Sheri Eckert Foundation · Psychedelic Research Incubator
Real-world research, built for public benefit.
In 2020, Oregon voters created the world's first state-regulated psychedelic healthcare program. People now receive legal, supervised psilocybin care every week in Oregon and Colorado, and soon in New Mexico. That creates something research has never had: a legal, real-world setting to study what this care actually does, what it costs, and who it reaches.
Because these medicines are naturally occurring or off-patent, commercial sponsors won't fund those studies. So the Sheri Eckert Foundation funds, builds, and deploys them directly, with university and community partners, and we publish everything we learn.
Research is how a state-regulated model earns the trust to spread:
Rigorous studies inside legal programs show safety, outcomes & cost.
Credible results build confidence among the public and policymakers.
More states adopt the model as the evidence and trust grow.
Public funding and insurance follow, making care affordable at scale.
Named for Sheri Eckert, who helped create that first program. We carry her work forward.
Choose your path
What would you like to understand?
Everything below opens right here on this page. Close a path any time and pick another.
Thinking about participating in a study? See what's enrolling now and how to raise your hand.
The headlines
What the research is showing.
The short version, in plain language. Every number below comes from a published study, an official program dashboard, or public reporting, and each notes its source.
Fast facts · CITE-READY · JULY 2026
In plain language
What we do, and why.
For fifty years, promising medicines were locked out of research. Now that states run legal, regulated psychedelic care programs, the most important questions can finally be studied in the real world: Is it safe? Does it help? What does it cost? Who gets access?
Drug companies won't fund these studies: psilocybin is a naturally occurring compound nobody can patent, and the federal approval route costs hundreds of millions of dollars per drug. So the Sheri Eckert Foundation funds and builds the studies instead, inside the state programs, at a tiny fraction of the usual cost, and publishes the results for everyone: policymakers, health systems, journalists, and the public.
We don't just fund isolated studies. We help build the research, measurement, and policy infrastructure that lets community-based psychedelic care become equitable, accountable, and eventually covered by insurance.
A record of firsts
In under three years, Oregon became the proving ground, and our studies were among the first to run inside it.
First clinical study inside a state-regulated psychedelic program
Our low-income depression study, run entirely within Oregon's licensed system.
First study built for a low-income population
The same study, designed for people facing financial barriers to care (n = 19, effect size d = 1.89).
First study of alcohol use disorder in the model
A community pilot with the Healing Advocacy Fund, delivered at a licensed Oregon center.
First to link real healthcare costs to psychedelic care
ORCHID, the flagship study now in development with UC Berkeley and UCSF.
First study cohort of previously incarcerated participants
Through the Inward Dive Fund, the first cohort completed its retreat sessions in July 2026; outcomes analysis is under way.
The studies, in brief
Seven lines of work, funded and deployed by the Foundation.
These aren't studies we admire from a distance. SEF funds them, helps design them, and deploys them with university and community partners.
Depression, for people who can't afford care
Two group psilocybin sessions produced a large, lasting drop in depression, for $30,000, with zero serious adverse events. SEF-funded and deployed.
Alcohol use disorder, in the community
The first study of psilocybin for alcohol use disorder inside the regulated model, outside a hospital trial setting. SEF-supported, with the Healing Advocacy Fund.
ORCHID: does this care save money?
Links real psilocybin care to real medical claims, the evidence insurers and states ask for first. SEF is a founding partner and funder.
OPEN: measuring the same things, everywhere
A shared measurement framework at OHSU so studies across providers and states can be pooled and trusted.
Healing for previously incarcerated people
One of the nation's first programs offering subsidized psilocybin-assisted healing to people touched by the justice system. First study cohort completed sessions in July 2026. SEF-funded and deployed.
Community leaders resilience study
A study built alongside the Community Leaders Resilience Fund retreats, measuring outcomes for the leaders the fund serves. SEF-funded and deployed.
Group care: cutting cost, widening access
Modeling how group delivery can cut clinician cost per person by roughly a third while supporting outcomes.
