Psychedelic therapy employing psilocybin mushrooms has finally come to fruition in Oregon as legalized in 2019 with Measure 109. This means that facilitators have graduated from the program, growers are cultivating the fungus, labs are testing the potency and service centers are opening to provide the experience.
Impressive work in a short amount of time building a health system from the ground up.
There is just one factor that concerns most people and brings to question how this therapy will benefit a majority: cost. The current price listed for ONE full blown psychedelic experience is $3500.00! This is not covered by insurance, so an entirely out of pocket expense. How can a majority of people afford this, especially those that need it most? Is this access or is this economics at work?
It would make sense that in a fledgling industry the cost to enter would be high as there are
many licenses to obtain and insurance coverage for unknown risks. The physical space and
support staff are also expensive to obtain and maintain per strict regulations. But when a single therapy is thousands of dollars with no guarantees of success it seems difficult to justify.
How can people affected by conditions that make the low income get access to this treatment? Folks on a fixed income that have disabilities can’t afford these treatments. That is a quarter of most economically challenged YEARLY income. Most other health treatments are covered for the most needy but not this.
What appears is that this current model of psychedelic therapy is for those wealthy and or not severely affected by their condition to be able to have money. In fact half of the interested parties are from out of the state of Oregon. Which seems strange for a program created by the Oregon Health Authority to you know, help Oregon. But maybe they are in economic terms and that taxation was always the intent…
Like most things, money is the driving factor and clearly there is money to be made in this
emerging market. Big dollars and much more in taxes. It just seemed as if the intent for creating this new paradigm was health, not wealth. And the consequences for this shift in focus is an illicit grey market.
And the underground mushroom industry is booming in nearly all corners of the world but
especially in the US as states decriminalize its use. This makes the $40 trip preferable to the
$3500 trip and clearly most accessible for the masses. The problem is that the intent of the
program goes away and loses to the grey market. There must be a compromise in cost for
Measure 109 to succeed.
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