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Rose City Laboratories LLC won accreditation from the state of Oregon to test psilocybin for potency and to verify the species of mushrooms for use in the therapeutic program approved by voters in 2020.
Psilocybin is the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms. Oregon allows the use of just one species, Psilocybe cubensis, in the therapeutic settings made legal by Measure 109. Portland-based Rose City is the only lab approved for species determination, potency, testing for solvents, and batch sampling methods, according to the Oregon Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program.
Another lab, ChemHistory of Milwaukie, was approved to test potency, ORELAP records show.
“We were approved in all categories,” says Bjorn Fritzsche, a research chemist at Rose City.
Now, Rose City must get a license from Oregon Psilocybin Services, a branch of the Oregon Health Authority, to test mushrooms.
“We haven’t issued any licenses yet,” says psilocybin services spokeswoman Erica Heartquist.
The state requires licenses for producing and testing psilocybin, and for “service centers” where facilitators, also licensed, will guide people on therapeutic trips. So far, the state has received no license applications for facilitators, most of whom are being trained now. It has received four applications for production facilities, three for service centers, one for a lab, and 92 for workers in the new industry.
The state began accepting applications Jan. 2.