On October 21, in response to serious concerns about the Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) proposed Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) rule amendments, Emerge Law Group submitted comprehensive public comments, calling for OHA to retreat from or eliminate several of its more damaging proposed revisions.
Upon review of the proposed amendments, we determined that many of them would arbitrarily increase the already high costs for OPS licensees who would have no choice but to pass some of those costs on to their clients, further reducing access to psilocybin services for those Oregonians who need it most. Other proposed rules simply made it harder for licensees to do their jobs, requiring them to offer additional vague and ill-defined services beyond psilocybin services, and requiring all licensees, licensee representatives, and worker permit holders (employees) to report their fellow service providers if they even become aware of a potential rule violation. Failure to report would constitute a violation itself, no matter how minor the violation, and even if the alleged violation has no effect negative effect on a client. This would naturally breed a culture of mistrust and paranoia among OPS providers.
We prepared draft public comments and shared them with various licensees and industry stakeholders. We then held an open Zoom meeting to gather industry feedback resulting in a final public comment. Sixty-three licensees and stakeholders signed on to the comments, which can be found here. We sincerely hope that the OHA carefully consider the comments, the reasoning behind them, and ultimately adopt many if not all the recommendations. Failure to do so could further curtail equitable access to psilocybin services and threaten the viability of this first-of-its-kind Oregon industry. We expect to see OHA to adopt and publish its final rules just before Thanksgiving this year.
