BEND, OR -- Deschutes County Commissioners have again denied a request to open a psilocybin service center at Juniper Preserve, formerly Pronghorn. The applicant had appealed a hearings officer's determination that the BLM could revoke its right-of-way agreement, which allows access to the resort.

Psilocybin is illegal at the federal level and not allowed on federal land. Commissioner Tony DeBone says it's too big of a risk, "It boils down to the fact that we don't have the same situation as Marijuana had the Cole Memo at the federal level. So, I do support the fact that this is a reason to deny." Commissioner Patti Adair agreed, "It would seem appropriate at this time to uphold the hearings officer decision. I just, I can't see any other way. And we did receive a letter from the BLM stating that issue, quite a few months ago."

Commissioner Phil Chang was the only vote against the denial, Wednesday, saying the BLM isn't preventing psilocybin shipments elsewhere, "There's psilocybin being transported across federal land, all over the state of Oregon. I mean, you can't come over the mountains without going across federal land - Forest Service land, BLM land." He added, "If the federal government is not stepping in in all of those cases and asserting federal controlled-substance law and detaining people who are transporting that material, I don't see a real threat of BLM revoking the right of way."

Chang now wants more work on the county's existing psilocybin rules, "Now that the discussion of the application is done, we can step to the bigger policy discussion, which is that the voters of Deschutes County directed the Board of Commissioners twice, through their votes, to provide access to psilocybin services in the unincorporated county." Because of our region's high concentration of federal land, Chang says Commissioners need to figure out how to accommodate contradicting state and federal laws.