Interviews

Learn more about our mission through interviews we’ve given

Magic Mushroom Advocates Want Psilocybin on Washingtons Ballot in November

Washington state lawmakers let a magic mushroom legalization bill die. Now advocates want it on Washington’s ballot.

Should people be allowed to legally consume psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms? Advocates want to put it to a vote of the people.

The group Adapt Washington has filed a proposed ballot initiative that would legalize psilocybin for people over 21.

Read more at: KUOW

Leo Russell of ADAPT-WA on Cannabis Radio

Leo Russell of ADAPT-WA today on Hempresent with Vivian McPeak only on Cannabis Radio. Leo Russell serves as the Executive Director of Decriminalize the Nature Washington & Entheo Society of Washington. Leo is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 18 years of experience. She has a passion for exploring new treatment modalities through entheogens with a focus on mental health and chemical dependency. Her early career started as a provider of cultural-based counseling in the Native American community with the United Indians of All Tribes. Then she spent 11 years as a State Social Worker for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services serving the Martin Luther King Office, Indian Child Welfare Unit, and Family Treat Court.

Read more at: Cannabis Radio

Research shows psychedelic mushrooms can help treat depression. Is legalization on the horizon for Washington?

If you’ve hiked or camped in the Pacific Northwest, you might have walked by a tiny, brown mushroom that some say has the capacity to change your life.

Psilocybe azurescens and Psilocybe cyanescens are two psychedelic varieties that grow in damp, wooded areas in Washington and Oregon and produce visual hallucinations when ingested. These mushrooms — while freely growing and with a centuries long record of use among Indigenous people — are also Schedule I controlled substances: illegal drugs up there with heroin and marijuana, according to the federal government.

Read more at: The Seattle Times

Will Psilocybin Go Legal in Washington State?

The times they are a-changing for psychedelic legislation in state legislatures.

Oregon was the first US state to succeed in placing a comprehensive measure legalizing the practice and administration of psychedelic medicine in front of voters with Measure 109, the Psilocybin Mushroom Services Program Initiative of 2020. Since then, other states are following suit. In Washington State, advocates are hard on the case. Advocacy groups are working to bring an initiative to the state legislature in January 2022 with the intent of seeing a measure modeled on Oregon’s Measure 109 passed next year.

Read more at: Psychedelic Renaissance

Legalize Psilocybin Assisted Therapy

It’s likely not news to you that Psilocybin (the active component in hallucinogenic mushrooms) has been proven a useful and safe tool for treating depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. You may not know, however, that the Entheogenic Society of Washington is actively organizing to get a bill passed in 2022 that will legalize Psilocybin assisted treatment. This bill will closely resemble 109 Ballot that passed in Oregon this year. I interviewed Leonora Russell, social worker and leader of the Entheogenic Society this summer about her history healing with psychedelics, the scope of this bill and how the Entheogenic Society plans to shape the conversation around Psilocybin in the future.

Read more at: Mystress Mycelia