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Psilocybin Research

Psilocybin law outside the United States

12 jurisdictions, each with the governing law named — and each marked with how strong our source for it is.

Legal statusReviewed

The short answer

No country has made psilocybin generally lawful. Australia lets psychiatrists holding a specific TGA approval prescribe it for treatment-resistant depression only. New Zealand has granted exactly one named psychiatrist that power. Canada permits it via clinical trials, its Special Access Program, or a ministerial exemption. Switzerland grants case-by-case authorizations. Oregon and Colorado run supervised non-medical programs under state law. Jamaica does not schedule it, and the Netherlands banned the mushroom in 2008 while leaving the sclerotia unnamed. Every one of those is narrower than its headlines.

Twelve countries are shaded. Everything gray is a country we have not covered yet, not a country where psilocybin is unregulated.

Too small to see on the map

Medical access (4)
A lawful route to psilocybin exists through a health system — a prescriber, an authorization, or a named-patient scheme. Almost always narrow, and almost always for one indication.
Regulated non-medical access (1)
Supervised access outside a medical framework, under a licensing regime. Oregon and Colorado are the only examples anywhere.
Decriminalized (2)
Possession for personal use is not a criminal offense, usually handled as an administrative matter. Supply and production remain crimes, and nothing is lawfully sold.
Not scheduled (3)
The substance or the mushroom is not named in the country's controlled-substances law. This is usually a gap rather than a policy, and gaps get closed.
Controlled (2)
A controlled substance with no lawful access route outside approved research.
Not covered here
We have not verified this jurisdiction. It says nothing about the law there.

How to read this page, and why it is short

The best existing resource of this kind covers fifty-plus countries and says plainly that its authors are “neither lawyers nor residents in these countries, and our information is only as good as our interpretation of the materials we reviewed.” That is an honest disclaimer, and it is also the standard we are trying to beat rather than match.

So this list is 12 jurisdictions rather than fifty, and every entry states the strength of its own sourcing. 4 entries are marked as read from a government source, and link to the page we read and the date we read it. The rest are marked as documented: well established, consistently reported, not verified against the statute by us. That distinction sits on the card rather than in a footnote, because it changes what a reader should do with the row.

The list grows as entries get verified, not as countries get added. If you can point us at a primary source for a jurisdiction we have not covered — or show us that one of these is wrong — the editor reads every message.

4 verified from government sources

Read from the source

Each of these links to the government page we read and the date we read it.

Australia

Medical access

Poisons Standard (Schedules 8 and 9)

Since 1 July 2023, psilocybine sits in Schedule 8 when prescribed by a psychiatrist holding TGA Authorized Prescriber approval, for treatment-resistant depression only. For every other indication and every other prescriber it remains Schedule 9. States add their own notification requirements — Victoria requires the department be told at least seven days before each patient is prescribed.

Commonly misread

Reported worldwide as Australia legalizing psilocybin. It did not. It moved one indication, for one type of specializt holding a specific approval, into a prescribable schedule. Victoria's own guidance states that psilocybine “remains as a Schedule 9 substance for indications other than treatment-resistant depression”.

Read from Victorian Department of Health on August 31, 2026.

New Zealand

Medical access

Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 (Class A), with individual prescriber approval

On 19 June 2025 the Ministry of Health granted one named psychiatrist approval to prescribe, supply and administer psilocybin to patients they have assessed with treatment-resistant depression. Psilocybin otherwise remains a Class A controlled drug, and no psilocybin product has been assessed for safety or efficacy by Medsafe.

Commonly misread

Headlines said New Zealand approved medicinal psilocybin. The Ministry's own wording is narrower than that: “the approval is specific to this psychiatrist, so only they will be able to prescribe psilocybin.” One prescriber, nationwide.

Read from New Zealand Ministry of Health on August 31, 2026.

Canada

Medical access

Controlled Drugs and Substances Act

Health Canada states that activities with psilocybin and psilocin — sale, possession and production — are illegal unless it authorizes them. Three routes exist: an authorized clinical trial, the Special Access Program (restored in January 2022, for serious or life-threatening conditions where conventional treatment has failed), and an individual section 56(1) exemption from the Minister. No therapeutic psilocybin product is approved in Canada.

