Legal status of psilocybin mushrooms


The legal status of unauthorised actions with psilocybin mushrooms varies worldwide. Psilocybin and psilocin are listed as Schedule I drugs under the United Nations 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Schedule I drugs are defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse or drugs that have no recognized medical uses. However, psilocybin mushrooms have had numerous medicinal and religious uses in dozens of cultures throughout history and have a significantly lower potential for abuse than other Schedule I drugs.
Psilocybin mushrooms are not regulated by UN treaties. From a letter, dated 13 September 2001, from Herbert Schaepe, Secretary of the UN International Narcotics Control Board, to the Dutch Ministry of Health:
As you are aware, mushrooms containing the above substances are collected and used for their hallucinogenic effects. As a matter of international law, no plants containing psilocine and psilocybin are at present controlled under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971. Consequently, preparations made of these plants are not under international control and, therefore, not subject of the articles of the 1971 Convention . Criminal cases are decided with reference to domestic law, which may otherwise provide for controls over mushrooms containing psilocine and psilocybin. As the Board can only speak as to the contours of the international drug conventions, I am unable to provide an opinion on the litigation in question.

Many countries, however, have some level of regulation or prohibition of psilocybin mushrooms. The prohibition of psilocybin mushrooms has come under criticism, from the general public and from researchers who see therapeutic potential with regard to drug addictions and other mental instabilities, such as PTSD, anxiety and depression, as well as cluster headaches. Among regulated drugs, psilocybin mushrooms also have relatively few medical risks.
In many national, state, and provincial drug laws, there is a great deal of ambiguity about the legal status of psilocybin mushrooms, as well as a strong element of selective enforcement in some places, since psilocybin and psilocin are deemed illegal to possess without license as substances, but mushrooms themselves are not mentioned in these laws. The legal status of Psilocybe spores is even more ambiguous, as the spores contain neither psilocybin nor psilocin, and hence are not illegal to sell or possess in many jurisdictions, though many jurisdictions will prosecute under broader laws prohibiting items that are used in drug manufacture. A few jurisdictions have specifically prohibited the sale and possession of psilocybin mushroom spores. Cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms is considered drug manufacture in most jurisdictions and is often severely penalized, though some countries and one US state has ruled that growing psilocybin mushrooms does not qualify as "manufacturing" a controlled substance.

List by country

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Although psilocybin and psilocin have long been listed as controlled substances in Switzerland, mushrooms themselves were only specifically banned in 2002, initially by the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products and later, by a revision of the Swiss Narcotics Act in 2008. Until 2002, magic mushrooms were readily available in Switzerland and, according to a Swiss medical agency, their ban was an attempt to prevent their increasing popularity in the country. However, some local health and legal authorities have criticized magic mushroom's prohibition, since surveys have showed that it had little impact on decreasing their consumption in the country.

!Country !! Possession !! Sale !! Transport !! Cultivation !! Notes