Psychedelics: The Facts, the Evidence and the Policy
Psilocybin, MDMA, LSD and ibogaine are being sold to the public as breakthrough medicine before the trials are done. This is FDPS’s psychedelics hub: what each drug does and what it risks, what the clinical trials actually found, why the FDA has approved none of them, who is pushing legalization and who is standing against it, and what a science-first psychedelics policy looks like. Every page links its sources.
The FDA turned down MDMA-assisted therapy in 2024 and in 2026 set a higher bar for every psychedelic trial. Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico run psilocybin programs with no approval, no prescription and no diagnosis.
What the evidence shows for each drug
Is psilocybin safe?
The compound in magic mushrooms: trials nobody could blind, bad trips, lasting perceptual disorders, psychosis in some users, and child poison calls up 723 percent since Denver decriminalized.
MDMA therapy and the FDA
How the flagship psychedelic application was voted down 9 to 2 and 10 to 1, rejected in August 2024, and followed by three retractions and a therapist abuse case.
Ibogaine treatment risks
The addiction drug being sold to veterans through clinics abroad: cardiac deaths, no controlled trials, and a funders’ strategy that chose veterans as the messenger.
The case, the hype and the opposition
Arguments against psychedelic legalization
The evidence-based case in one place: no FDA approval, weak unblinded trials, youth use disorder up, real harms, medicine by ballot and an industry chasing profit.
The psychedelic hype vs. the evidence
“Fix depression.” “Net-zero trauma by 2070.” The claims next to the trials: broken blinds, shrinking effects, the harms the headlines omit and the money behind it.
Who opposes psychedelic legalization?
The American Psychiatric Association, the AMA, FDA advisers, state medical societies, governors of both parties, Massachusetts voters, 23 of 36 Oregon counties and most Americans.
Psychedelics policy: where things stand
The executive order, the FDA’s vouchers, guidance and hearing, the state patchwork, the money, a timeline, and where FDPS stands.
Arguments against drug legalization
Why FDPS opposes legalizing any drug for commercial sale, and what a health-first alternative to both incarceration and commercialization looks like.
Drug facts
Fact pages on kratom and 7-OH, fentanyl, marijuana and the other drugs FDPS covers.
Psychedelics: common questions
Are psychedelics legal in the United States?
Psilocybin, LSD and MDMA are Schedule I drugs under federal law. Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico allow supervised psilocybin use under state programs with no FDA approval, and some cities have deprioritized enforcement. No psychedelic is FDA-approved for any medical condition as of October 2026.
Are psychedelics safe?
Not in the way they are being sold. Risks include bad trips, hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, lasting psychological difficulties, suicidality signals in a major depression trial, and psychosis: people with a hallucinogen-related emergency visit in Ontario had 3.5 times the adjusted risk of a schizophrenia-spectrum diagnosis within three years. Psilocybin poison center calls among teens more than tripled from 2018 to 2022.
Does FDPS oppose psychedelic research?
No. FDPS supports rigorous, independent, replicated trials and FDA approval of anything that passes them. It opposes legalizing or selling Schedule I drugs by ballot measure, bill or executive order before the science is done, and it opposes jailing people for possession.
Related: Psychedelics policy · Arguments against legalization · Is psilocybin safe?
Science first. Then medicine.
If psychedelics are medicine, they should be proven like medicine. FDPS has the evidence, the testimony and the model language for lawmakers being told otherwise.
