Vote No on Measure 9-152 – Allow Psilocybin Manufacturing and Service Centers in unincorporated Deschutes County | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Vote No on Measure 9-152 – Allow Psilocybin Manufacturing and Service Centers in unincorporated Deschutes County

If it feels like double jeopardy to be voting on a thing that we just voted upon in the last election cycle in 2020, that's because it is. Two of the commissioners on the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners—Tony DeBone and Patti Adair—have voted in favor of placing this item on the ballots of Deschutes County voters because they believe you don't know what you voted for back in 2020. During his endorsement interview this month, DeBone told our editorial board just that—that he wanted to use this opportunity, on taxpayers' dimes, to re-explain what a psilocybin manufacturing and/or service center would look like in the unincorporated county. To be fair, each county has the option to opt out of this program under the letter of the law, but since the majority of Deschutes County voters already voted in 2020 in favor of the program, this measure is a colossal waste of time and money coupled with a healthy dose of fearmongering.

Vote No on Measure 9-152 – Allow Psilocybin Manufacturing and Service Centers in unincorporated Deschutes County
Courtesy of Unsplash

Here's what psilocybin therapy is going to look like: People will use a small amount of space in a regulated and secure indoor environment to grow psychedelic mushrooms that people in regulated, secure therapy programs can then consume to help them deal with anxiety, depression and other mental health concerns, under the supervision of trained professionals. What it won't look like: a wild version of Woodstock where naked people run wild on the graveled roads of Tumalo.

With mental health concerns like the ones named above at an all-time high, and with everyone from psychotherapists to military veterans seeing results from these therapies, we maintain that society needs more opportunities to explore effective natural therapies, not fewer. Vote no on Measure 9-152 —"Concerning psilocybin manufacturing and service centers in unincorporated Deschutes County."— so that all people in Deschutes County can see this emerging therapy come to fruition. *Note: Voting "No" means you want to keep the current plan—to roll out a therapy program in Deschutes County—in place.

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