First graduates to guide psychedelic trips in Oregon

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon took a big step Friday in its groundbreaking forensic psilocybin therapy with the graduation of the first students trained to escort patients traveling with psychedelic mushrooms, even though the bankruptcy of a company left another group adrift on the same path.

The graduation ceremony for the 35 students was held Friday afternoon by InnerTrek (“Introspective Journey,” a Portland company) at a retreat center in the woods. About 70 other students will graduate on Saturday and Sunday in unsworn ceremonies.

“Facilitator training is at the heart of the first national statewide psilocybin therapy and wellness program and is central to the success of the Oregon model we launched here,” said said Tom Eckert, program director at InnerTrek and creator of a measure introduced on Vote 2020 that legalized Oregon’s program.

Students must pass a final exam to receive InnerTrek certificates. They will then take a test mandated by the Oregon Health Authority to receive their facilitator licenses.

“The graduation of the first cohort of students from approved psilocybin facilitator training programs is a significant milestone for Oregon,” said Angie Allbee, psilocybin services section manager for the Oregon Health Authority. the state. “We congratulate Oregon’s future animators and the training programs they graduated from on this incredible and historic moment in psilocybin history.”

The health authority announced on Friday that it had received 191 applications for licenses and work permits so far, including licenses for psilocybin producers and service centers where the psychedelic substance would be consumed and tested.

Allbee said he expects students to apply for the licenses soon, which “will bring us closer to opening the doors of the service center in 2023.”

Some classes of the six-month InnerTrek course — which cost $7,900 — were held online, but others were held in person in a building near Portland that resembles a cabin in the mountains.

Students were told that a dosing session at an approved center should include a chair or mats for clients to sit or lie on, an eye mask, comfortable items such as blankets and stuffed animals, a sketchbook, crayons and a vomit bucket. A session usually lasts at least six hours, often to music. Trainers emphasized that animators’ clients should be free to explore any emotions that arise during their introspective journey.

“We don’t lead,” trainer Gina Gratza told students during a training session in December. “Let your participants’ experiences unfold. Use words sparingly. Let the participants make their own discoveries and conclusions.

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Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.