some sort of connection in some form, whatever that may be, and that’s unique to each individual. It can be religious or not.

[00:03:47] And so these plants, these fungi, they really allow people to have that spirituality, have that connection with ourselves, have that connection with our environment, to connect deeper with our communities as well.

[00:04:00] My understanding is that some sort of proposal is going to be made in the future more concretely. I urge you to consider that and to consider the decriminalization so that this can be conducted in a safe and healthy way by the members of our community who will really benefit from it.

[00:04:17] Joann ZumBrunnen: My name is Joann ZumBrunnen. I’m a mental health therapist in Eugene. I’m here in support of the Equal Access Eugene in support of psilocybin for mental health use for personal use.

[00:04:29] As stated already, and I think you already all know, the service centers in town that have been approved are helpful, they are expensive, they are organized with Oregon Health Authority, they do have research to prove that things are helping with mental health issues.

[00:04:45] You may also know that research shows that this is a medicine that is not addictive, it doesn’t create any sort of community issue. People are calm, usually. People are introspective. It works on mental health because it helps people with anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, end-of-life care, death and grief.

[00:05:09] Remember when we use medical marijuana to help people in Eugene, in Oregon, with cancer. They treated themselves at home with marijuana safely, effectively. People died comfortably. This medicine has the power to help people similarly.

[00:05:28] We have a lot of issues, as you all have heard from your constituents today. It’s a privilege to be calm. It’s a privilege to be at peace. Maybe it doesn’t need to be a privilege for just those that can afford it.

[00:05:44] I’m grateful that we have a state that is progressive enough to realize that this medicine is helpful. It’s been true for millennia in other cultures. We don’t have to criminalize people who are using it for their own personal use.

[00:05:59] I welcome each of you to take a dose of psilocybin, and I promise you it will help you.

[00:06:05] Presenter: Research suggests the top protective factor against suicide is in experiencing a deep sense of connection, unity and peace. On March 10, the City Council is asked to decriminalize psychedelic plants and increase access to what has long been recognized as a valuable medicine.