Who Opposes Psychedelic Legalization? The Doctors, the Regulators, the Voters
The campaign to legalize psychedelics is well funded and well covered. The opposition is rarely named, so here it is: the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association, the FDA’s own advisers, the state medical societies, the governors of both parties who vetoed bills, the voters of Massachusetts, 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties, the founder of the Johns Hopkins psychedelic center, and 58 percent of Americans. Every position below links to its source.
No major medical society endorses psychedelics outside FDA-approved trials. The FDA has approved none and rejected one. Every statewide ballot measure since 2022 has either failed or passed narrowly, and most Americans oppose legal use.
Every major psychiatric and medical society says: trials, not ballots
“There is inadequate scientific evidence for endorsing the use of psychedelics to treat any psychiatric disorder except within the context of approved investigational studies. Clinical treatments should be determined by scientific evidence in accordance with applicable regulatory standards and not by ballot initiatives or popular opinion.”
American Psychiatric Association, position statement, July 2022
Reaffirmed in April 2026 in response to the White House executive order: “There is currently inadequate scientific evidence for endorsing the use of psychedelics.” APA President Theresa Miskimen Rivera, MD: “patients deserve treatments proven to be safe and effective.”
American Medical Association
In June 2023 the AMA adopted policy “to advocate against the use of any psychedelics or entactogenic agents, such as psilocybin and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ‘ecstasy’)” to treat psychiatric disorders “except those which have received FDA approval or those prescribed in approved investigational studies.” In June 2024 its House of Delegates adopted, as amended, a resolution to “oppose any legislative efforts relatable to legalization of Psilocybin/Psilocin.” The AMA supports research and separately supports removing criminal penalties for personal possession; it opposes legalization.
“We oppose creating a system that characterizes psychedelic therapy as evidence-based when the safety and efficacy of these agents have not been fully reviewed by the United States Food and Drug Administration.”
Massachusetts Medical Society, Hugh Taylor, MD, president, October 2024
The Massachusetts Psychiatric Society also formally opposed Question 4. Its president, Nassir Ghaemi, MD, cited the unknowns.
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
When Australia became the first country to reschedule psilocybin and MDMA for psychiatric use, its own psychiatrists had told the regulator they “do not support” either change because “there are not yet adequate protocols in place.” After the change took effect in July 2023 the College’s memorandum said “the evidence base for psychedelic-assisted therapy with either MDMA or psilocybin is limited and emerging.” Its steering group chair, Prof. Richard Harvey: “Put simply, psychedelic-assisted therapy is in its infancy.”
RANZCP submission to the TGA, May 2022; RANZCP clinical memorandum, 2023
Not on this list: no major medical society has endorsed legalization or decriminalization of psychedelics for general use. The honest exception is that the AMA, like FDPS, opposes jailing people for possession. That is a different question from selling the drug.
The regulator has approved none, rejected one, and raised the bar for the rest
- June 4, 2024. The FDA’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee votes 9 to 2 that MDMA-assisted therapy was not shown to be effective for PTSD and 10 to 1 that its benefits do not outweigh its risks. The minutes: “Many stated that the functional unblinding, the lack of management of expectation bias and selection bias limited the interpretability of the efficacy analyses.” FDA, final summary minutes
- June 27, 2024. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review rates the evidence “insufficient” and declines to set a price benchmark. ICER
- August 8, 2024. The FDA rejects the application. Its letter, made public in 2025: “there are substantial concerns about the reliability of the safety data,” the application “fails to establish how MDMA should be used to treat this chronic disease,” and the agency recommends “a new clinical trial.” FDA complete response letter; Psychedelic Alpha
- July 14, 2026. The FDA finalizes its guidance on psychedelic trials: placebo-controlled results must be “strongly persuasive and robust across study endpoints to overcome biases that may be introduced by functional unblinding.” Tech Times on the FDA guidance
- September 14, 2026. The FDA holds a public hearing on psychedelics with about 80 speakers. Oxford’s Edward Jacobs testifies that real-world risk is “more likely to be underestimated than overestimated”; Dartmouth’s Amber Barnato that “certainty of evidence remains low.” FDA; Psychiatric Times
The whistleblowers
The advisory committee met at all because researcher Neşe Devenot, trial participant Meaghan Buisson and co-authors filed a citizen petition in April 2024 demanding an open hearing. Buisson had been filmed being pinned down and spooned by two trial therapists at a 2015 Vancouver site; the sponsor later called the therapists’ conduct “inappropriate and unethical,” and in August 2024 Psychopharmacology retracted three papers from the trials. The full account.
