Murmurs: Shroom Companies Pivot

SHROOM COMPANIES PIVOT: Two publicly traded companies betting on a boom in Oregon’s legal psychedelic mushroom program have taken their chips off the table. Kaya Holdings Inc., owner of the 11,000-square-foot Sacred Mushroom service center in Portland’s Old Town, is pivoting from mushrooms to cryptocurrency. Silo Wellness, which had planned to build what it hoped would be the biggest psilocybin retreat in the world near Ashland, submitted paperwork this week with Canadian regulators to become a defense company. Shares in both companies cratered as they pursued an elusive shroom boom. Kaya CEO Craig Frank says the Sacred Mushroom will remain open, but Kaya, its parent company, will sell its stake because a large Kaya shareholder had a death in the family and is “itchy” for a better return. The business is “not conducive” for a public company that has to make money for shareholders, he said in a phone interview. “It’s too long term, it’s too regulated,” Frank says. Instead, Kaya is jumping into crypto by developing a “digital assets treasury strategy.” DAT companies, as they’re known, buy up bitcoin and other digital tokens, betting their stock will rise along with their crypto assets. Silo, meanwhile, is changing its name to Born Defense, a company focusing on “ending forever wars” by achieving peace through strength. Also, because President Donald Trump is pressing NATO companies to foot more of the bill for their own protection, the global defense market is projected to reach $677 billion by 2029, growing at a compound annual rate of 6.4%. CEO Mike Arnold says the pivot is logical. He got into psychedelics, in part, to help veterans deal with trauma. Now, he aims to prevent that trauma in the first place by stopping wars before they start. “I hope our company becomes worthless because there is peace on earth,” Arnold says.

GOVERNOR KEEPS EYE ON PRESCHOOL FOR ALL: The tension between Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson over the economic impacts of Preschool for All, which reached a boiling point in June, now merely simmers. In a June letter, Kotek amped up pressure on Vega Pederson to reduce the marginal income tax on high earners, which funds the county’s initiative to create 11,000 publicly funded preschool slots. (A bill that would have smothered the program entirely died in the Legislature.) Under Vega Pederson’s direction, the Board of County Commissioners took on Preschool for All’s finances this summer, convening for a series of conversations about indexing the tax, among other strategies. But little resulted. A technical advisory group meant to advise on indexing offered no consensus, and mounting public pressure led most county commissioners to conclude they weren’t ready to index the tax, especially without understanding the implications for the program. It appears Kotek’s positioning on Preschool for All has softened, but the governor stands by her position that the program is not working as well as it should, and that things need to change. “County leaders have the responsibility to ensure the program is sustainable, achieves its original goals, and works to mitigate any unintended consequences,” Kotek says. “The chair and I have not discussed the progress of the TAG.” A spokesman for Vega Pederson says she plans to coordinate routine updates with Kotek on “all things Multnomah County, including Preschool for All.” “I appreciate the shared desire to ensure Preschool for All is a sustainable program that achieves the goals voters approved and is responsive to both continually improving the program and responding to its impacts on our community,” Vega Pederson tells WW.

MORE PEACOCK MESSAGES DISCOVERED: In early August, WW reported on a group chat among the six members of the Portland City Council’s progressive caucus, called Peacock. The City Attorney’s Office initially released 311 pages’ worth of messages contained in the Peacock chat in late July after WW filed a public records request. But on Sept. 29, the city said it had discovered far more messages than it had found originally. In total, the city now says there are 732 pages of Peacock messages—that’s more than 400 additional pages beyond those previously released to WW. (Around 100 of those pages contain messages exchanged after WW submitted its request, so they would not have been included in the original release.) In an explanatory memo provided to WW, the City Attorney’s Office took full responsibility for the missing records, explaining that the city had never been asked to produce a Microsoft Teams chat before. “Neither [the Bureau of Technology Services] nor the state’s eDiscovery department knew how to fully export individual Teams chats,” the memo reads. “It appears we were the first public entity to confront this issue.” Visit wweek.com this week to learn what’s inside the new pages.

PSYCH HOSPITAL AND CHIEF NURSE PART WAYS: The leader who oversaw more than 200 nurses at Unity Center for Behavioral Health, Portland’s main psychiatric hospital, no longer works there. “It is with a heavy heart that I send this message to inform you of a leadership change at Unity Center, effective today,” Unity president Melissa Eckstein wrote in an email to staff dated Sept. 24 and obtained by WW. “Chief Nursing Officer June Gower is no longer in her role at Unity Center.” Another leader, nursing director Chris Hatch, would step in to the job in an interim capacity, effective that day, the email said. “We understand this change will bring emotions and questions,” Eckstein continued, “and we are here to support you.” Eckstein expressed her gratitude to Gower for her many contributions to Unity. Gower took the job in late 2022, according to an old news release. The hospital was founded by several local health systems but is run by Legacy Health. A spokesperson for the health system declined to comment on personnel matters, but confirmed this week that Gower no longer worked at Legacy. Gower could not be reached for comment.