Psychedelic Research & Legality
6:18 minutes
Thousands of years ago, people didn’t perform controlled, double-blind studies to try to understand how psychedelic medicines, and any other medicine, worked. Today we live in a very different world, one that wants to understand the mechanisms within the medicine.
We have taken psychedelics into the laboratory.
Clinical research on psychedelics in the U.S. began in the 1940 and 1950s on LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. This research was initially conducted in a relatively open scientific environment, with a lot of interest from psychologists, psychiatrists, and pharmacologists. Researchers began exploring psychedelics as tools for understanding and treating mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and even schizophrenia. The U.S. government, through organizations like the CIA, funded secret research projects like MKUltra, which involved the use of psychedelics for potential mind control and interrogation techniques.
Research essentially came to a halt after the Controlled Substances Act passed in 1970.
Those who had witnessed the healing properties of this medicine didn’t let too much time pass before organizing to change the legality around research.
In 1986, Rick Doblin founded the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which played a crucial role in reviving scientific research into psychedelics. MAPS worked to address the stigma surrounding these substances and advocate for their medical use. In the 1990s, MAPS began to push for approval to study MDMA, eventually getting approval in 2001.
In the early 2000s, researchers at institutions like Johns Hopkins University and New York University received approval to study psilocybin and began conducting controlled studies on psilocybin’s effects on individuals with terminal cancer. By the early 2010s, the scientific community began to take psychedelics seriously again, with growing numbers of studies exploring their therapeutic potential, particularly for mental health disorders such as depression, addiction, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and eating disorders. Over 30 prominent academic institutions are now researching psychedelics.
As of early 2025 in the U.S., MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine all now have something called “breakthrough therapy status” by the FDA. This designation means that the results from the research trials with these substances have substantial promise over existing treatments for serious or life-threatening conditions.
The promising research has led to a growing awareness and interest in psychedelics for the general population. Many public figures have begun to speak out about psychedelics, whether their own personal use, or advocating for public access to these medicines, including Will Smith, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, Jay-Z, Ben Stiller, and Oprah Winfrey.
In parallel with the scientific revival, there is growing public and political support for psychedelic decriminalization and legalization in the U.S.
Cities began to decriminalize psilocybin in the late 2010s, and in 2020, Oregon became the first U.S. state to pass a measure to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use.
You may wonder what exactly does it mean to decriminalize versus legalize. Decriminalization means that they remove criminal penalties for a particular substance, making it no longer subject to arrest, prosecution, or criminal charges under the law. It does not necessarily mean it is completely legal - it just means that law enforcement will prioritize other issues and will not pursue criminal charges for the specific act, though it still may be subject to restrictions or fines.
Today the following cities have decriminalized some psychedelic medicines:
Denver, Colorado
Oakland, CA
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Washington, D.C.
Ann Arbor, MI
Cambridge, MA
Detroit, MI
Somerville, MA
Minneapolis, MN
In the state of Oregon and the cities I just listed, there are specifics about which medicines and how they are being used to be considered decriminalized.
I won’t go into the details about each state and city legal standing on psychedelic medicine, because, well, there is a lot of details and they are constantly changing. If you are curious about the city and state you live in visit the website Psychedelic Alpha. They have the best legalization and decriminalization tracker I’ve found.
Next we’ll talk about what we know so far from this research about how psychedelics are actually working inside the body.
