Psilocybin Legal Status by U.S. State and Country (2026)

Last updated: July 2, 2026 · Data as of January 2026 · Reviewed against the editorial policy

As of January 2026, two U.S. states — Oregon and Colorado — operate licensed, regulated psilocybin access programs for adults, one additional state — New Mexico — has enacted a medical psilocybin law that is not yet operational, and at least fourteen U.S. cities and counties have formally deprioritized or decriminalized enforcement against psilocybin possession. Oregon voters approved Measure 109 in November 2020, and the state's first licensed psilocybin service centers opened in 2023.^[2] Colorado voters approved Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act, in November 2022, and licensed "healing centers" began operating in 2025.^[3] The wave of local measures began with Denver's Initiated Ordinance 301 in May 2019 and has since spread to cities including Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Detroit, and Washington, D.C.^[4] None of these state or local reforms changes federal law: psilocybin remains a Schedule I controlled substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970.^[1]

This page is a reference table, not a recommendation. It exists so that readers, journalists, and researchers can see the legal landscape in one place. For background on what psilocybin is and how it works, see What is psilocybin. For the health risks that these laws are partly designed to manage, see Risks.

Key figures at a glance

• 2 U.S. states with operating regulated access programs (Oregon, Colorado), as of January 2026.
• 1 additional U.S. state with an enacted but not-yet-operational medical psilocybin law (New Mexico, 2025).
• 14+ U.S. cities and counties with formal decriminalization or enforcement-deprioritization measures.
• 1 country (Australia) where authorized psychiatrists may legally prescribe psilocybin for a specific condition, since July 2023.^[5]
• 0 U.S. states where psilocybin is legal to sell or possess outside a licensed or medical framework. Retail sale remains illegal everywhere in the United States.

Federal status in the United States

Psilocybin and psilocin are listed in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, enacted in 1970.^[1] Schedule I is the most restrictive category. It is defined by three findings: a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. Manufacture, distribution, and possession of psilocybin are federal crimes regardless of state law. State-level programs such as Oregon's and Colorado's operate in legal tension with federal law; federal authorities have so far generally not intervened in state-licensed programs, but that is a matter of enforcement discretion, not legal protection.

At the same time, the federal government permits and regulates psilocybin research. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted "breakthrough therapy" designation to psilocybin-based drug development programs twice: to COMPASS Pathways in 2018 for treatment-resistant depression, and to Usona Institute in 2019 for major depressive disorder.^[6] Breakthrough designation does not legalize a drug. It signals that preliminary evidence suggests the drug may offer substantial improvement over available therapies, and it speeds FDA review. In 2023 the FDA also published draft guidance for researchers designing clinical trials with psychedelic drugs.^[7] The state of that research is tracked on our clinical research page.

U.S. states with psilocybin reform

The table below lists every U.S. state that, to our knowledge as of January 2026, has enacted a statewide law creating regulated access, a medical program, or statewide decriminalization of psilocybin. States with only failed ballot measures or vetoed bills are described in the notes after the table.

Source: Wikipsilocybin, compiled from public records. Data as of January 2026.

Notable non-passages. Several high-profile efforts did not become law. In California, Senate Bill 58, which would have decriminalized possession of several plant- and fungus-based psychedelics, passed the legislature in 2023 but was vetoed by the governor. In Massachusetts, Question 4, a 2024 ballot measure modeled partly on Colorado's system, was rejected by voters in November 2024. Many other states have introduced study bills, task forces, or research funding measures; those are outside this table because they do not change the legal status of possession or access.

U.S. city and county measures

Local measures do not make psilocybin legal. Most of them instruct local police and prosecutors to treat adult possession of psilocybin (often alongside other "entheogenic plants and fungi") as their lowest enforcement priority, or bar the use of city funds for such enforcement. State and federal law still apply within these cities. The list below covers the local measures we are most confident about; there are additional smaller jurisdictions with similar resolutions.

Source: Wikipsilocybin, compiled from public records. Data as of January 2026.

International legal status

Psilocybin is controlled internationally under the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, which lists psilocybin in Schedule I.^[9] Notably, the UN's own commentary and subsequent interpretations have treated the convention as covering the chemical compound, while the status of mushrooms themselves is left largely to national law. That gap explains much of the international variation below.

Source: Wikipsilocybin, compiled from public records. Data as of January 2026.

Decriminalized, legalized, or regulated: what the terms mean

News coverage often blurs these categories, so this page applies them strictly:

• Decriminalized means criminal penalties for personal possession have been removed or reduced to a non-criminal sanction, or enforcement has been formally deprioritized. The substance is still illegal. There is no legal way to buy it. Portugal nationally and most U.S. city measures fall here.
• Regulated access means a government licenses specific settings where adults can legally receive psilocybin under defined conditions, as in Oregon and Colorado. This is sometimes loosely called "legalization," but possession outside the licensed system generally remains restricted, and sale outside it remains a crime.
• Medical program means access is limited to patients who qualify under clinical criteria, as in Australia's psychiatrist-prescriber model and New Mexico's enacted law.
• Legalized, in the full retail sense that applies to cannabis in some states, does not describe psilocybin anywhere in the United States as of January 2026.

The distinction matters for harm reduction. In every category, unregulated products carry the same uncertainties about species, dose, and adulteration described on our risks page, and legal status has no bearing on drug interactions — see drug interactions. Common misunderstandings about what "decriminalized" means are covered on our myths page.

Methodology

This page was compiled by the Wikipsilocybin editorial team using the following method:

1. Sources. Entries are based on primary public records where possible: ballot measure texts, session laws, agency announcements (such as Oregon Health Authority, Colorado Department of Revenue and Department of Regulatory Agencies, the U.S. FDA, Australia's TGA, and Health Canada), and court or council records. Secondary reporting was used only to locate primary sources.
2. Inclusion criteria. Table 1 includes only enacted statewide laws that change legal access to or penalties for psilocybin. Table 2 includes local measures that formally deprioritize or decriminalize enforcement. Study commissions, task forces, and research appropriations are excluded. Table 3 is a non-exhaustive selection of countries most often asked about.
3. Classification. Each entry is classified using the definitions in the section above, applied to the letter of the measure rather than to how it was described in headlines.
4. Honesty about currency. The data on this page reflects the editorial team's knowledge as of January 2026. Because legislation in this area moves quickly, each entry must be re-verified against the official source — the state legislature's website, the regulating agency, or the national government gazette — before this page is treated as current. Where our confidence in a specific detail (such as a bill number) was not high, we described the measure qualitatively instead of citing a number. Current-law claims on this page should be verified against official sources on July 3, 2026 before publication.

Limitations

• Laws change fast. This field has seen multiple new laws every year since 2019, and at least one major reversal (Oregon's Measure 110 rollback in 2024). Anything on this page can be out of date. The "data as of" date at the top governs.
• Enforcement varies. A deprioritization resolution does not bind state police or federal agents. People have been prosecuted under state law in cities with local decriminalization measures.
• Details are simplified. Quantity thresholds, licensing rules, and penalty structures are more complicated than a table cell can hold. The cited measures, not this table, are authoritative.
• International coverage is selective. Table 3 covers commonly asked-about countries, not the whole world. Absence from the table implies nothing about a country's law.
• This is not legal advice. Nothing here should be used to make decisions with legal consequences. Consult a licensed attorney in the relevant jurisdiction.

Legal status is only one part of the picture. Readers looking for safety-relevant education can start with set and setting, difficult experiences, and emergencies. Definitions of the legal and pharmacological terms used on this page are in the glossary.