The owner of a psilocybin mushroom facilitator training school is fighting back against plans by the Oregon Health Authority to revoke her approval, the first time the state has sought to shut down such a business since adult medical use was legalized last year.
Shasta Winn, who runs Myco-Method, one of some two dozen state-approved facilitator programs, has stopped certifying new students while she fights against the court’s decision, which follows a year of warnings after she failed to additionally seek licensure from the state’s higher education commission and instead applied for religious exemption.
“I have two lawsuits currently active that are just pending the judge’s determinations,” she told DoubleBlind. “They say that because the OHA approving the curriculum for potential licensees constitutes a secular license to operate a career school, that makes it so that no organizations could be religiously exempt.”
Winn, however, had thought that the OHA would recognize that training programs could come from “a diversity of different perspectives,” some more clinically focused and others more spiritually focused, as long as they all met the regulatory safety and ethical standards required to obtain a license.
About 20 people have graduated from her school, which does not have a fixed address, so far, paying around $7,500 for a hybrid online and in-person course. Winn says she has given discounts to some students. “I’m really more of the mystically, spiritually inclined,” she told Williamette Week, which first reported the news.
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The OHA does not generally comment on pending litigation and did not respond to requests for a statement. “That Winn could send trip guides into the marketplace for a year while disputing the state’s rules raises questions about the quality control Oregon shroom customers can expect,” WW reported.
Winn is representing herself in one lawsuit, which is pending in the Oregon Court of Appeals over the religious exemption, along with another separate suit against certain leaders in Oregon’s fledgling psilocybin industry. She said Chat GPT’s assistance has enabled her to more easily prepare her legal documents. “With access to AI, it makes it a whole lot easier for us to fight on our own.”
Winn claims that state agencies can only prevent Myco Methods from working within the legal psilocybin industry. “They can’t legally shut me down or stop me from teaching,” she told WW. “Although there have been many implications and threats otherwise.”
The Higher Education Coordinating Commission declined to issue Myco Methods with an exemption in September 2023, saying that the organization was a “secular” educational program. Winn teaches students how to safely guide trips while incorporating New Age aspects such as tarot and Jungian psychology concepts.
The state of Oregon is also facing a federal lawsuit that claims the rules preventing psilocybin facilitators from traveling to the homes of disabled individuals to oversee their mushroom journeys are discriminatory, as some people cannot easily travel to a service center. The plaintiffs have urged accommodations for home visits.
“OHA’s refusal to allow accommodations has placed disabled and terminally ill individuals where they would only be able to access needed services by turning to underground sources,” the complaint reads, according to the Oregon Business Journal. “For many terminally ill individuals, this means that they will die without having access to psilocybin services that would have substantially benefited them and that their able-bodied peers can easily access.”
Hundreds of people have taken psilocybin mushrooms in legal service centers since the first establishment opened in June last year, with fees going up in excess of $2,000.
