Decriminalization vs Legalization: Understanding the Difference

Four models that get called one thing

Headlines say a place has "legalised" psilocybin when it has done something much narrower, and say it has "decriminalised" mushrooms when it has only told police to look elsewhere. The difference decides whether you can be fined, arrested, or sold a tested product, so it is worth getting straight.

This article explains the models with the laws that use them. For the current status of a particular place and medicine, use the Legal page or the is it legal where I am? tool, where every row cites its statute or regulator.

The definitions

• Decriminalisation. Possession for personal use stays prohibited, but it is no longer a crime. It becomes an administrative or civil matter, often a fine or a referral. Supply remains a crime.
• Depenalisation. Possession is still a criminal offence on paper, but penalties are reduced or not enforced. US city resolutions that make psychedelics the "lowest law enforcement priority" work like this: they steer local police and budgets, and change no state or federal law.
• Legal regulated supply. The law licenses who may produce, sell or provide the substance, to whom and under what conditions. Possession inside that system is lawful; outside it, the old rules can still apply.
• Medical access. A regulator lets named professionals prescribe or give the substance for named conditions. Everyone else is still under the general prohibition.

Each model answers a different question. Decriminalisation and depenalisation are about what happens to a person caught with a drug. Regulated supply and medical access are about where a lawful product comes from.

Portugal: decriminalisation without supply

Portugal's Law 30/2000, passed on 29 November 2000, made consumption, acquisition and possession for personal use of the drugs in its tables an administrative offence rather than a crime. (Diario da Republica, I Serie-A, n.o 276, 29 Nov 2000) It is the model most people mean when they cite Portugal's 2001 reform.

What it did not do is legalise anything. The Policia Judiciaria states that psilocybin is on Table II-A of Decree-Law 15/93, and that producing, cultivating, selling or transferring the mushrooms is drug trafficking. (Policia Judiciaria, current page; Policia Judiciaria, 17 Apr 2013) A participant found with psilocybin can still face an administrative process and sanctions, and anyone supplying it carries criminal exposure. (Diario da Republica, I Serie-A, n.o 276, 29 Nov 2000; Policia Judiciaria, current page) Psilocybin retreats nonetheless advertise openly in Portugal. (Retreat Guru, current page; BookRetreats, current page) That is why the site lists them as illegal but tolerated in practice, not as legal.

Oregon: two measures, two outcomes

Oregon voters passed two drug measures in November 2020, and they went in different directions. (Oregon Health Authority, current page; Oregon State Legislature, current edition; Oregon Legislative Assembly, Senate Committee on Judiciary and Ballot Measure 110 Implementation, 13 Apr 2021)

Measure 109 is a regulated supply model. It directs the Oregon Health Authority to license and regulate the manufacture, sale and provision of psilocybin services. (Oregon Health Authority, current page; Oregon State Legislature, current edition) Clients must be 21 or over, and psilocybin may only be used at a licensed service centre under a facilitator, with no take-home or retail sale. (Oregon State Legislature, current edition; Oregon Health Authority / Oregon Secretary of State, 2025) Cities and counties may vote to ban psilocybin businesses, and many have. (Oregon State Legislature, current edition; Oregon Health Authority, current page; OPB, 7 Nov 2024) In 2025, 5,935 clients received services at licensed centres. (Oregon Health Authority, 2026)

Measure 110 was decriminalisation. It passed with 58 percent of the vote and made possession of small amounts of controlled substances a Class E violation subject to a $100 fine, waived if the person completed an assessment. (Oregon Legislative Assembly, Senate Committee on Judiciary and Ballot Measure 110 Implementation, 13 Apr 2021) Its penalty changes took effect on 1 February 2021, and possession of 12 grams or more of psilocybin stayed a Class A misdemeanour. (Oregon Secretary of State, 2020) There was never a legal source of supply under Measure 110.

In 2024 the legislature reversed course. HB 4002 increased the penalty for unlawful possession from 1 September 2024, making it a drug enforcement misdemeanour, created a conditional discharge for it and funded deflection programmes. (Oregon State Legislature (OLIS), 2024) Under the enrolled bill, the court generally imposes supervised probation of up to 18 months, and may impose up to 180 days in jail only if the defendant asks for it. (Oregon State Legislature (OLIS), 1 Mar 2024) The bill keeps the exemption for psilocybin handled in line with the licensed programme. (Oregon State Legislature (OLIS), 1 Mar 2024)

So in Oregon today, licensed psilocybin services are lawful under state law, while possessing psilocybin outside that system is again a crime. Psilocybin remains Schedule I under federal law throughout. (Legal Information Institute (Cornell) reproducing the U.S. Code, current text) The US psilocybin guide covers the licensed centres.