"It was a life-changing healing experience, and one that would have been quite different had I taken the do-it-yourself home route." Henry W. · participant, Oregon alcohol-use study
In the press
Coverage & further reading
- OPB: new data on psilocybin clients & access
- The Guardian: Oregon's psychedelic mushroom program
- KLCC · NPR: the $30K depression study
- Fast Company: a Portland psilocybin clinic goes mainstream
- Axios Portland: what psilocybin services cost
▶ Watch: the story behind the research, and the people it's for
For journalists
We can connect you with the researchers, the published data, and the official program dashboards (Oregon Health Authority and Colorado's Natural Medicine Division are the systems of record for program numbers).
Media inquiries →Keep exploring. Switch paths any time.
The mechanics
Study designs, methods, data & tools.
The technical track: designs, instruments, formulas, and provenance. Everything here assumes you want the details.
Flagship · ORCHID
Two studies, one platform: linking regulated psilocybin care to medical claims.
A collaboration anchored at UC Berkeley and UCSF, led by health economist Elliot Marseille. ORCHID tests whether psilocybin-assisted care changes downstream healthcare utilization and spending, the total-cost-of-care evidence payers and states require. SEF is a founding partner, funder, and co-builder of the platform. Phase 1, the $458K demonstration pilot, is raising now; the full two-phase program is $1.79M over 3.5 years.
Look back at real claims
~1,500-person retrospective cohort. Links verified psilocybin service episodes to participants' medical-claims history (ER visits, hospitalizations, prescriptions), compared before-vs-after and against matched comparators. Establishes the early cost-and-utilization signal.
Follow new patients forward
Prospective enrollment via UCSF's CANOPY project (Carhart-Harris Lab; 500+ sign-ups). People enroll as they enter care; wellbeing and health outcomes are tracked through six months after their experience. Built for payer-grade evidence, with actuarial and payer-design review being added alongside academic health economics.
Timeline
$60K diligence raised and completed; key partnerships and IRB approval secured.
Phase 1 demonstration pilot: recruitment, data collection, and medical-records linkage prove out.
Phase 1 results and the go/no-go decision; Phase 2 (the full study) begins.
ORCHID I outcomes: real, policy-relevant cost data linked to records.
Full publication, policy briefs, presentations to decision-makers.
The five questions ORCHID answers
Even if total spending holds steady, the mix of care can change. ORCHID tracks whether dollars move away from expensive emergency and crisis care toward primary and preventive care, a reallocation that signals better health and a more sustainable system, and one payers watch closely.
That's the core question. By linking participants' real medical claims (ER visits, hospitalizations, prescriptions) and comparing them before versus after care, and against similar people who didn't receive it, ORCHID can show whether psilocybin services reduce downstream medical use over time.
Payers cover treatments when real-world data shows reduced costs and improved outcomes. They need net cost impact per member and validated outcomes in real populations, not just efficacy under controlled trial conditions.
FDA trials measure efficacy under controlled conditions and are drug-company funded. State programs run at scale right now, but have no claims linkage and no commercial sponsor. It isn't a science problem; it's an evidence problem.
Preliminary cost findings in roughly 24 months, with full longitudinal evidence around 42 months: years before equivalent claims data could emerge through the FDA-regulated pipeline.
Completed · LIGPAT
Methods & results: the low-income group psilocybin depression study.
Design
Open-label feasibility pilot (n = 24 enrolled, 19 completers, 79% completion). Two group psilocybin sessions at a licensed service center in NW Portland, with brief virtual preparation and group integration. Mushrooms donated by an Oregon-licensed cultivator; SSRIs permitted throughout. Preregistered, DEA-consulted, fully compliant with Oregon law. Partners: NUNM, Synaptic Institute, OHSU.
Safety infrastructure
These efficiencies are structural, not shortcuts. State programs function as living laboratories with safety infrastructure applied to every dose: dosing confined to licensed centers (no take-home), continuous in-person monitoring by licensed facilitators, documented safety and transportation plans, 72-hour follow-up with offered integration, batch potency testing and statewide product tracking, and center-level emergency planning with adverse-event reporting (OAR 333-333; 4 CCR 755-1).