Commonly misread

The Special Access Program is often described as a right of access. It is a practitioner-initiated request, decided case by case, and Health Canada directs applicants to trials first.

Read from Health Canada on August 31, 2026.

United States

Regulated non-medical access

Controlled Substances Act (Schedule I), plus Oregon and Colorado state law

Schedule I federally, with no FDA-approved psilocybin medicine. Oregon and Colorado operate licensed supervised-access programs under state law that do not affect federal status. Our state-by-state tracker covers all 51 jurisdictions in detail.

Commonly misread

A state program is often read as making psilocybin legal in that state. It creates a lawful route under state law only; the substance remains federally prohibited everywhere, including inside those programs.

Read from DEA drug fact sheet on August 31, 2026.

8 documented, not yet verified

Well established, not read from the statute

These positions are consistently reported and we have no reason to doubt them. We have not read the underlying law ourselves, so treat each as a starting point rather than an answer.

Netherlands

Not scheduled

Opium Act, List I

Psilocybin-containing mushrooms were added to the Opium Act in December 2008 after a widely reported death. Sclerotia — the underground growths sold as truffles — were not named in that measure and continue to be sold openly, which is why the country's retreat industry exists.

Commonly misread

Described as legalization. It is the opposite: a ban that named one form of the organism and not another. The Dutch position on truffles rests on a drafting boundary rather than a decision that they are safe, and it could be closed.

Well documented and consistently reported, but not verified against the statute by us. Treat as a starting point. Reviewed August 31, 2026.

Jamaica

Not scheduled

Dangerous Drugs Act

Psilocybin is not named in Jamaica's controlled-substances legislation, which is why a substantial retreat sector operates there lawfully. There is no medical framework, no licensing regime and no facilitator standard attached to that position.

Commonly misread

Not scheduled is not the same as regulated. Nothing in Jamaican law sets a standard for who may run a retreat, what screening they must do, or what happens if something goes wrong.

Well documented and consistently reported, but not verified against the statute by us. Treat as a starting point. Reviewed August 31, 2026.

Portugal

Decriminalized

Law 30/2000

Portugal decriminalized personal possession of all drugs in 2001. Possession below a threshold quantity is an administrative matter handled by a dissuasion commission rather than a criminal court. Supply, production and sale remain criminal offenses.

Commonly misread

Decriminalization is routinely reported as legalization. Nothing is lawfully sold in Portugal, and a retreat operating there is not operating in a permissive regime.

Well documented and consistently reported, but not verified against the statute by us. Treat as a starting point. Reviewed August 31, 2026.

Czechia

Decriminalized

Criminal Code, with quantity thresholds

Possession of small quantities for personal use is treated as a misdemeanor rather than a criminal offense. Cultivation, supply and sale remain crimes.

Well documented and consistently reported, but not verified against the statute by us. Treat as a starting point. Reviewed August 31, 2026.

Brazil

Not scheduled

ANVISA Ordinance 344/1998

Psilocybin and psilocin are controlled, but the mushrooms containing them are not separately listed, producing a long-standing ambiguity that courts have treated inconsistently. Ayahuasca has an explicit religious-use framework; psilocybin does not.

Commonly misread

The ambiguity is often reported as legality. It is unresolved rather than permissive, and being prosecuted while an ambiguity is unresolved is a real outcome.

Well documented and consistently reported, but not verified against the statute by us. Treat as a starting point. Reviewed August 31, 2026.

United Kingdom

Controlled

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Class A)

Class A, the most restrictive category, alongside heroin and cocaine. Psilocybin is also Schedule 1 under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations, meaning researchers need a Home Office license — a requirement repeatedly identified by UK researchers as the main obstacle to trials.

Commonly misread

Fresh mushrooms were once argued to fall outside the Act; that gap was closed in 2005. There is no lawful form.

Well documented and consistently reported, but not verified against the statute by us. Treat as a starting point. Reviewed August 31, 2026.