Colorado: both models in one law

Colorado voters approved Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act, in November 2022, and SB23-290 amended it in May 2023. (Colorado Secretary of State, 2022; Colorado Lawyer (Colorado Bar Association); Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023; Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023)

The decriminalisation half is in C.R.S. 18-18-434. A person who, for personal use and without payment, possesses, consumes, shares, grows or makes natural medicine does not violate state law or local ordinances. (Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023) For that purpose natural medicine means DMT, mescaline, ibogaine, psilocybin and psilocyn, and not synthetic versions. (Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023) Sharing is limited to adults 21 and over and to non-commercial settings; sale for payment outside the licensed system is not covered. (Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023) Under-21 possession and public consumption are petty offences with fines of up to $100, and home growing is limited to a 12 by 12 foot area in a locked space. (Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023) Denver's licensing office sums it up: personal use is allowed by state law, but buying or selling natural medicine is against the law. (City and County of Denver, Business Licensing, current)

The regulated half licenses healing centres and facilitators for psilocybin and psilocyn. (Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023; Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023; Colorado Lawyer (Colorado Bar Association)) The first healing centre licence was issued on 31 March 2025. (Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023; Colorado Department of Revenue, Natural Medicine Division, 2 Apr 2025)

US city resolutions: depenalisation by budget

Before any state acted, cities did. On 7 May 2019 Denver voters approved Initiative 301 to decriminalise personal possession, cultivation and storage of psilocybin mushrooms in the city. (Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, City and County of Denver, 9 Nov 2021) In practice it made enforcement the lowest priority and created a review panel; in 2021 that panel, whose members included the initiative's proponents, unanimously reported that the change had not presented a significant public health or safety issue. (Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, City and County of Denver, 9 Nov 2021)

Oakland's City Council adopted a resolution on 5 June 2019 that made laws against planting, buying, possessing or using entheogenic plants among its lowest enforcement priorities. It was broader than Denver's because it covered ayahuasca, iboga and other plant and fungal psychedelics. (Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, City and County of Denver, 9 Nov 2021) Santa Cruz followed with a resolution not to spend city resources arresting adults 21 and over solely for personal use and possession of entheogenic plants and fungi. (Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, City and County of Denver, 9 Nov 2021)

These resolutions did not change state or federal law. They told local police where not to spend time, and selling stayed illegal everywhere they applied.

Peyote asked to be left out

On 12 March 2020 the National Council of Native American Churches and the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative asked decriminalisation campaigns not to include the word "peyote" in any local resolution or initiative. (Psymposia, 16 Mar 2020) The reasons were conservation and sovereignty: wild peyote is assessed as Vulnerable, and it is the Native American Church's sacrament. (IUCN Red List, 2017; eCFR, current) Before Colorado's 2022 vote, many Indigenous community members asked for the measure to exclude peyote, and the final law does so explicitly. (Colorado Public Radio, 6 Jul 2022; Colorado General Assembly, 23 May 2023) Peyote.com lists no peyote ceremonies and points mescaline interest to cultivated San Pedro; see our peyote position.

Medical access: the narrowest door

Since 1 July 2023, Australia has allowed psilocybine for treatment-resistant depression only on prescription by a psychiatrist holding a TGA authority, or in an approved trial; for any other use it remains a prohibited substance. (Therapeutic Goods Administration, 2023; Therapeutic Goods Administration, current page; Federal Register of Legislation (Australian Government), 30 Sep 2026)

The Czech Republic opened a similar route on 1 January 2026. Psilocybin can be given only in Ministry of Health psychiatric hospitals and departments, by a psychiatrist who supervises the session, to adults over 18. (e-Sbirka, Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, 5 Aug 2025) The professional guideline limits it to cases where registered medicines have failed, in three indications. (Czech Psychiatric Society, current page) Germany runs a compassionate-use programme at two clinics, and Canada allows case-by-case requests through its Special Access Program. (Central Institute of Mental Health (ZI) Mannheim, 31 Jul 2025; The Lancet Psychiatry 13(2):91-93 (online 18 Sep 2025), Feb 2026; Canada Gazette Part II, 5 Jan 2022; Health Canada, 27 Feb 2023) New Mexico's medical psilocybin programme is due to be implemented by the end of 2027. (New Mexico Legislature, 2025; New Mexico Department of Health, current page)

None of these routes covers retreats, personal use or travellers. They are treatment for diagnosed patients inside the health system. For the evidence behind them, see psilocybin for depression.

What each model means for you

• Under decriminalisation you face a smaller penalty for possession, but there is no lawful source and nothing you buy has been tested.
• Under depenalisation you may not be arrested by local police, but state and federal law still apply, and a change of policy needs no vote.
• Under regulated supply you can use a licensed provider with screening and rules, but only on its terms and usually only on site.
• Under medical access you need a qualifying diagnosis and an authorised doctor, and access is slow and limited.

Laws in this area have moved in both directions within four years, as Oregon shows. Check the current entry before acting on anything you read, including this page.