Results
- HAM-D: 22.2 → 8.8 at completion (d = 1.89, p<.001); 11.9 at 3-month follow-up
- Self-rated quality of life: 5.9 → 7.4 / 10 over the same window
- All eight PROMIS-29 domains improved significantly at completion (p<.05)
- 0 serious adverse events · 4.8/5 mean satisfaction
- Cost: $30K total (≈$1,250/participant) · funding-to-published-results in ~9 months
Journal of Psychedelic Studies (2026) · NCT06372197 · NUNM announcement
The portfolio, in detail
Every project, its question, and its status.
Low-Income Group Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Depression
The first clinical study inside Oregon's program, and the first built for a low-income population. Two group sessions produced a large, statistically significant drop in depression (d = 1.89), largely sustained at three months, with zero serious adverse events.
Partners: NUNM · Synaptic Institute · OHSU · NCT06372197
Community Impact Pilot: Alcohol Use Disorder
The first study of psilocybin for alcohol use disorder delivered inside the regulated model: a community-based pilot at a licensed Oregon center, testing feasibility outside a hospital trial setting. Run in partnership with the Healing Advocacy Fund, which supported recruitment, enrollment, and funding.
ORCHID: real-world cost & outcomes
Links psilocybin care to actual medical claims to answer the question payers ask first: does this care change downstream healthcare spending? Two studies (retrospective + prospective), anchored at UC Berkeley and UCSF.
OPEN: shared measurement at OHSU
A common outcomes framework so every study in the model speaks the same language: validated instruments across sites, shared consent and data practices, standardized adverse-event capture, and the claims-linkage foundation ORCHID builds on.
Justice-impacted access & healing
Through the Inward Dive Fund, one of the nation's first programs offering subsidized psilocybin-assisted healing to justice-impacted individuals, pairing access with trauma-informed integration and measurement. The first study cohort of previously incarcerated participants completed its retreat sessions in July 2026; outcomes analysis is under way.
Community Leaders Resilience Fund study
A forthcoming study built alongside the Community Leaders Resilience Fund retreats, measuring wellbeing and resilience outcomes for the community leaders the fund serves. SEF designs, funds, and deploys the study with its retreat partners.
Group delivery: cost & access modeling
Models how group-based administration lowers clinician time per participant while supporting outcomes. Group work expands access; head-to-head efficacy vs. individual care is still being studied.
Marseille, Stauffer et al., Frontiers in Psychiatry (2023)
Data & tools
Size the question yourself.
The full estimator suite, built on official Census, CMS, and MACPAC figures: reach, Medicaid savings, the payer scenario lab, and condition-level scenario savings. Every input is tagged: official count, research-backed default (adjustable), or scenario input (you control it). Planning tools, not forecasts, and not ORCHID results.
Official counts: U.S. Census Vintage 2024 (adults 18+) · CMS Medicaid+CHIP enrollment (Feb 2026) · CMS Medicare enrollment (Jan 2026) · MACPAC adult-share FY2023. Research defaults are published and adjustable; scenario inputs are yours. These are planning tools that show the scale of the access and budget questions, not forecasts, and not ORCHID results. Estimator data last updated July 1, 2026.
The team
Built by people who price healthcare for a living
- Elliot Marseille, DrPH, MPP · project lead; Director, CEP; Health Strategies International
- Stefano Bertozzi, MD-PhD · Professor, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
- Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD · Professor, UCSF; founder, Carhart-Harris Lab
- Jim Kahn, MD, MPH · Emeritus Professor, UCSF School of Medicine
- Will Lucas · Clinical Research Coordinator, Weill Institute for Neurosciences
- Nathan Howard · Executive Director, Sheri Eckert Foundation
Advisory board: Tyler Norris · Aaron Loehr · David Bronner · Tamar Todd · Britt Rollins · Bob Jesse · Adie Rae
Publications & provenance
Read the source material
- The Imperative for Economic Evaluation in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies · SSRN working paper, 2026 (Howard, co-author)
- LIGPAT results · Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2026
- Study registration NCT06372197 · ClinicalTrials.gov
- Oregon OPS data dashboard · system of record
Researchers & programs: work with us
We fund and build rigorous, shared-measurement studies inside regulated programs.
