At its meeting on Tuesday, the Olympia City Council passed a resolution expressing support for full decriminalization of the use and possession of psilocybin mushrooms.
The resolution, which received a unanimous vote from the council, also declares the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of anyone engaging in entheogen-related activities should be the city's lowest law enforcement priority.
Before taking a vote, the council heard a presentation from Olympia City Manager Jay Burney, who provided background information on the current law regarding Psilocybin.
Referring to RCW 69.50.204, Burney said psilocybin is a controlled substance and is categorized as a Schedule 1 hallucinogen in Washington state. He noted that under state law, it is unlawful to possess or use psilocybin without a valid prescription knowingly.
Regarding enforcement of these laws in Olympia, Burney reported that records for the previous five years did not show any arrests or referrals to the prosecutor's office solely for Psilocybin possession.
The city manager added there were five arrests from 2019 to 2024 where psilocybin was present, but it was not the primary reason for the apprehension.
Burney also shared Olympia Police Chief Rich Allen's input, saying that the latter believes there is "sufficient language in the proposed resolution to address any public safety concerns while still honoring the intent of the resolution."
Councilmember Clark Gilman introduced the referral request to pass the resolution in June. He stated that these substances may help treat conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
On Tuesday, Gilman shared that the resolution has been a journey for the council as they navigated a new territory and idea. The councilmember admitted that he initially had some concerns about "legalizing drug use," given his personal experiences with the impacts of alcohol and opioids on his family.
However, when learning about these plant medicines and the different treatment modalities made possible with these substances, Gilman has come to see this more as "allowing people to seek healing using things that are available in the world to help heal them."
Councilmember Dani Madrone echoed this sentiment, saying, "This is about people who are seeking healing and want to feel safe and protected doing that, and don't want to be persecuted for it."
Mayor Dontae Payne emphasized that the resolution does not legalize the use of these substances but rather prioritizes alternative therapies and personal healing over criminal prosecution.
"We're saying to our state government, to our federal government,” the mayor said, “that we understand that just because we don't necessarily have all of the science and understanding behind alternative therapies doesn't mean that we should outright reject them as a government."
He enumerated what the resolution does not do:
Payne reiterated that there are people who have committed crimes using these substances but noted the city manager's presentation showed only five arrests in the past five years where psilocybin was involved, though not the primary reason.
"What we are doing tonight is a formality. This is not something that the Olympia Police Department has ever spent a whole lot of time doing. We are just simply putting words to paper and saying that we're going to continue those efforts to make that the least priority, to pursue people who are seeking alternative therapies for themselves to improve their lives," Payne said.
Initially, Councilmember Lisa Parshley had some reservations about the proposal, saying that after doing research and hearing from the community, she was able to move to a point where she could support the resolution.
Parshley shared a personal story about a former employee who found success using microdosing to treat severe depression, which helped change her perspective.
9 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
OlyBlues
Glad to see the Olympia city council addressing priority issues plaguing the city, like crime and the transients that are ruining the city, green spaces, waterways, lighting fires, and creating a new EPA Superfund site at the Jungle. Absolutely pathetic! Perhaps the theory is that if people are high on mushrooms, Olympia doesn't look as bad as it really is.
Wednesday, August 14 Report this
HappyOlympian
Decriminalizing worked well for Portland.
Thursday, August 15 Report this
TomBoucher
I trust our city government to walk and chew gum at the same time. Good on them for passing an easy thing. Yeah, get after the super hard stuff too, but bravo. Signed, an Army vet.
Thursday, August 15 Report this
SoulRetreatSPC
Thank you for a great coverage, and detailed observations. Having been in attendance this sums it up.
What is also unfolding behind the scenes is a public recognition of government support for alternative healing modalities. The resolution actually covers plant-based and fungi entheogens which includes ayahuasca, mescaline and iboga along with psilocybin mushrooms. Furthermore, deep addictions are a serious pandemic in the society blanketed by a 20% mental health disorders in general population. Thus, this resolution, if you read it, allows not only for support of entheogen-related activities but a pathway to cultivation for use in religious, spiritual, healing or personal growth practices and possession of these modalities. Iboga alone has shown better success rates for addressing additions, but people have to travel half way around the world to find it. Why should our veterans travel to Mexico, or Costa Rica for a psilocybin experience? This has shown to impact their communities because of psychedelic tourism. Exploration of consciousness alone through psychedelic experiences so far has only shown greater awareness of Self, improvement in mental health and a deeper understanding of unity and love, peace and joy integrated into human experience. Coupled with an open and transparent community integration be it through a friend, therapist or facilitated group experience, the success of increasing collective consciousness level naturally rises and thus we think of solutions in a different frequency than in which the problem was created. Solutions become simple and amplified multidimensionally. The passing of this resolution was history in the making. Olympia council is an example of how a city can unite to rise up to the challenge and make decisions by listening to their membership's solutions.
Thursday, August 15 Report this
Deanima
Deeper Thoughts (whose comments are typically never deep, not thoughtful), rather than being a keyboard jockey, why don't you run for office and doing something about all the corruption and incompetence you regularly moan about?
Thursday, August 15 Report this
Boatyarddog
Aparrently Deeper Thoughts has Neither, Thoughts on HOW we Can solve Compassionately our Unhoused Dilemma nor can they convey any Deeper Meaningful Input to Help Olympia Government to work on "Meaningful" progress in those areas SO dear to them. I am so fed up with meaningless Taunts by Aggressive SAY Nothings. Quit yer Whining AND PITCH IN
Thursday, August 15 Report this
Southsoundguy
Psychedelic “therapy” is an extremely shallow means of addressing some symptoms. Normalizing drug use is a terrible path.
Thursday, August 15 Report this
FordPrefect
Why bother taking mushrooms when you can just read Boatyarddog’s comments instead?
Sunday, August 18 Report this
FordPrefect
English rules for capitalization:
- the pronoun I
- the first word in a sentence or line of a letter
- proper nouns
Sunday, August 18 Report this