Portland moves to make magic mushrooms a low police priority days after delaying a fentanyl crackdown in parks
September 22, 2026 - Seattle Red
Portland City Council will take up an ordinance Wednesday making personal use of psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca and other natural psychedelics a low police priority. It comes eight days after the committee that advanced it put off a proposal targeting fentanyl, meth, and weapons in city parks.
The psychedelics measure, Ordinance 2026-186, adds a new chapter to city code covering the possession, use, cultivation, gathering, processing and gifting of natural psychedelics for noncommercial use. Sales remain illegal, and so does driving under the influence. The amended code language reviewed by Seattle Red also spells out what “low priority” means for officers.
“Laws designated as low priority for law enforcement will generally get addressed, if at all, after higher priority crimes,” the text said.
The sponsors, Councilors Mitch Green, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Angelita Morillo and Tiffany Koyama Lane, argue in its findings that the change saves police resources for more urgent needs. The city’s parks debate tests that argument.
Council says it wants to target the most dangerous drugs
The first finding lays out the reasoning for the change.
“The City of Portland must allocate limited public safety and behavioral health resources in a manner that addresses the most harmful substances, reduces overdose deaths, and prioritizes activities that pose the greatest risk to community safety, consistent with Oregon law and recent statewide policy changes,” it reads.
The Safe Parks Ordinance, introduced by Councilor Eric Zimmerman, goes after those exact substances. It would extend elevated park exclusions to 90 days for drug possession, weapons possession and certain types of abuse. Exclusions would also cover sidewalks and city property next to a park. It would also end an automatic stay the city’s impact statement describes.
“Currently, if a person who has been issued an exclusion files a short form and required information to the City Hearings Office, they are granted an automatic stay of the exclusion for almost any City-owned park. This allows them to immediately return to the park and continue the same illegal behavior,” the statement says.
The Community and Public Safety Committee heard the parks proposal September 15 and continued it without a vote. That same committee sent the psychedelics measure to the full council August 4 on a 4-1 vote, with Councilor Loretta Smith opposed. Members first voted 3-2 to strip out a proposed Portland Psychedelics Advisory Commission, though the official title still names it.
Police capacity is already thin. The council cut $20 million from the Portland Police Bureau budget this year. The bureau told KATU it handles park calls like any other.
“As resources allow, officers will assess the circumstances, address violations of law when appropriate, and take the appropriate enforcement or other action,” the bureau said.
Portland points to Seattle as a model
The psychedelics ordinance lists Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia among the cities that already treat noncommercial use of natural psychedelics as a minimal enforcement concern. Seattle’s version, passed in 2021, was a nonbinding resolution recommending the Seattle Police Department treat those cases as among its lowest priorities. Portland would write the policy directly into city code.
Seattle leans on a different tool for street drug activity, its Stay Out of Drug Area zones. Seattle Red has reported that those zones pushed drug activity into parts of Belltown.
Oregon has tried looser drug enforcement before. Voters decriminalized possession of hard drugs through Measure 110 in 2020, and the Legislature reversed course in 2024 with House Bill 4002. The psychedelics ordinance cites that law in its findings.
Wednesday’s hearing is a first reading. Because it is not an emergency ordinance, the measure must return for a second reading before a final vote. The Safe Parks Ordinance has no new hearing date posted on the city’s website.
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