Propose a project →Keep exploring. Switch paths any time.
The case
Safety, cost, speed, and access that has never existed before.
For fifty years, promising medicine was kept from the public. State-regulated programs changed that, and created a research opportunity the FDA pathway cannot offer. Here is the case, and how to help build it.
The problem
The most important questions will never be answered by commercial incentives alone.
The most-studied compounds are naturally occurring or off-patent, so pharmaceutical investment largely passes them by. Meanwhile, the FDA-track path to a single approval can cost hundreds of millions, even a billion dollars, and answers only a narrow question: does this specific drug work for this specific diagnosis?
Who gets access? What does care cost? What outcomes matter? How can services be safer? Can state programs generate the evidence payers and policymakers need before they'll support coverage? Nobody is paid to answer those questions. That's the gap philanthropy, and this incubator, exists to fill.
How most medicine reaches approval
- Profit-driven by design: sponsors fund trials expecting patent-protected returns
- ~$1.1B per nervous-system approval (2018 dollars, one published estimate)
- Off-patent compounds skipped: little incentive to study naturally occurring medicine
- Cost & time to evidence: very high
What SEF helps make possible
- Philanthropy fills the gap: funding research that serves people, not patents
- Inside legal, regulated programs: rigorous studies using Oregon & Colorado infrastructure
- Faster, lower-cost, real-world: evidence on access, cost, safety & equity, sooner
- Cost & time to evidence: dramatically lower
This is a complement to FDA-track research, not a replacement for it.
Proof of leverage
We've already run this play once, for the cost of a used car.
A $30,000 catalytic grant produced a peer-reviewed depression study inside Oregon's program in nine months: severe depression to mild, gains largely held at three months, zero serious adverse events. The same evidence via an FDA-style trial: millions of dollars and years.
The cost of evidence (log scale)
Phase benchmarks: HHS/ASPE (2014); Sertkaya et al. (2016). LIGPAT delivered decision-useful endpoints on the order of hundreds to ~1,000× less expensive, ≥3× faster than a typical Phase 2 (~9 months vs ~33).
Walk the deck
The case for ORCHID, in thirteen slides.
The pitch we make to funders and states, slide by slide, synced to the July 2026 project deck.
Test your instinct
FDA pathway vs. the state model: who actually gets care?
Fifteen quick questions. Guess first; the answers show why the FDA pathway, though essential, is narrow by design, and why the state-regulated model can reach far more people, far sooner.
Each answer notes its source. Figures are illustrative of the access gap, not precise forecasts.
From evidence to access
Research is how a state-regulated model earns the trust to spread.
Real-world evidence
Rigorous studies inside legal programs show safety, outcomes & cost.
Public trust
Credible results build confidence among the public and policymakers.
State adoption
More states adopt the model as the evidence and trust grow.
Access & coverage
Public funding and insurance follow, making care affordable at scale.
State-funded access: near-term
New Mexico has committed $630,000 to subsidize psilocybin care for low-income and rural residents. Public dollars, public benefit.
Employer plans: available now, waiting on data
Employers can already cover state-regulated psychedelic services through Enthea. ORCHID gives them the outcomes and cost data to evaluate and expand it.
Insurance coverage: the long game
Insurers cover what real-world data shows cuts costs and improves outcomes. ORCHID is built to provide exactly that evidence.
A note from Nathan
Why state-regulated research matters.
In 2026, SEF Executive Director Nathan Howard co-authored The Imperative for Economic Evaluation in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies, arguing psychedelic care must be evaluated for affordability, access, and public value, not just clinical promise. In his words:
The problem: profit incentives point the wrong way
The FDA process expects profit-driven sponsors to finance the research. But the most-studied psychedelics are naturally occurring or off-patent, so there's little commercial reason to study them. Even MAPS's record-setting philanthropic push for MDMA had to spin up a for-profit to attract investment.
