Are magic mushrooms legal where you live? Psilocybin law by country and US state

Countries

Not controlled

No specific law against psilocybin mushrooms, or they sit outside the controlled list. That is not the same as encouraged, and other laws may still apply.

• Bahamas: Not named in the controlled substances schedules. Widely treated as lawful, though there is no positive law protecting it either.
• Jamaica: Psilocybin has never been placed under the Dangerous Drugs Act. Cultivation, sale and use all happen openly, and a retreat industry is built on it.

Supervised access

Lawful only inside a licensed programme, with a trained facilitator or a prescriber. Outside that programme it remains a criminal offence.

• Australia: Since July 2023, psychiatrists authorised under the Authorised Prescriber scheme may prescribe psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Everything else stays a serious offence.
• Canada: A controlled substance, with two lawful routes: a s.56 exemption, and the Special Access Programme for patients. Storefronts operating outside those routes are being raided.
• Israel: Illegal, with a compassionate-use pathway for a small number of patients.
• New Zealand: Class A, with a narrow 2025 opening allowing a small number of approved psychiatrists to prescribe. Personal cultivation carries heavy penalties.
• Switzerland: Prohibited, with limited-medical-use authorisations granted case by case for therapy since 2014.

Decriminalized

Still illegal, but personal possession is handled without a criminal conviction. Almost never covers cultivation, and almost never covers supply.

• Argentina: The Supreme Court held that punishing private personal possession is unconstitutional. The statute itself was never rewritten.
• Austria: Possession for personal use is generally not prosecuted, and picking wild mushrooms is treated leniently. Deliberate cultivation is not.
• Colombia: Possession of a personal dose is not criminal following constitutional court rulings. Supply is prosecuted.
• Czechia: Possession of a small amount is an administrative offence. Growing more than a token number of plants or mushrooms is prosecuted.
• Italy: Personal possession is an administrative matter, handled with licence suspensions rather than prison. Cultivation is still an offence.
• Netherlands: Fresh mushrooms were banned in 2008, but sclerotia ("truffles") were left off the list and are sold legally. Growing mushrooms is illegal.
• Portugal: All personal drug possession has been an administrative matter, not a crime, since 2001. Cultivation and supply remain criminal offences.
• Spain: Private personal use and possession are not criminal. Public possession draws a fine, and cultivation for supply is a crime.

Unclear or unenforced

The mushrooms themselves are not clearly named in law, or the law is not meaningfully enforced. Treat this as risk, not permission.

• Brazil: Psilocybin is a controlled substance but the fungi themselves are not listed, which has repeatedly produced acquittals. Prosecutions still happen.
• Cambodia: Formally controlled, historically barely enforced, with periodic crackdowns. Do not read weak enforcement as safety.
• Chile: Personal, private consumption is not itself an offence, but cultivation and any supply are, and the line is drawn by a prosecutor.
• Costa Rica: Not clearly scheduled, and a retreat industry operates openly. That is regulatory silence rather than legality.
• India: Psilocybin is scheduled, but the mushrooms are not named in the NDPS schedules, which has produced inconsistent outcomes.
• Mexico: Illegal in general law, with an explicit carve-out for traditional ceremonial use by Indigenous communities. Tourist "ceremonies" are not that carve-out.
• Nepal: Mushrooms are not specifically scheduled and enforcement is rare, but the broader narcotics law is written loosely enough to reach them.
• Peru: Possession of a small personal amount is not punished, and traditional plant use has cultural protection. Commercial activity is prosecuted.

Illegal

Possession and cultivation are criminal offences. Penalties range from a fine to many years in prison.

• Belgium: Controlled, with possession of very small amounts sometimes given lowest priority for adults.
• China: Controlled, with severe penalties.
• Cuba: Controlled, with strict enforcement.
• Denmark: Controlled, and fines for possession are issued routinely.
• Egypt: Controlled, with severe penalties.
• Finland: Controlled substance. Possession is prosecuted as a narcotics offence.
• France: Classified as a narcotic, with mushrooms explicitly named. Enforcement is real.
• Germany: Anlage I, the most restricted category. Small-quantity possession is sometimes not prosecuted at the prosecutor's discretion, which is not the same as lawful.
• Greece: Controlled, though personal-use possession by a non-dependent user is treated more leniently since 2013.
• Hungary: Controlled, with a diversion option for first-time personal possession.
• Iceland: Controlled substance.
• Indonesia: Group I narcotic. Penalties are severe, up to and including very long sentences.
• Ireland: Banned outright in 2006 after a period when fresh mushrooms were sold openly.
• Japan: Explicitly banned in 2002 after a period of legal sale. Penalties are severe and enforcement is thorough.
• Kenya: Controlled, with prison terms for possession.
• Luxembourg: Controlled. Personal possession is dealt with by fine.
• Malaysia: Controlled, with severe penalties and a presumption of trafficking above threshold quantities.
• Morocco: Controlled under the narcotics law.
• Nigeria: Controlled under the NDLEA regime.
• Norway: Controlled. A decriminalization reform was voted down in 2021, though police practice has softened for small amounts.
• Philippines: Dangerous drug with long mandatory sentences.
• Poland: Controlled. Prosecutors may discontinue cases for very small personal amounts.
• Romania: Listed as a high-risk drug. Possession for personal use is still a criminal offence.
• Russia: Controlled, with severe penalties and active enforcement including for cultivation.
• Saudi Arabia: Controlled, with extremely severe penalties.
• Singapore: Class A. Penalties are among the harshest anywhere, including caning and, for trafficking, death.
• South Africa: Undesirable dependence-producing substance. A constitutional challenge modelled on the cannabis ruling has been argued but not won.
• South Korea: Controlled, and the law reaches citizens for acts committed abroad.
• Sweden: Controlled, with a notably strict enforcement culture and no personal-use tolerance.
• Thailand: Category 5 narcotic. The 2022 cannabis reform did not extend to psilocybin, despite persistent rumours that it did.
• Türkiye: Controlled, with prison sentences for possession and treatment orders for users.
• Ukraine: Controlled substance under the state list.
• United Arab Emirates: Controlled, with severe penalties and zero tolerance including for trace amounts.
• United Kingdom: Class A, including fresh and prepared mushrooms since 2005. Production carries up to life imprisonment. Spores themselves are not controlled, cultivation is.
• United States: Schedule I federally, so unlawful everywhere in federal terms. State law varies enormously and is worth reading separately.
• Uruguay: Cannabis was legalised; psilocybin was not. Possession of a personal amount is not itself criminal.
• Vietnam: Controlled, with severe penalties for possession and supply.

