Skip to main content
GROUP AIMS TO DECRIMINALIZE AYAHUASCA: A new advocacy group, the Plant Medicine Healing Alliance, is bringing an ambitious proposal to Portland City Hall: It wants to decriminalize the cultivation, possession and use of plant and fungi medicines, the most well-known one being ayahuasca. Nathan Howard of East Fork Cultivars is one of the organizers. Howard says people “are finding very deep healing through plants that aren’t protected in the same way that we’ll soon have for psilocybin therapy”—the use of psychedelic mushrooms approved by Oregon voters last fall. Howard tells WW the group will meet with Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty on April 22, and much of the group’s decision whether to continue pursuing the proposal in its current form will hinge on her response. Howard says the alliance’s proposal is “in a very different lane” than Measure 109, which allowed psilocybin-asisted therapy, in that advocates are not asking Portland City Hall to regulate fungi medicines through licensed channels.
REMEMBERING ELIZABETH FURSE: Former U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Furse (D-Ore.) died April 17 at age 84. She served three terms in Congress from 1993 to 1999, representing a district that stretched from Portland’s West Hills to Astoria. Furse was born in Kenya to a British military family and raised in South Africa, where she marched against apartheid at age 15 before later immigrating to the U.S. Furse was remembered for her advocacy on behalf of tribal sovereignty, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive health and the environment. “Our mom often mentioned how meaningful it was to come full circle,” said her daughter Amanda Briggs, “from protesting apartheid as a child to witnessing the beginning of the post-apartheid South Africa with the inauguration of Nelson Mandela”—which she attended as a congresswoman. Oregon’s current congressional leaders praised her leadership: “She was a trailblazer and an inspiration to many—including me,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, who now serves in the 1st District seat Furse held. “Elizabeth Furse made the world a better place, and she will be missed.”
BURDICK WILL RESIGN, OPENING SENATE SEAT: State Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland), who has served a quarter century in the Oregon Legislature, will step down after this legislative session, she tells WW. Burdick’s name was among 76 political appointments announced by Gov. Kate Brown last week. Brown named Burdick to the Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council. Burdick cannot hold a seat on the council while serving in the Legislature. Reached by phone, Burdick confirmed to WW that she will resign her Senate seat. But she says she won’t leave until after this legislative session concludes. Her retirement opens up a Portland legislative seat in the middle of her term. That term doesn’t end until 2025, and the appointment to succeed her is sure to be coveted by many Portland-area Democrats. Among the names being floated: former state Rep. Akasha Lawrence-Spence (D-Portland), a real estate designer who briefly held a House seat last year after the resignation of Rep. Jennifer Williamson (D-Portland).
CITY LOWERS SPEED LIMIT IN EAST PORTLAND: The Portland Bureau of Transportation will lower the speed limit from 35 to 30 mph along a 5.5-mile stretch of 122nd Avenue between Northeast Sandy Boulevard and Southeast Foster Road. The change, which will go into effect April 21, comes after WW reported that half of Portland’s pedestrian deaths in a three-year period occurred in East Portland (“You’re Driving Too Damn Fast,” March 17, 2021). PBOT says 122nd Avenue had 12 traffic fatalities from 2016 to 2020 and passes through five of the most dangerous intersections in Portland.