Lucid News: Oregon’s Psilocybin Program — Industry Insiders Weigh In On Closures and the Future

From Lucid News — February 22, 2026

According to some observers, the experiment that Oregon launched in 2020 to regulate access to psilocybin mushrooms under state law appears to be entering a period of retrenchment and reflection. As Oregon psilocybin service centers close and facilitators decline to renew licenses in Oregon’s pioneering psilocybin therapy program, industry insiders offer divergent perspectives on whether the state’s experiment is experiencing normal growing pains or facing an existential crisis.

The State’s View: Natural Evolution

Angela Allbee, Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) Section Manager at the Oregon Health Authority, disputes that the state’s psilocybin program is in crisis. “We’ve been focused solely on one license type (service centers), and we’re failing to talk about the story of almost 400 licensed facilitators and the fact that this model established a new healthcare profession,” she told Lucid News. 

Allbee noted that more than 15,000 people have been served under the Oregon model. “From a safety standpoint, and a service center’s ability to deliver and provide services, things seem to be going quite well,” she said.

However, Allbee acknowledged that significant challenges persist. “When you see an early industry – we like to use “ecosystem” – but when you see some businesses that are doing well, and others that are not, and business relationships changing…we’re concerned about high license fees.”

The program faces a fundamental structural problem: it must fund itself entirely through licensing fees. “A fee-based structure with rising costs is always going to be a formula for having to do some problem-solving,” Allbee said. With service centers closing and facilitators not renewing licenses, the revenue base shrinks while costs rise. “I don’t know yet, but it is the next step,” Allbee said when asked if license fees will increase.

Allbee emphasized that the state agency cannot ask for taxpayer money. “We’re not able to advocate for this program and for budget support; that all is based on what the governor (Tina Kotek) prioritizes and what the agency prioritizes…Those folks that are part of the regulated community, or those folks that care deeply about this model, this is where their voices are so important.”

Jenna Kluwe and her Journey Service Center   

Jenna Kluwe’s psilocybin service center closed in March 2025 after just five months when her investor abruptly pulled funding, raising questions about the viability of Oregon’s pioneering psychedelic program.

The Journey Service Center, located in Portland’s Gateway District, had served 120 clients.  Kluwe told Lucid News it was matching or exceeding other centers’ numbers at that stage. Yet investor Clint Martin, a Utah resident who approached Kluwe to launch the venture, withdrew after declaring the business wasn’t viable, Kluwe said.

“As a business person, you give yourself a good year before you expect any kind of profit,” Kluwe said, disputing the rushed assessment. She pointed to competitors like Odyssey Center, who launched simultaneously and are now expanding to Colorado. The closure highlights structural challenges facing Oregon’s regulated psilocybin industry. Kluwe says that licensing fees of approximately $880 monthly, combined with strict location requirements keeping centers like hers away from schools, force operators into less desirable areas with higher rents.

The Journey Service Center faced the additional challenge of clearing homeless encampments from its entrance daily, said Kluwe. “Finding a rental in a place that people would like to travel to and walk around afterwards is hard when there’s schools everywhere,” she explained.

The program’s affordability crisis concerns her most. “A (treatment) room for $500 a minimum for a day is ridiculous for people who need affordable treatment,” she said. Kluwe advocates for policy changes, including reduced licensing fees funded by Medicaid savings from successful treatments, and relaxed location restrictions. Kluwe also sees untapped potential in microdosing, which could attract Silicon Valley-aware clients, but currently requires burdensome paperwork and transportation plans for brief appointments.

Despite her center’s closure, Kluwe remains optimistic about the industry. She estimates $1 million is needed to properly launch and sustain a service center for two years, emphasizing the need for soundproofed, clinical spaces where clients can “fully let go.” 

“I am still shocked to this day about the amount of people who don’t know this is an option for them,” Kluwe said, urging more public education and positive media coverage rather than headlines suggesting the program is failing.

The Success Story: Low Prices and Lean Operations

Some psilocybin service center operators say that they have sidestepped rising costs by keeping costs low. Dr. Eric Lee, the owner-operator of the modest Space Psychedelic Clinic in Northeast Portland, offers a starkly distinct perspective. “My sense is that everybody’s struggling except me,” he said bluntly. “We charge a low price, so we’ve been at $900 since we opened. I’m renewing for the second year and we’re doing really good.”

Lee reported that in January alone, his gross monthly income was approximately $19,000, with profits around $10,000-$11,000 after expenses. “I see us doing better and better and better,” he said. “The past two months, December-January, have been our best months.”

Lee says his success stems from a lean business model. “I work as the worker here, and I’m also the owner, and I’m also the manager…I do it all, and I don’t need to pay another person,” he explained. “I have no banking debt. I own the building. I put myself in a very financially advantageous  position.”

Lee attributes other centers’ struggles to unrealistic pricing and expectations. “Psychedelic entrepreneurs are some of the craziest entrepreneurs. Like, mushrooms are $15 a bag…You want to turn this into a $4,000 thing? What you want is not what the world needs, and that’s the bottom line,” says Lee.

Lee also dismissed complaints about costly bureaucracy. “Any government agency – that’s their job, to be a pain in the ass,” he said. Medical residency was way harder says Lee who  estimates that Space requires just two to three hours work a day. “I think people are really not setting the businesses up as things that people want to use, charging too much, and their expectation is that people want a big, luxurious package –  that’s just not what the people want.”