Devenot, May 2024; CBC, March 2022; Pharmacy Times, March 2025
The VA and the DEA
The Department of Veterans Affairs funds research and, as of 2026, is involved in more than 20 trials. It does not offer psychedelics as care: its researchers told Congress psychedelics are “not part of the standard of care,” and in June 2026 the VA said it “strongly discourages self-medicating” with them. Psilocybin, LSD and MDMA remain Schedule I under the DEA. The April 2026 executive order directs faster review and a rescheduling look; it legalizes nothing.
VA testimony, 2022; Stars and Stripes, June 2026; Military Times, July 2026; DEA fact sheet; Reason, April 2026
Both parties, when it reached their desk
“Unfortunately, this bill would decriminalize possession prior to these guidelines going into place, and I cannot sign it.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), vetoing SB 58, psychedelics decriminalization, October 7, 2023
Newsom wrote that treatment guidelines, dosing rules, safeguards against exploitation and “medical clearance of no underlying psychoses” had to come first. The 2024 follow-up bill, SB 1012, died in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“Psilocybin should first be FDA approved and rescheduled by the DEA before the State of Iowa considers rescheduling.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), vetoing HF 383, June 11, 2025
Reynolds wrote that the bill “moves ahead of where our public health systems, regulatory frameworks, and law enforcement infrastructure are prepared to go at this time.” The bill had passed both chambers unanimously.
Massachusetts, November 2024
1,902,527 voters rejected legalized psychedelics. The Massachusetts Medical Society and Massachusetts Psychiatric Society opposed it. The opposition committee, the Coalition for Safe Communities, was chaired by Dr. Anahita Dua of Massachusetts General Hospital (“It would be ridiculous and dangerous and a bad precedent for us to set”) and funded largely by SAM Action, FDPS’s sister organization, which gave $100,000.
Oregon, the first state to try it
Measure 109 passed in 2020. At the first opportunity, in November 2022, voters in 23 of 36 counties and 111 of 241 cities opted out of or paused psilocybin services. In April 2024 Gov. Tina Kotek signed HB 4002, reversing the state’s companion drug decriminalization experiment. Colorado’s Proposition 122 passed in 2022 with 53.6 percent, opposed by Protect Colorado’s Kids, the Native Coalition Against Prop 122 and the editorial boards of the Denver Post and the Gazette.
Where legalization bills went in 2025 and 2026
| State | Measure | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Iowa | HF 383, psilocybin rescheduling | Vetoed by Gov. Reynolds, June 2025; 2026 bills HF 2085 and SF 2151 died in committee |
| New Hampshire | HB 1809 | Passed House February 2026; Senate committee voted “Inexpedient to Legislate,” April 2026 |
| Maine | LD 1034, psilocybin legalization | Not taken up after a narrow initial House vote reversed, 2025 |
| Nevada | AB 378 | Failed, June 2025 |
| New Mexico | SB 410, decriminalization | Tabled, February 2025 (a separate medical psilocybin program was enacted) |
| Mississippi | HB 563 | Died, March 2026 |
| Hawaii | SB 3199 | Died, May 2026 |
| Missouri | HB 829 | Dropped, 2025 |
| Alaska | Natural Medicine Act ballot initiative | Campaign failed to gather signatures for 2026, December 2025 |
For balance: New Mexico enacted a medical psilocybin program in April 2025, New Jersey launched a pilot in January 2026 and Connecticut expanded a pilot in June 2026. No statewide psychedelic legalization measure is on any November 2026 ballot.
UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, law and policy map; Marijuana Moment, December 2025; FDPS on Maine, June 2025
Including the people who ran the trials
“I count myself among the very conservative with respect to the movements afoot to legalize. There are real risks that can result in injury, death, or onset of new debilitating psychiatric conditions.”
Roland Griffiths, PhD, founder, Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, Johns Hopkins Magazine, 2023
“Ballot initiatives are corroding the high standards imposed by the FDA. The use of psychedelics for medical purposes is not ‘settled science.’”
Bertha Madras, PhD, Harvard Medical School, op-ed, 2024
“Psychedelic science is facing serious challenges that threaten the validity of core findings and raise doubt regarding clinical efficacy and safety.”