United States, state by state

Psilocybin is Schedule I under federal law in the United States, whatever this state does.

Not controlled

No specific law against psilocybin mushrooms, or they sit outside the controlled list. That is not the same as encouraged, and other laws may still apply.

• Colorado: Personal use, possession, growing and sharing by adults 21+ is lawful under state law, with licensed healing centres opening from 2025. Sale outside a licence is not lawful, and federal law is unchanged.

Supervised access

Lawful only inside a licensed programme, with a trained facilitator or a prescriber. Outside that programme it remains a criminal offence.

• New Mexico: A state medical psilocybin programme was signed into law in 2025, for qualifying conditions with licensed providers.
• Oregon: The first supervised psilocybin services programme in the US, licensed since 2023. Separately, the 2020 drug decriminalization was rolled back in 2024, so personal possession is a criminal matter again.
• Utah: A narrow pilot allowing psilocybin treatment within two named healthcare systems. Outside the pilot it stays a criminal offence.

Illegal

Possession and cultivation are criminal offences. Penalties range from a fine to many years in prison.

• Arizona: Illegal, with state funding appropriated for clinical psilocybin research.
• California: Illegal statewide, with several cities that have made enforcement the lowest priority: Oakland, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Berkeley, Arcata and Eureka. A statewide decriminalization bill was vetoed in 2023.
• Florida: Illegal, and possession is a felony. No decriminalization anywhere in the state.
• Georgia: Illegal, and possession is a felony.
• Illinois: Illegal statewide. Chicago passed a resolution urging deprioritization and research.
• Massachusetts: Illegal statewide. Somerville, Cambridge, Northampton, Easthampton, Salem, Medford, Amherst and Provincetown have deprioritized. A statewide ballot measure was defeated in 2024.
• Michigan: Illegal statewide, with deprioritization in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale, Hazel Park and Ypsilanti.
• Minnesota: Illegal statewide. Minneapolis has deprioritized enforcement, and a state psychedelic medicine task force has reported.
• Missouri: Illegal. A right-to-try style access bill has been introduced without passing.
• Nevada: Illegal, with a working group established to study psychedelic medicine.
• New Jersey: Illegal, though possession of under an ounce was reduced from a felony to a disorderly persons offence in 2021.
• New York: Illegal. Decriminalization and therapeutic-access bills have been introduced repeatedly without passing.
• Pennsylvania: Illegal, with a research-funding bill passed by the House.
• Texas: Illegal, with state-funded research into psilocybin for veterans with PTSD.
• Washington: Illegal statewide. Seattle, Olympia, Port Townsend and Jefferson County have deprioritized enforcement, and the state has funded a psilocybin advisory work group.
• Washington DC: Illegal, with enforcement against personal use and cultivation of entheogenic plants and fungi made the lowest priority by ballot initiative.

How to read a law

Decriminalized does not mean legal

It usually means personal possession is handled without a criminal conviction. It almost never covers growing, and it almost never covers giving mushrooms to somebody else. If you grow in a decriminalized place, you are still committing the more serious offence.

Supervised access is not a general permission

Programmes in Oregon, Australia, Canada and New Mexico make psilocybin lawful inside a licensed setting with a trained professional. Outside that setting, in the same jurisdiction, nothing has changed.

Cities are not states, and states are not countries

A city can make enforcement its lowest priority while the state still charges felonies and the federal government still calls it Schedule I. Layered law is the norm, not the exception.

Spores are often treated separately from mushrooms

Spores contain no psilocybin, which is why they are sold openly in places where growing is a serious crime. Buying spores lawfully does not make germinating them lawful.

When sources disagree, take the stricter reading

Laws change faster than the articles about them. Find the instrument, check the date, check whether it names cultivation, and speak to a qualified local person before you act on anything you read here.