Despite his present success, Lee expressed skepticism about the Oregon program’s long-term viability under current funding structures. “If you try to charge $20,000 (for a service center license, up from $10,000 per annum) next year, I’m gonna have to go to another state… The way the law is written, long-term, is what is going to constrain my success as an entrepreneur.”

The Selective Facilitator: Long-term Optimism

Facilitator Johnny Dwork, based in Portland, is a long-time “cognitive rights activist” who advocates for responsible psychedelic use. Always concerned about the Oregon scene, Dwork emailed his comments from his winter home in Maui. 

“As someone who’s been involved since the beginning, I see Oregon’s psilocybin program through both a short – and long-term lens,” wrote Dwork. “In the short term, what we’re seeing looks less like failure and more like predictable growing pains. The program launched with high regulatory costs, substantial annual licensing fees, limited tax flexibility, and no insurance or public subsidies – while serving a population often seeking help for complex, treatment-resistant conditions. That’s a difficult economic equation for any early-stage system.”

Dwork added that the cultural reality of intentional psilocybin healing calls for preparation, courage, and commitment – capacities which he says our larger society does not actively cultivate. “When viewed through that lens, the fact that a truly life-altering experience costs $1,000–$1,800 is not excessive; it’s remarkably efficient compared to years of conventional care,” writes Dwork. 

Dwork believes that in the long term, the trajectory for Oregon’s psilocybin program is clearer. He argues that each year brings “stronger peer-reviewed science and a growing body of lived experience demonstrating that psilocybin, used intentionally and safely, is one of the most powerful tools we have for healing and well-being.”

Dwork believes that psilocybin services will find their footing as a valued healing model. “If we’re serious about public health, resilience, and long-term societal flourishing, these services will eventually be recognized not as a luxury, but as a public good -worthy of thoughtful support, integration, and subsidy.”

The Policy Expert: Quiet Revolution Continues

Sam Chapman, Executive Director of the Center for Psychedelic Policy, frames the situation in Oregon as normal market dynamics. “I push back on the idea that these closures are signaling any type of issue with the program being in jeopardy,” he said. “What we are seeing is exactly what early-stage market maturation in the first couple of years looks like for any licensed and regulated industry.”

Chapman emphasized what he considered the historic achievement or Oregon’s psilocybin framework: “The headline isn’t that a couple of operators are exiting here and there. The headline is that Oregon successfully launched the first regulated psilocybin therapy program in the country and has served over 18,000 people to date… That is historic.”

According to Chapman, success stories often get overlooked. “There are service centers doing incredibly well. Some folks even have service centers in Oregon and now opening in Colorado,” he said, specifically mentioning Chariot of Portland.

Chapman believes the path forward involves public funding. “I am in full support of all of the work that’s been done to go after Medicaid and Medicare dollars…I also believe in a slightly more incremental approach, and that the best way to really get to Medicaid dollars for some states…is to simply go to the legislature and ask for general fund dollars.”

The strategy that Chapman outlines focuses on demonstrating cost-effectiveness: “Presenting them with the opportunity to see that the state was willing to put skin in the game…increases the chances that they’ll take it seriously and…have an incentive to get involved in a serious way.”

Looking at the current market conditions for consumers of psilocybin through the service centers, Chapman defended the current pricing structure. “I think psilocybin therapy at the average price point in Oregon –  around $1,500 –  is affordable compared to a lot of things,” he said, while acknowledging, “Is it affordable for everyone? No, not yet.”

The Dual-Licensed Therapist: Expensive and Uncertain

Crisis or teething troubles? Amanda Gow, co-founder of Bendable Therapy in Bend, offered a measured assessment asserting that the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. “Yes, I think this is some normal, natural turnover in a new business where people are trying to figure out what works and what does not,” says Gow. “And then there’s the other side, which is, there’s other things that are taking place within the state that are cause for serious concern.”

Gow highlighted the cost burden for professionals. “I just spent $2,000 yesterday for my license for the year…whereas my therapy license is $300 every two years,” she said. “Every year I’m spending $2,000 to be a licensed facilitator…and $10,000 to have the actual service center — it’s just expensive.”

She explained why facilitators who wanted the state program to be their primary form of practice struggle to make psilocybin work full-time. “For facilitators who thought this was going to be their full-time business, it’s just not possible,” she said. Most of Bendable’s facilitators see “one to two psilocybin clients a month. It’s not their full-time business.”

Gow is also blunt about the business prospects for those entering the field.  “I would not recommend somebody open a service center…from the financial [perspective] and then also the amount of regulation and effort it takes to stay on top of everything. It’s time-intensive.”

Regarding recent closures, Gow expressed sadness about the Cora Center, a service center in Portland which closed in February 2026. “I had a lot of respect for their founders. I really appreciated their integrity…I was sad to see them go… I know how much heart and love they’ve put into that place.”

The fundamental problem, Gow argued, is that psilocybin services remain disconnected from mental health systems. “Right now with OPS, it’s not been really viewed as a mental health program, and I currently believe that is the direction that we need to be going if we want to see psilocybin services be successful in the state.”

The Bottom Line

Oregon’s psilocybin program has proven psychedelic therapy can be delivered safely at scale, but economic sustainability remains elusive. The tension between safety regulations that drive up costs and the need for affordable access defines the current crisis. 

Whether the program represents a “quiet revolution” or faces existential threats may depend less on market forces than on whether Oregon’s legislature can find a path to public funding before the fee-based model collapses under its own weight.