Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit Seeking Home Psilocybin Care To Proceed, Rejecting Oregon Officials’ Motion To Dismiss

More people in Oregon could eventually access legal psilocybin following a
new federal court ruling in favor of plaintiffs who argued that the state’s
first-in-the nation psilocybin law wrongfully prevents homebound patients
from seeking care.

Four care providers—three licensed psilocybin facilitators and a physician
specializing in advanced and terminal illnesses—sued the state about year
ago, alleging that the state Psilocybin Services Act (PSA) discriminates
against disabled individuals who can’t travel to designated service centers
where the substance is administered.

The providers said they were told by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) that
there was no way to accommodate homebound patients under the state’s
psilocybin law.

In an 12-page ruling issued late last month, District Judge Mustafa T.
Kasubhai denied the state’s motion to dismiss the suit, opining that the
plaintiffs have standing to bring the challenge and that a modification of
the state’s psilocybin law to provide a reasonable accommodation to
homebound patients under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
would not violate principles of federalism.

“The Court agrees with Plaintiffs and finds that their requested remedy
rests on physical access rather than use or distribution of a controlled
substance in violation of state and federal laws,” the ruling says.
“Plaintiffs do not ask the Court to order the provision of a controlled
substance, as Defendants contend. Instead…Plaintiffs seek compliance with
the ADA so that their disabled clients will have the same physical access
to a service that is available to nondisabled individuals.”

Reached by email on Tuesday, plaintiffs’ attorney Kathryn Tucker, said she
was pleased the court ruled in favor of the providers seeking to offer home
psilocybin services.

“We are eager to ensure that homebound disabled and dying Oregonians can
access psilocybin services, as they are among those most likely to
benefit,” she wrote. “Opening access for these Oregonians will increase
demand for psilocybin produced pursuant to the PSA as well as demand for
services of facilitators, particularly those with expertise in providing
care to disabled persons and those with advanced illness.”

“We hope to move this forward quickly now that the court has rejected the
State’s effort to dismiss, recognizing that the ADA does apply to Oregon’s
psilocybin program,” she added. “Because people with advancing illness may
have little time left, delay in enabling access can mean that patients who
might have obtained relief from debilitating anxiety and depression will
die in unrelieved suffering.”

Notably, the new opinion, noted earlier by Psychedelic Week, does not order
a specific remedy. It simply allows the underlying suit, *Cusker v. Oregon
Health Authority*, to proceed toward a final decision.

As for what plaintiffs are ultimately seeking, their complaint filed last
June asked the court to assume jurisdiction over the issue and require the
state health authority to “provide the reasonable accommodation of home
service when necessary to allow disabled individuals access to psilocybin
services, and to notify all licensed facilitators that such accommodations
are permitted.”

They further requested that the court declare that OHA violated state and
federal anti-discrimination statues when refusing to find reasonable
accommodations and prevent the state “from taking any disciplinary or other
adverse action” against licensed facilitators for providing such reasonable
accommodations.

“Public entities are required to make reasonable accommodations when
necessary to allow disabled individuals to access programs and services
unless doing so would result in an undue burden or a fundamental alteration
of the program or service. Allowing disabled individuals whose disability
prevents them from travelling to a licensed service center to receive
psilocybin services in their homes as a reasonable accommodation would not
result in an undue burden or a fundamental alteration of the psilocybin
services program.”

Oregon voters legalized facilitated psilocybin services through a 2020
ballot measure. The state approved its first service center in mid-2023.

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*Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Workman.*

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Proceed, Rejecting Oregon Officials’ Motion To Dismiss appeared first on Marijuana
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