Oregon just stopped the fee doubling.
On August 28 the Oregon Health Authority proposed doubling every psilocybin license fee. On September 22, after two hearings, three weeks of written comment and hundreds of messages to the Governor's office, the agency withdrew it. Fees stay where they are. Here is what happened, and what it will take to make it last.
The proposal · filed August 28, 2026
Every license fee, doubled on January 1.
The rule would have taken effect at the start of 2027, in a program that had just been told to run entirely on the fees it collects.
The reduced fee tiers for veterans, low income applicants and nonprofits would have been eliminated entirely.
The agency's own notice
May reduce the overall number of licensees and create a more significant program budget shortfall.
Oregon Health Authority, in the fee notice it withdrew on September 22, 2026.
The people who would have paid said the same thing in plainer language. A facilitator survey found most would not renew at doubled rates. Fewer licensees means fewer places to get care, and a smaller base to collect fees from. The increase would have deepened the problem it was written to solve.
Twenty five days
It happened because people showed up.
- Aug 28The fee rule notice is filed.
- FirstThe advisory board and the rules advisory committees push back.
- Sept 15 & 16At two public hearings, licensees, workers, clients, advocates and community members describe the same thing: closures, attrition, less access, a program that could not carry the load.
- Through Sept 21Written comment closes. Hundreds of emails reach the Governor's office and the head of OHA.
- AlongsideAdvocates sit down with the Governor's staff, brief legislators, and use public records requests to put the agency's own numbers on the table.
- Sept 22OHA announces it will not adopt the increase. Fees stay at their current levels, reduced tiers included.
Part of what carried the argument was the promise of a better program: one that costs less to run, so the fees never need to double. Doubling risked a downward spiral instead of giving that work a chance.
What was protected
The first regulated psilocybin services in the country, and the model works.
Sheri Eckert helped write this program into the measure Oregon passed in 2020. Three years of services have made the case she could only argue.
The part that is not fixed
This was the third rescue. Nobody should count on a fourth.
The first backfill
The Legislature covered the program from the General Fund in its first budget cycle.
The second backfill
It did the same in the second cycle, four years in all, then approved none for 2025-27.
September 2026
The community stops a fee increase the program could not have absorbed. Oregon heads into a budget cutting session.
Rulemaking can only tinker at the edges. The program's skeleton lives in statute, and changing it takes legislation.
Filed September 10, 2026
The Oregon Psychedelic Services Improvement Act
Representative Rob Nosse pre-session filed the bill concept with Legislative Counsel for the 2027 session, a day ahead of the deadline, and twelve days before OHA withdrew the rule. Legislative Counsel returns a draft by December 1. It is the vehicle that turns a reprieve into a rule the agency cannot rewrite.
Lock the freeze into statute, then cut.
Cap every psilocybin fee in statute at the amount in effect on January 1, 2026, so the freeze won in September cannot be undone by a future rule. Keep the reduced fee tiers the withdrawn rule would have eliminated. Then reduce license and renewal fees below that, hold, and index to inflation.
What the bill does
Ten changes. Nine are filed. The tenth is the ask for the December revision.
And a written guarantee of what does not change: facilitator training, examination and ethics standards; every administration session supervised, in person, with a licensed facilitator present; every health licensing board's scope of practice; the psilocybin tax; and every authority cities and counties have today.
The budget case
A bill that cuts, in a session that has to cut.
The doubling is withdrawn, but the arithmetic behind it has not changed: no General Fund for 2025-27, and a fee base that shrinks every time rates rise. The Act is built to make the program cost less rather than charge more.
Fee revenue grows with participation, not with fee rates. A leaner program can be fee supported on a growing base, which is what voters were promised. These figures are internal analysis for planning, not a measurement. An independent economic analysis by an Oregon firm is being funded now so interim findings land before session, with the state's own analysts free to referee them.
The road to 2027
Four dates decide it.
The draft comes back
Legislative Counsel delivers one draft of the Act. Everything the community proposes has to be in it by then.
Filing closes
The bill must be at the House or Senate Desk to get a first reading on day one.
Session convenes
Committee hearings, a fiscal review, then floor votes in both chambers.
Sine die
Day 160, the constitutional limit. Everything passes before then or waits two years.
One more in between: OHA says it will open a separate rulemaking for the program changes that were not about fees, with public comment anticipated in December. We will post the date when the agency publishes it.
One thing
Add your name.
The open letter goes to legislators with the bill. Sign as yourself or on behalf of your organization. September showed what this community can do in twenty five days when the program is at stake. January is the one that lasts.
Sign the letter
Individuals and organizations can sign. We will not share your address, and you can withdraw your name any time by writing to info@sherieckert.org.