Are shrooms legal in New York?

The short answer

No. Magic mushrooms are illegal everywhere in New York State, including all five boroughs of New York City. Psilocybin and psilocyn, the drugs in them, are Schedule I controlled substances under Public Health Law § 3306, and possessing any amount is a class A misdemeanor under Penal Law § 220.03, with up to 364 days in jail.^{1, 2}

Nothing softens that anywhere in the state. New York has no decriminalization law, no local measure and no legal psilocybin program, and every psilocybin bill in the current session is still in committee.^{15, 6} Selling is a felony, and in New York "sell" includes giving mushrooms away. Our penalties guide has every charge and sentence.²

Is psilocybin decriminalized anywhere in New York?

No. Psilocybin law in the U.S. falls into three groups, and New York sits in the strictest one:

• Legal (regulated) Oregon and Colorado run licensed programs for adults, and New Mexico has passed a medical psilocybin law.¹⁵
• Decriminalized Still illegal, but with lighter penalties or low enforcement priority. Washington, D.C. puts arrests for personal, non-commercial psilocybin among its police department's lowest priorities, and New Jersey cut possession of small amounts to a disorderly persons offense in 2021.¹⁵
• Illegal New York and most other states. The Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association's November 2025 survey answers "No" for New York on both decriminalization and any legal program.¹⁵

Locally, it's the same. Searching the New York City Council's legislative records, we found no resolution or local law on psilocybin or psychedelics, introduced or passed, and we found no city, town or county measure upstate either.^{11, 3}

Rules elsewhere keep changing. Our guide to where psilocybin is legal near New York covers the region, and My Mushroom Dispensary, an online shop for adults 21+ run by the team that publishes this site, keeps a state-by-state legality guide. Neither changes the answer here: ordering psilocybin online or by mail is illegal under federal law and New York law.

What does New York law say about magic mushrooms?

The schedule never says "mushroom". Public Health Law § 3306 lists the drugs as chemicals in Schedule I(d), "Hallucinogenic substances": entry (18) reads "Psilocybin." and entry (19) reads "Psilocyn."¹ Mushrooms come in through the schedule's opening words, which cover "any material, compound, mixture, or preparation, which contains any quantity of" a listed substance.¹ Dried mushrooms, chocolates, gummies and capsules that contain psilocybin are all covered.

The Penal Law sorts drugs into groups with their own weight rules. Under § 220.00(9), psilocybin and psilocyn count as a "hallucinogen".² From there:

• Possessing any amount is criminal possession in the seventh degree, a class A misdemeanor. The statute reaches anyone who "knowingly and unlawfully possesses a controlled substance" (§ 220.03).
• Possessing more moves the charge up to a class C, B or A-II felony at weights set in the statute, starting at 25 milligrams of the drug itself, not of the mushrooms (§ 220.09(6)).
• Selling any amount is at least a class D felony (§ 220.31), and § 220.00(1) defines "sell" as "to sell, exchange, give or dispose of to another, or to offer or agree to do the same."

The penalties guide lays out every charge, how the weight of psilocybin is counted, and the sentence ranges.²

What did New York's 2022 psilocybin law do?

It doesn't legalize anything. S8618/A9722, sponsored by two Bronx lawmakers, Sen. Gustavo Rivera and Asm. Karines Reyes, passed the Senate 62-0 on May 3, 2022 and the Assembly 146-0 on May 16, 2022, and was signed on December 23, 2022 as Chapter 777.⁵ It's now Public Health Law § 3307(5): the health commissioner "shall by regulation or emergency regulation" reclassify a Schedule I compound, mixture or preparation once that same one is "rescheduled other than under Schedule I under the federal Controlled Substances Act."⁴

So if federal regulators move an FDA-approved psilocybin medicine out of Schedule I, New York has to follow for that product, and can't keep it in a stricter schedule.⁴ The law doesn't touch mushrooms, possession penalties or therapy. A 2026 bill, A11499/S9852, would make the switch happen "without further action by the commissioner"; it's still in committee.⁶

Could a bill in Albany change the law?