The opportunity: state programs make rigor faster and cheaper
Research inside state-regulated models can be less expensive and faster than the conventional pathway, while preserving participant safety. Our low-income depression study is proof: preregistered, DEA-consulted, fully compliant with state law, at a fraction of the overhead.
SEF's role: value for the philanthropic dollar
Careful trial design is essential, and participants are consented with a clear understanding of the law. None of this means abandoning FDA-track research. It's an opening the research and philanthropic community shouldn't neglect.
"The opportunity to produce impactful real-world research inside state programs is not one we should neglect." Nathan Howard · Executive Director, Sheri Eckert Foundation · Read the paper
The invitation
Catalytic dollars here go further than almost anywhere in the field.
A $30,000 grant produced a peer-reviewed depression study. A few million could unlock the cost evidence that opens coverage for millions. A de-risked ladder, not a moonshot: diligence complete, IRB approval and key partnerships secured, value arriving in stages.
Fund
Catalytic, phaseable philanthropy to launch and extend the studies, where every dollar generates field-serving evidence the market won't pay for.
Start a funding conversation →Advise
We're actively adding actuarial, payer-design, and policy expertise. If you price risk, design benefits, or shape state programs, you can make this measurably stronger.
Offer your expertise →Connect
Introductions to data partners, payers, employers, and states: the relationships that turn evidence into access.
Make an introduction →Keep exploring. Switch paths any time.
The landscape
Where psychedelic healthcare is legal, funded, and in motion.
U.S. psychedelic policy now runs in four lanes: state-regulated access programs, state-funded research laws, active legislation, and local decriminalization, alongside the federal FDA pathway. This tracker ranks each state by its highest verified policy status.
LAST UPDATED · JULY 23, 2026 · sources verified against official state pages and legislative trackers; official program dashboards are the systems of record for program numbers.
Want just this tracker? It lives on its own page (with the map, the bills, the patents, the federal pipeline, and the world) at a link you can share directly.
Open the standalone tracker ↗Where it began
It started with a ballot measure.
In November 2020, Oregon voters passed Measure 109, co-created by Tom and Sheri Eckert, building the first state-regulated psilocybin services model in the world. Every program and most bills below descend from that template: licensed centers, trained facilitators, no diagnosis required, safety rules applied to every dose.
Operating now Regulated programs serving clients
Measure 109 (2020) → Oregon Psilocybin Services. Adults 21+, no diagnosis or residency required. As of mid-2026: ~20,000 clients served (cumulative estimate), 22 operating service centers, 542 licensed facilitators, 44,500+ products sold; average product price has fallen from ~$85 to ~$51. Client-level data reporting became mandatory in 2025 (SB 303).
Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act (2022) + SB 23-290. Supervised adult use at licensed healing centers; ~34 licensed centers by early 2026. HB 26-1325 (signed June 2026) adds an ibogaine research pilot with Indigenous benefit-sharing requirements. Prop 122 also decriminalized personal use of five natural psychedelics statewide.
CO Natural Medicine Division (licensing updated weekly)
Medical Psilocybin Act (SB 219, signed April 2025): the third state program, and the first created by a legislature rather than voters. Medical model run by the Department of Health for conditions including treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance use disorders, and end-of-life care. Includes a $630,000 treatment equity fund and $300,000 for UNM end-of-life research. The DOH is running a year ahead of its statutory deadline.
