I’m very happy to present a conversation with Sam Chapman, the Campaign Director of the “Yes on Measure 109” campaign, and Dave Kopilak, Esq., the primary drafter of the initiative that became Oregon Measure 109, for a discussion of how the campaign to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy was conducted, the elements of the bill, and what comes next as implementation begins.

We discussed the five-year history of the campaign, the coalition that the campaign organizers assembled, the many political considerations that went into the contents of the initiative and messaging, the relationship between Measure 109 and Measure 110 (the ballot initiative that expands access to substance abuse treatment and decriminalizes small amounts of psychoactive substances), the different forms of opposition to the campaign, the role of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board and the Oregon Health Authority in building out the regulations that will govern the new system, the license categories, the role of local government under the new law, and many other topics.

I hope that this conversation will be helpful to attorneys, other professionals, policy-makers, and members of the general public in other jurisdictions who are contemplating launching their own psychedelic legalization campaigns, whether in the form of decriminalization, therapeutic access, or another model.