Not so far. Lawmakers filed 8 psilocybin and psychedelic proposals in the 2025-2026 session, and every one of them is still in committee.⁶ The main psilocybin bills:

• A2142-A / S5303-A, the "medical psilocybin act" (Asm. Amy Paulin of Westchester, Sen. Julia Salazar of Brooklyn and Queens). Filed in 2025 as a broader permit system for adults 18 and older, it was amended on May 8, 2026 into a Department of Health program for patients with conditions such as major treatment-resistant depression, PTSD and cluster headaches, starting July 1, 2028.⁷
• A628 (Asm. Linda B. Rosenthal of Manhattan) would let adults 21 and older possess, use, gift and exchange psilocybin, psilocyn and other natural psychedelics. Its memo says it "would not legalize the sale of such substances."⁶
• A3775 / S495 and A3845-A / S1801-A (Asm. Patrick Burke of the Buffalo area, Sen. Nathalia Fernandez of the Bronx and Westchester): psilocybin-assisted therapy through licensed facilitators with a grant program, and a therapy pilot for veterans and first responders.⁶

No psychedelic bill has had any action since May 28, 2026. Bills that haven't passed by the end of the two-year session on December 31, 2026 have to be filed again, with new numbers, in 2027. The bill tracker lists all 20 proposals since 2019, with every last action.⁶

What have New York City's DAs and Council done?

Nothing aimed at psilocybin. We found no published psilocybin or psychedelics policy from any of the five district attorneys. The City Council has discussed psychedelics only in staff briefing papers for hearings on veterans' mental health (most recently September 18, 2026) and on smoke shops (2023).¹¹

What exists is general. Since January 2022, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has offered pre-arraignment diversion for misdemeanor arrests that get a desk appearance ticket. Manhattan's declination rate for misdemeanor drug possession, all drugs combined, rose from 6% in 2021 to 38% in 2024, according to the Data Collaborative for Justice.¹² That's a chance at diversion, not a promise not to prosecute.

Sales get prosecuted. In its 2024 annual report, the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor described nine arrests in an undercover case over psilocybin mushroom and cocaine sales in and near Washington Square Park; several defendants pleaded guilty, with sentences "ranging from probation to 2 ½ years in prison."¹³ State cannabis regulators don't cover psilocybin either: the Cannabis Control Board's duties under Cannabis Law § 10 cover cannabis and hemp, so a smoke shop or "dispensary" selling mushrooms is selling them illegally, whatever its sign says.¹⁰ Our page on mushroom dispensaries in NYC covers the raids.

The law hasn't stopped use. Federal survey estimates put past-year hallucinogen use in New York at 4.24% of people 12 and older in 2023-2024, about 718,000 people. That counts all hallucinogens, not psilocybin alone.¹⁴

Can you get in trouble for calling 911 for someone?

New York's Good Samaritan law is meant to stop that. Under Penal Law § 220.78, a person who, "in good faith, seeks health care for someone who is experiencing a drug or alcohol overdose or other life threatening medical emergency shall not be charged or prosecuted for a controlled substance offense", except one "involving sale for consideration or other benefit or gain". The person having the emergency gets the same protection.⁸

The statute's idea of an overdose is broad. It includes an acute condition such as "coma, mania, hysteria or death" caused by a drug, judged by what "a prudent layperson, possessing an average knowledge of medicine and health" would believe.⁸ In an emergency, call 911. In a mental health crisis, call or text 988. Poison Control is 1-800-222-1222. Our safety and help page has more.

What does federal law say?

Federal law bans psilocybin in every state, including Oregon and Colorado. Psilocybin and psilocyn are listed in Schedule I at 21 CFR 1308.11(d)(29) and (30), and under 21 U.S.C. § 844(a), knowingly possessing a controlled substance without a valid prescription can bring up to a year in prison for a first offense.⁹ Ordering psilocybin online or by mail is illegal under federal law and in New York, and bringing it home from a state with a program is still possession under New York law.^{2, 9}