The King County Council on Tuesday, Mar. 24 approved a motion supporting continued research into entheogens and affirming longstanding local policies that deprioritize enforcement for adult personal use of the substances.
The motion, sponsored by Teresa Mosqueda and co-sponsored by Rod Dembowski, formalizes existing practices by the King County Sheriff’s Office and Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Those policies focus law enforcement on behavior that poses public safety risks rather than targeting specific substances, including naturally occurring psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca and mescaline.
“This motion formalizes what has already been true for a long time – that King County has not aggressively policed or prosecuted for this class of substances in decades,” Mosqueda said. “The biggest impact of this action is to add King County’s support as the largest county in the state, and among the largest in the country, to the growing chorus of jurisdictions that support taking a public health and commonsense approach to the use of entheogens.”
Supporters say a growing body of scientific research points to potential therapeutic benefits of entheogens in treating conditions such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and substance use disorders.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated psilocybin-assisted therapy as a “breakthrough therapy” for treatment-resistant depression in 2018 and for major depressive disorder in 2019, signaling increased federal interest in the field.
The motion also expresses support for continued research and for broader state and federal decriminalization efforts involving personal use and possession of naturally occurring entheogens by adults 21 and older, provided use does not occur in public spaces. It does not apply to synthetic or chemically modified substances.
Similar measures have been adopted in several jurisdictions, including Seattle, Olympia, Tacoma, and Port Townsend, as well as parts of California, Michigan and Washington, D.C. The King County Health, Housing and Human Services Committee reviewed the issue multiple times over the past year, hearing from medical professionals, researchers and community advocates.
Dunn Voices Opposition, Cites Oregon Rollback
Not all councilmembers supported the measure. Reagan Dunn, who voted against the motion, criticized it in a statement following the vote.
“The State of Oregon experimented with full drug decriminalization in 2021. It failed so spectacularly and was so unpopular the state had to reverse course and re-criminalize in 2024,” Dunn said. “While the intent of encouraging medical research is commendable, treating King County as a free-for-all for experimental drugs does not accomplish that intent.”
The motion does not change current law but is intended to guide policy priorities and signal the county’s position as research into psychedelic-assisted therapies continues to expand.
