Soap Company Dr. Bronner’s Writes a Huge Check in Support of an Oregon Effort to Legalize Magic Mushrooms in Controlled Settings

“The Bronner family is no stranger to severe depression and anxiety.”

Psilocybin (wikimedia)

An effort to legalize psilocybin—hallucinogenic mushrooms—in controlled settings in Oregon just gained the support of California-based soap company Dr. Bronner's.

Dr. Bronner's, which is known for its manifesto-printed labels, announced Friday that it plans to donate $150,000 to petitioners of an Oregon initiative to legalize psilocybin assisted therapy. The Oregonian first reported the donation.

The campaign is led by local therapists Tom and Sheri Eckert, founders of the Oregon Psilocybin Society. They need to collect 112,020 signatures by July 2, 2020, to get their initiative on the November 2020 ballot.

Related: Why Stop at One Campaign to Legalize Psychedelic Mushrooms? Oregon Has Two—and They Don't Get Along.

If approved by voters, the initiative would allow trained medical professionals to administer psilocybin—which is still federally a Schedule 1 controlled substance—to patients as part of treatment for a variety of mental health illnesses.

David Bronner, the company's CEO, said in a statement, "The Bronner family is no stranger to severe depression and anxiety. We firmly believe that the integration of psilocybin therapy, to which the FDA recently granted a special 'breakthrough designation' is crucial to heal epidemic rates of depression, anxiety, and addiction that pharmaceutical drugs are completely inadequate for."

This isn't Dr. Bronner's first foray into Oregon politics. In 2014, the company spent more than $1 million trying to pass Measure 92, which would have required companies to label any food products containing genetically-modified organisms. The measure was narrowly defeated.

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