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SACRED MUSHROOM’S TRIP PROVES SHORT: After 18 months in business, the Sacred Mushroom, once the largest legal psilocybin venue in Portland, has packed up the meditation cushions and potted palms and shut its doors. Neither it nor its parent company, Kaya Holdings, are listed in the state’s directory of licensed “service centers” any longer, and Google Maps says the business is “permanently closed.” Kaya Holdings chief executive Craig Frank didn’t return a message seeking comment. In September, Frank told WW that the 11,000-square-foot Sacred Mushroom would remain open at its seventh-floor aerie (with views of Mount Hood) in Old Town, even as Kaya pivoted to a new industry: cryptocurrency. Kaya detailed its switch to crypto in an Oct. 21 press release, saying it aimed to become a “digital asset treasury company.” Such pivots are common for small companies trading for pennies on over-the-counter stock markets. They often start life as shell companies that have little more than regulators’ permission to sell shares to the public. Owners then start a business, or buy one, to merge into the shell, touting the new venture with press releases. Before Kaya tried to capitalize on the shroom boom, it was a cannabis company. Running a service center is hard because compliance with state regulations is costly. Several have closed. Brian Wannamaker, The Sacred Mushroom’s landlord, said the center closed because a large investor in Kaya died. “They were just starting to get a little momentum, and randomly the main guy who was funding them passed away,” Wannamaker says.
PPS BOARD DELIVERS PUBLIC APOLOGY FOR CONTRACT SPAT: A Dec. 8 Portland School Board listening session on changes to Jefferson High School’s attendance boundaries started with an unusual apology. Board Chair Eddie Wang asked members of the board to stand with him as he admitted the board had fallen short of the “respect, clarity, and care” expected of elected officials at a Dec. 2 meeting. That was the night the School Board erupted in chaos several times as a dispute over approval of a bond management contract turned ugly. Board members sparred over which questions were appropriate to ask regarding Portland Public Schools’ selection of Texas-based construction firm Procedeo. When portions of the majority-Black audience in the board room pushed back on questions, a couple of board members told the crowd they were “not the public”—because other people not present had expressed concern about the contract approval. The remarks sent the room into such disarray that Wang ultimately shut down all discussion, frustrating board members who still had outstanding questions. In his apology, Wang said the new board is still learning to govern together and that, as chair, responsibility to set an environment that embraces healthy debate and accountability rests with him. “Some moments Tuesday night left members of our community feeling dismissed, unheard or undermined. Some comments were experienced as microaggressions,” Wang said. “That is not the environment that we intend to create and is not who we want to be…We will and we can do better.”
THERAPISTS FUME AT PAY CUT: Once again, an abrupt shift by the Oregon Health Authority has left many therapists and counselors scrambling—in fear they’ll have to close their practices or send their Medicaid patients elsewhere. Facing soaring costs as more Oregon Health Plan members seek therapy and counseling, the state has sought in a series of policy moves over the past year to narrow where certain funds can go in an effort to route scarce resources toward more institutionalized community mental health organizations that tend to serve patients with particularly acute conditions. Weeks after one such policy—ending payouts to out-of-network providers—went into effect with little advance notice Oct. 1, in-network providers who serve primarily Medicaid patients learned of a new change coming their way: If they wanted to keep their existing reimbursement rates, they would need rigorous new certification and have to make new hires to satisfy new “team-based care” requirements—all by Jan. 1. CareOregon, one of the Medicaid insurers applying the changes, says in a statement that a subset of providers will see lower reimbursement rates, but that the pay would remain comparable to the national average. Amid a state backlog, however, Tiffany Kettermann says her practice, Health Allies Counseling, will not get the necessary certification in time even though it applied months ago, and she’s been forced to announce temporary pay cuts. Kettermann adds: “It feels like, ‘If you fall by the wayside as a group practice, oh well, but it’s almost better because then that’s more money to funnel to community mental health.’”
TICKETERS IN TROUBLE: Councilors at Metro, the regional government, will decide next month whether to back a bill in the Oregon Legislature that would ban companies and individuals from listing event tickets for sale that they don’t have in their possession. So-called speculative ticketers bet they can sell tickets they don’t yet own, then purchase the tickets at lower prices from box offices and pocket the difference. The Metro Council’s blessing matters here because it manages Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, operator of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Keller Auditorium and three other venues. “It is not uncommon to find tickets to Portland’5 events for sale on secondary marketplaces before the official on-sale date,” Metro legislative affairs manager Anneliese Koehler wrote to the Metro Council. A case in point from Southern Oregon: Alison Krauss & Union Station plan to play the Britt Festival Pavilion in Jacksonville on Aug. 25. Tickets for that show don’t go on sale until the end of January and will cost $99, says Abby McKee, president of the Britt Music & Arts Festival, but they are shown as available for purchase on GoTickets.com for $353. “This happens for every single show,” McKee says. Often, customers who buy from speculative sellers get an email a few days before the show saying that their tickets have been canceled, McKee says, or they arrive at the door and learn that they have four copies of the same ticket, either printed or on their phone. The bill banning speculative ticketing is in the planning stages, McKee says. The legislative concept for the House bill has been filed; a bill number has yet to be assigned.
