This article is part of a series on
Sitting Safe: Navigating the Evolution of NeoShamanism
LEGALITY
What psychedelics/entheogens are legal under certain circumstance and what are Illegal in the U.S.?
Given how much open talk there has been in the last few years, we have been noticing a lot of confusion in the community about the legal status of particular psychedelics/entheogens. We hope to clear this up for those living in the United States and California specifically.
To learn about legal experiences in Southern California, check out our page on the topic.
Ayahuasca/Daime/Hoasca/YAGE
The DMT in Ayahuasca is illegal under most circumstances in the United States. There are a few exceptions. The state of Oregon has granted the Brazilian Santo Daime church an exemption. There are a few other isolated Santo Daime churches that have used this precedent to file for their own exemptions in other states. The religious use of Hoasca by another Brazilian church, the União do Vegetal in the United States has been affirmed as a legitimate free exercise of religion by The Supreme Court of The United States (learn more).
What about the Native American Church? Don’t some people have a card to protect them? While one Native American church, the Oklevueha Native American Church (ONAC), gives out cards saying that the card holder can “carry and/or possess Native American Church sacraments including but not limited to Peyote, Ayahuasca, Cannabis, Psilocybe mushrooms & fungi,” it is not substantiated. In truth the Native American Church is only granted use of Peyote (see below). Ayahuasca scholar Bia Labate states, “most of the laws and court decisions that ONAC cites establish precedents or foundations for potential actions to try to expand entheogenic religious rights, but until someone actually goes through the court system (either by taking the offense and suing the government, as the UDV and Santo Daime did, or by using a RFRA-based defense against prosecution) and wins, these cases represent no more than a precedent on which future cases may be based.” Read the rest of Bia’s article on the topic. Check out another good article about the history of different groups filing for exemptions to the ban on ayahuasca in the United States. So far, no other “religious” group has been granted access.
See also the special case of Santa Cruz and Oakland, California below.
Psilocybin Mushrooms
Psilocybin-containing mushrooms are illegal in the United States and cannot be possessed for recreational, ceremonial, nor therapeutic purposes, except in the case of approved clinical trials.
Click here to see a list of current clinical trials.
See also the special case of Santa Cruz and Oakland, California below, Denver, Colorado here, and a current decriminalization movement in California here.
MDMA
MDMA (aka ‘ecstasy’) is illegal in the United States and cannot be possessed for recreational, ceremonial, nor therapeutic purposes, except in the case of approved clinical trials. Click here to see a list of current clinical trials.
And here is a great article about what may happen (or not happen) when it comes to MDMA being rescheduled after the clinical trials are completed: “How will MDMA be rescheduled in the future? You may be disappointed.”
Ketamine
Ketamine is considered both a dissociative and/or a psychedelic depending on who you ask. It is a Schedule III controlled substance primarily for its wide use as an anesthetic and is illegal for recreational usage.
Given a wealth of studies showing the effectiveness of ketamine in the treatment of depression, many doctors and psychiatrists are prescribing ketamine off-label. Most ketamine that is administered is “racemic” meaning that is contains a mixture of both the right-handed and left-handed structure of the molecule.
The pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson recently developed a unique method to isolate just the left-handed version of the molecule in order to patent it, though there are scant studies showing that esketamine is any more effective than racemic ketamine in the treatment of depression, though the psychoactive effects may be less present.
Learn about legal ketamine experiences in Southern California, check out our page on the topic.
Peyote
In 1993, Congress enacted the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) granting ‘Indians’ use of peyote, with the term 'Indian' meaning a member of an Indian tribe. “In the US, one must be a member of the Native American Church (NAC), and have one quarter Indian blood, in order to have a legal right to consume what is otherwise a banned Schedule One drug.” (Reference contains extensive exploration of racial underpinnings of the law). See more legal details here.
See also the special case of Santa Cruz and Oakland, California below.
San Pedro Cactus
The legal status of San Pedro is unclear, while it is sold as an ornamental plant, it is likely to be considered a Schedule I substance if intended for ingestion: “Mescaline is a Schedule I substance in the U.S. The wording of the Controlled Substance Act is that ‘any material, compound, mixture, or preparation, which contains any quantity of [a Schedule I hallucinogenic substance]’, is also a Schedule I substance. …While peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is specifically named in the law as a Schedule I substance, columnar cacti, like the San Pedro (T. pachanoi) and Peruvian Torch (T. peruvianus), are not. … It is possible for a prosecutor to argue that it is illegal to possess or distribute San Pedro with the knowledge that it contains a controlled substance.” quote from this informative Erowid article on the subject.
See also the special case of Santa Cruz and Oakland, California below.
Iboga/Ibogaine
The iboga plant is illegal given that it contains the psychoactive alkaloid ibogaine. Several studies have shown that ibogaine can be used to support detoxification for individuals with opiate use disorder but no FDA clinical trials have yet occurred to make it a legal treatment in the U.S. There are several countries where ibogaine is unscheduled (Canada, Mexico, and others), and addiction treatment centers have popped up. If you are seeking detox options, please shop around and be careful about the quality of the treatment as these are un-regulated industries.
See also the special case of Santa Cruz and Oakland, California below
DMT/5-MeO-DMT
DMT and any plant or animal material that contains the compounds are illegal in the United States and cannot be possessed for recreational, ceremonial, nor therapeutic purposes, except in the case of approved clinical trials or religious exceptions (see Ayahuasca above).
See also the special case of Santa Cruz and Oakland, California below
‘Designer’ psychedelics
Over the years many chemists have synthesized psychoactive compounds similar to ones that are specifically listed in the Controlled Substance Act in an effort to avoid the law but in 1986, the Federal Analogue Act passed, which states:
“The term ‘controlled substance analogue’ means a substance––
(i) the chemical structure of which is substantially similar to the chemical structure of a controlled substance[;]
(ii)which has a stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system that is substantially similar to . . . a controlled substance[; or]
(iii) with respect to a particular person, which such person represents or intends to have a stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system that is substantially similar to . . . a controlled substance.”
Above text is from this informative article.
Decriminalize Nature Oakland
The city of Oakland de-prioritized/decriminalized the possession of "entheogenic plants" including “plants and natural sources (as defined herein), such as mushrooms, cacti, iboga containing plants and /or extracted combinations of plants similar to Ayahuasca; and limited to those containing the following types of compounds: indole amines, tryptamines, phenethylamines.” on June 4 2019 through an initiative by Decriminalize Nature Oakland.
Santa Cruz has joined the list of cities to Decriminalize Nature in January 2020!
The Decriminalize Nature movement is spreading and people are using the same template in other US cities. Email: decrimnature at gmail dot com to get involved locally!
If these drug laws don’t make sense to you, please consider joining a decriminalization movement (DecrimCA or Decrim Nature) or writing to your local representatives. Check out these great talks to get more educated on the topic:
SITTING SAFE SERIES TOPICS INCLUDE:
Part 1: Recommendations to would-be participants
Questions to ask yourself
Questions to consider asking a practitioner
Questions a practitioner should ask you