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The Oregon Health Authority fined psilocybin pioneer Tom Eckert $3,000 for violating laws he helped put in place as a chief petitioner for the 2020 ballot measure that created Oregon’s regulated psychedelic mushroom program.
Eckert, executive director of InnerTrek, led a group psilocybin session with fellow facilitator Rachel Aiden at the company’s service center in Southeast Portland on May 18, 2024, OHA said in a default final order imposing a civil penalty issued July 22. During that session, both Eckert and Aiden left the room for more than five minutes, violating a law that required continuous monitoring of clients who have been administered psychedelic mushrooms, OHA said.
Eckert and InnerTrek have the right to appeal the ruling within 60 days, OHA said.
“We’ve been dinged!” InnerTrek director of operations Nate Howard said in a statement. “We accept this and take accountability for it because despite best attempts to follow the remarkable amount of rules we’re subject to, mistakes happen, and the OHA, I think, is doing a great job overall and when it comes to enforcement they are just doing their job; enforcing rules, catching issues, and working to ensure high standards.”
The fine against the founding father of legal psychedelics in Oregon comes at a delicate time for the program. Fees charged by the state have failed to cover its expenses, as promised by Measure 109, which Eckert and his late wife, Sheri, steered as co-chief petitioners. Taxpayers had to cover the shortfall in the last biennium, which ended June 30, with a $3.1 million infusion.
High fees ($10,000 per year) and costly compliance measures are also forcing service centers like InnerTrek out of business as people turn to the underground market, where facilitators lead trips in their homes or in Airbnbs.
The fine against InnerTrek shows how strict OHA is when it comes to regulating psilocybin, which is still considered a dangerous drug by the federal government.
“On May 18, 2024, a facilitator was not always present during an administration session and clients were not continuously monitored by facilitators when co-facilitators Thomas Eckert and Rachel Aiden left the client administration area for longer than five minutes during the administration session and did not maintain visual and audio contact with clients during that time,” Andre Ourso, administrator for OHA’s Center for Health Protection, wrote in the order.
During the same session, InnerTrek failed to properly document a “secondary dose” of psilocybin for at least one client, Ourso wrote, a problem that began before the session in question.
“From at least November 22, 2024, to March 13, 2025, respondent did not require clients to purchase and take possession of secondary doses before the administration session begins,” Ourso wrote. “This is a violation of OAR 333-333-5240(3)(b).”
OHA said it issued a notice of violation to InnerTrek and Eckert on June 9, describing the $3,000 fine and offering a hearing if InnerTrek responded within 20 days.
“Respondent did not request a hearing,” Ourso wrote.
Eckert has been a controversial figure in Oregon’s psychedelic renaissance. After pushing through Measure 109, he became chair of the state’s Psilocybin Advisory Board, a regulatory body created by the measure. The board held its first meeting in March 2021.
In February 2022, the board voted unanimously to adopt a motion, introduced by board member Rachel Knox, that required all members to verbally disclose their personal and financial conflicts of interest—potential, actual or anticipated—during its next monthly meeting.
“I’m presenting this conversation because I know the equity subcommittee has witnessed a considerable number of calls on the board to declare potential and de facto conflicts of interest,” Knox said at the February 2022 board meeting.
Eckert resigned abruptly on March 10, 2022, a year into the job, without giving a specific reason for his departure. On the same day, WW obtained emails through a public records request showing that fellow board members had called for him to step down.
Those records showed that on March 3, board member Rachel Knox emailed the board and OHA staff requesting an executive session to discuss the matter. The OHA declined Knox’s request.
“There are calls for Tom’s resignation—several of those calls coming from other board members and subcommittee members,” Knox wrote. “A meeting such as this should have been called by Tom himself had he wanted to avoid the media fallout that occurred last week.”
Knox’s recommendation came after VICE published a story alleging that Eckert had a relationship with the CEO of the Synthesis Institute, a Dutch psilocybin company that had presented to the board. The Synthesis CEO at the time was Rachel Aiden, with whom Eckert led the May 2024 group session that prompted this month’s fine from OHA. The two are married, according to The Oregonian.
InnerTrek began as a program that trained facilitators, the practitioners who sit with clients when they trip. It opened its service center in the ornately colored Fair-Haired Dumbbell building at the east end of the Burnside Bridge, in 2023.
InnerTrek’s Howard said the fine by OHA will make the psilocybin industry better.
“This is all part of a regulatory agency, who we consider to be a great partner to this work and movement, working to ensure high standards of care are met,” Howard said in his statement. “I think this helps operators like us get even tighter on all things compliance and rules adherence.”