Michiel van Elk and Eiko Fried, Leiden University, Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, 2023
Van Elk again: “The empirical evidence for the efficacy of and the working mechanisms underlying psychedelic therapy is far from clear.” Stanford’s Boris Heifets, after ketamine given under anesthesia did no better than placebo: “Placebo is probably the single most effective, consistent intervention in medicine, full stop.” The hype, claim by claim, against the trials.
Most Americans do not want these drugs legal
Oppose legal use, U.S. adults, fall 2025
RAND surveyed 10,122 adults in September and October 2025. Support for legal psilocybin use was 23 percent; for LSD and MDMA under 10 percent. Asked which uses should be allowed, 39 percent said no psilocybin use at all, and 53 to 55 percent said the same of LSD and MDMA.
The honest caveat
Support is higher when the question is medical: UC Berkeley’s 2023 survey found 61 percent of registered voters backed regulated therapeutic access. But in its 2025 wave only around 25 percent supported decriminalizing personal use, only about 20 percent said psychedelics were safer than alcohol or tobacco, and just 34 percent thought even supervised use would be safe. Americans will take a medicine that passes trials. They do not want a legal market.
UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, 2025 survey
Where we stand
“This order elevates politics and hype over sound science. The evidence for the supposed therapeutic benefits of these drugs is beyond weak; the research behind it is rife with conflict and industry connections.”
Kevin A. Sabet, PhD, president, FDPS, April 20, 2026
At the FDA’s September 2026 hearing, Sabet testified that psychedelics “should earn approval the way any other class of drug does, through science and trials, not politics.”
We support research. Rigorous, independent, replicated trials, then FDA review. Anything that passes should be prescribed like any other medicine.
We oppose medicine by ballot, bill or executive order. No state should license the sale of a Schedule I drug the FDA has not approved, and no condition should be added to a “treatment” list by a campaign.
We oppose jailing people for possession. The answer to a bad trip is a hospital, not a cell. The answer to a dispensary is not to open one.
Arguments against psychedelic legalization; FDPS on Colorado’s launch, 2025; FDPS testimony to the New York Assembly, 2025; FDPS on the FDA’s MDMA decision, 2024
Who opposes psychedelic legalization: common questions
Who opposes psychedelic legalization?
The American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists all oppose use outside FDA-approved trials, and the AMA adopted a resolution opposing psilocybin legalization in 2024. Governors Gavin Newsom and Kim Reynolds vetoed psychedelics bills, Massachusetts voters rejected legalization 57 to 43 in 2024, 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties opted out of its program, and 58 percent of Americans oppose legal psilocybin use.
Does the American Psychiatric Association support psychedelics?
No. Its 2022 position statement, reaffirmed in April 2026, says there is inadequate scientific evidence for endorsing psychedelics to treat any psychiatric disorder outside approved investigational studies, and that treatments should be decided by scientific evidence, not by ballot initiatives or popular opinion.
What is the AMA’s position on psilocybin?
AMA policy adopted in 2023 advocates against using psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA to treat psychiatric disorders except under FDA approval or in approved trials. In 2024 the AMA House of Delegates adopted, as amended, a resolution opposing legislative efforts to legalize psilocybin. The AMA separately supports removing criminal penalties for personal possession.
Has the FDA approved any psychedelic?
No classic psychedelic is FDA-approved for any condition as of October 2026. The FDA rejected MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD in August 2024 after its advisers voted 9 to 2 and 10 to 1 against it. A psilocybin application from Compass Pathways is being submitted on a rolling basis with no decision expected before 2027.
Do veterans groups oppose psychedelics?
Many veterans and some veterans groups support access, and the page says so. The Department of Veterans Affairs funds research and is involved in more than 20 trials, but it does not offer psychedelics as standard care and in 2026 said it strongly discourages self-medicating with them.
Do most Americans support legalizing psychedelics?
No. In a fall 2025 RAND survey of 10,122 adults, 58 percent opposed legal psilocybin use and about 78 percent opposed legal LSD and MDMA. Support is higher for medical access that passes FDA review: 61 percent of voters backed regulated therapeutic access in a 2023 Berkeley survey, but only about 25 percent supported decriminalizing personal use in its 2025 wave.
Related: Arguments against psychedelic legalization · The psychedelic hype vs. the evidence · Is psilocybin safe? · MDMA therapy and the FDA · Ibogaine
You are not alone in saying wait.
The medical establishment, the FDA and most Americans want psychedelics proven before they are sold. FDPS has the evidence and the model language for lawmakers who agree.