Germany

Controlled

Betäubungsmittelgesetz, Anlage I

Psilocybin and psilocin are in Annex I of the Narcotics Act — not marketable and not prescribable. Research is possible under license, and Germany hosts several psilocybin trials.

Well documented and consistently reported, but not verified against the statute by us. Treat as a starting point. Reviewed August 31, 2026.

Switzerland

Medical access

Narcotics Act, exceptional-use authorization

The Federal Office of Public Health can grant time-limited exceptional authorizations for restricted medical use of psilocybin in individual patients, a route that has operated on a small scale for years. It sits alongside, not instead of, the substance's controlled status.

Commonly misread

Sometimes described as Switzerland legalizing psychedelic therapy. It is a case-by-case exemption mechanism, granted in modest numbers, not a general access route.

Well documented and consistently reported, but not verified against the statute by us. Treat as a starting point. Reviewed August 31, 2026.

Three patterns worth noticing

Medical access is always narrower than the headline. Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland were all reported as legalizing psychedelic medicine. What each actually created was a permission attached to a specific prescriber, a specific indication, or a specific patient. New Zealand’s is the clearest case: one psychiatrist, nationwide.

The permissive countries are permissive by accident. Jamaica never scheduled psilocybin. The Netherlands banned mushrooms and did not name sclerotia. Brazil controls the compound and not the organism. None of those is a considered judgment that supervised use is safe, and gaps of that kind close — the UK closed its fresh-mushroom gap in 2005.

Not scheduled is not regulated, and that matters most to the people who travel. The countries with retreat industries are the ones with no framework at all: no screening standard, no facilitator qualification, no complaints route, no recourse. A licensed Oregon center operates under rules; a Jamaican retreat operates under none. That is the opposite of how the two are usually compared.

The US, state by stateDecriminalized is not legalWhat a facilitator license requires

Common questions

Questions about the law abroad

Where is psilocybin legal in the world?
Nowhere in the way that phrase is usually meant. Australia allows psychiatrists with a specific TGA approval to prescribe it for treatment-resistant depression only; New Zealand has granted one named psychiatrist the same power; Canada permits it through clinical trials, its Special Access Program or a ministerial exemption; Switzerland grants case-by-case medical authorizations. Oregon and Colorado run supervised non-medical programs under state law. Jamaica and, for one form, the Netherlands simply do not schedule it. No country has made psilocybin generally lawful.
Is psilocybin legal in the Netherlands?
Mushrooms are not. They were added to the Opium Act in December 2008. Sclerotia — the underground growths sold as truffles — were not named in that measure and continue to be sold, which is why the Dutch retreat industry exists. That position rests on a drafting boundary rather than on a policy decision that truffles are safe, and it could be closed.
Did Australia legalize psilocybin?
No, though it was reported that way worldwide. From 1 July 2023 psilocybine moved to Schedule 8 — prescribable — but only when prescribed by a psychiatrist holding TGA Authorized Prescriber approval, and only for treatment-resistant depression. Victoria's own guidance states it remains a Schedule 9 substance for every other indication.
Did New Zealand approve psilocybin?
One psychiatrist was approved, on 19 June 2025, to prescribe it for treatment-resistant depression. The Ministry of Health's wording is explicit: the approval is specific to that psychiatrist, so only they can prescribe. Psilocybin remains a Class A controlled drug and no psilocybin product has been assessed by Medsafe.
Can I travel somewhere to take psilocybin legally?
People do, mainly to the Netherlands and Jamaica, and both positions are narrower than the marketing suggests. Neither country regulates retreats: nothing in either legal system sets a standard for screening, facilitator training or what happens if something goes wrong. Not scheduled is not the same as regulated, and it offers a participant no protection at all.
Is this page legal advice?
No. We are a publication rather than a law firm, drug law changes without notice, and enforcement often differs from the text of a statute. Entries marked as officially sourced link to the government page we read; entries marked documented are well-established positions we have not verified against the statute ourselves, and should be treated as a starting point for your own check.