Enacted laws Hospital pilots & state-funded research
Hospital & pilot access
- New Jersey: $6M, two-year psilocybin therapy pilot at three hospitals (signed Jan 2026)
- Utah: hospital pilot letting University of Utah Health & Intermountain administer psilocybin/MDMA therapy (2024); veterans PTSD trial added 2026; legislative report due 2026
- Connecticut: pilot expansion (SB 191, 2026)
- Louisiana: psychedelic-assisted therapy research initiative funded largely from opioid-settlement dollars (Act 956, effective Aug 2026)
State-funded clinical development (the 2026 wave, mostly ibogaine)
- Texas: $50M ibogaine consortium (2025); state-led trials at UTHealth Houston & UTMB announced March 2026
- Kentucky: $42M ibogaine research (2026, enacted over a veto)
- Arizona: $5M ibogaine trials (2025) · Mississippi: $5M consortium (2026) · Oklahoma: Breakthrough Therapy Act (2026) · New Hampshire: investigational ibogaine (July 2026) · Indiana: psilocybin research fund (2024), expanded to ibogaine (2025, PL 213)
Task forces & study bodies
Alaska (post-FDA-approval task force, 2024) · Maryland (task force recommended moving toward regulated access, Nov 2025) · Nevada (working group reported 2025) · Washington (task force + UW pilot, 2023) · California (research-streamlining law, 2025)
"Trigger" laws: pre-clearing FDA-approved use
Virginia (2026; reschedules psilocybin promptly after any federal approval) · Georgia (trigger plus a clinic-licensing law, HB 717) · South Dakota, West Virginia (similar trigger statutes). A fast-growing category, with several more enacted in 2026.
In motion Active legislation to watch
Psychedelic-therapy pilot bills advanced from committee in March 2026; House passed pilot-program language, Senate action pending. (Voters rejected a broader 2024 ballot measure, so advocates pivoted to the legislature.)
Multiple bills, including a state-funded psilocybin therapy pilot for up to 10,000 veterans, first responders, and cluster-headache patients.
The "HOPE Treatment Act" (ibogaine clinical trials) passed the House 84–1 and Senate 31–1 and was transmitted to the governor.
Medical psilocybin bill passed the House 84–6; advancing through Senate committees in 2026.
Also in motion in 2025–26 sessions: Washington · Minnesota · Illinois · Vermont · Hawaii · Maine · Missouri · Montana · Ohio · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · Wisconsin · Kansas. Cities have moved even faster: 30+ local decriminalization or lowest-priority measures since Denver's first-in-the-nation ordinance (2019), including Washington D.C., Detroit, Seattle, and Minneapolis.
No verified state-level activity: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Wyoming.
Beyond the U.S.
The international picture, briefly
- Australia: authorized prescribers may use MDMA & psilocybin since July 2023 (~200 patients by late 2025)
- Switzerland: 723 exceptional-use authorizations in 2024
- Canada: special access program + s.56 exemptions
- Germany: first EU psilocybin compassionate-use program (July 2025)
- Czech Republic: medical psilocybin statute in force January 2026
- New Zealand: first named psilocybin prescriber (June 2025)
Federal context
Washington is moving too
An April 2026 executive order directs the FDA to prioritize psychedelic therapy reviews and allocates $50M for federal–state collaboration; the FDA has issued priority review designations for psilocybin (treatment-resistant depression) programs. No classic psychedelic is yet FDA-approved; the 2024 rejection of MDMA-assisted therapy showed momentum isn't approval, which is why real-world state-program evidence matters so much.
How we keep this current
Reviewed against the Oregon & Colorado official dashboards, state legislature records, and independent trackers (Psychedelic Alpha, UC Berkeley BCSP). Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Keep exploring. Switch paths any time.
Participation
Interested in being part of the research?
Real people's experiences are what make this evidence possible. Here's what's open now.
ORCHID II, via UCSF's CANOPY project
If you are planning to receive (or have received) psilocybin services in a regulated program, you can join the prospective study tracking outcomes and healthcare use over time. 500+ people have already signed up through the Carhart-Harris Lab at UCSF.
Raise your hand →Good to know
- Research participation is always voluntary, consented, and separate from receiving care.
- Oregon and Colorado services are open to adults 21+ regardless of research participation; licensed centers handle their own screening and safety planning.
- Studies are reviewed by institutional review boards; your data is de-identified before analysis.
- Not sure what fits? Email us and we'll point you to the right study or program.