This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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For more than a decade, Oregon was my home base. I lived in the city of Portland in particular. Spent most of my time there when I wasn't traveling around the world, which was a lot of time, but that was my home base. And it was known as being especially open to new ideas. Portland, Oregon.
After legalizing cannabis in 2014, the state recently began allowing the legal use of psilocybin, also known as a naturally occurring psychedelic compound that comes from mushrooms, okay? So mushrooms as a drug, psilocybin, recently legalized. This is slowly starting to happen in some other states and areas as well, though not nearly as quickly as cannabis. And so this is some background here for today's topic. We've got a listener who wants to write a guide to psilocybin, including reviews, best practices, and how-to.
But of course, as mentioned, this wonder drug is not yet legal in most parts of the US and in most other countries. So then what does that mean in terms of their ability to sell a guide that provides this type of information? It's a very gray area sort of topic or a changing transitory area. So it brings up a lot of unique factors and considerations, both in terms of increasing interest, but also liability, right? So let's talk about it, the guide to psilocybin, at least the potential guide, written by one of our listeners.
There are detailed questions coming to us after this quick sponsor message. [Music]
Hi, Chris, this is Frank, and I found your show after a friend recommended it. Psilocybin is now legal in several states, and it's only a matter of time before it expands across the country, just like legal cannabis. For now, however, it's still early days, and what's legal in one state or jurisdiction remains illegal elsewhere. This brings me to my question.
I don't want to sell the actual product, just a guide to its benefits and a directory of where to find it within those legal states. Could I get in trouble for selling this elsewhere, even though it's perfectly legal in some places? Looking forward to what you have to say about this. Thanks. [Music]
Hey, Frank, thanks for listening.
Just a quick disclosure, I cannot offer legal advice, of course, but there is some precedent and best practices, which I can discuss. I do think if you're actually going to sell this, you need to get some more competent counsel in your specific area. But in terms of the precedent and best practices, if you're telling people how to do something that's illegal, it could be a problem, right? Like the police are probably not gonna show up at your house and arrest you, but you could run into trouble with your payment process or bank. Sometimes PayPal decides that they don't like what someone is selling, and they just keep the money, basically.
So what you need to do, however, is provide multiple disclaimers that your information is for research purposes only. And you can also freely report on anything that's newsworthy. So obviously it is newsworthy that a state has made something legal. And there is this growing industry that operates according to specific guidelines and restrictions. And so, in fact, those guidelines and restrictions, that's part of what you are reporting on, right?
That's part of what you're documenting in this guide, presumably. All of which is different than telling someone, like here's how you actually grow illegal drugs in your basement, or drugs that might be illegal in certain jurisdictions and such. Again, not legal advice here. It's just based on business ideas and implementation. So I would recommend you talk with an attorney once again in your state or province to make sure you're in the clear.
There definitely will be opportunities in this market the same way that there were for cannabis as that became more and more legalized. So we'll see what happens. But good luck, Frank. Good luck, listeners. If you've got a question, something you're working on, sidehustleschool.com/questions, we'll continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from listeners as they launch their projects.
Maybe we'll hear back from Frank and see what he's working on. Whatever you're working on today, I hope you do something for yourself. I hope you subscribe or follow and come back for a new episode tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You are listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
