US Cities That Decriminalized Psychedelics: Full List

How city-level psychedelic decriminalization works (and its limits)

City decriminalization means a city directs its own police to treat personal possession of entheogenic plants as the lowest law-enforcement priority — not to make those substances legal. The distinction matters enormously for anyone relying on these measures for protection.

These measures take two forms: city council resolutions and voter-approved ordinances. A council resolution is the more common form. It is a policy directive to the police department. An ordinance — like Detroit Proposal E or Denver Initiative 301 — is a change to city law approved by voters, and is harder to reverse.

In both cases, the city measure binds only city police officers. It has no effect on county sheriffs, state troopers, or federal agents. And it does not change state or federal controlled substance law.

What "lowest priority" actually means in practice

"Lowest enforcement priority" means officers are directed not to investigate, cite, or arrest adults for personal possession or use of covered entheogenic plants. It is not a blanket prohibition on enforcement. Officers retain discretion, and violations can still be charged.

In practice, most cities with these measures have seen little to no documented change in local enforcement — because personal-use possession was rarely prosecuted before the measures passed. The primary effect of these resolutions is political signaling, not a dramatic shift in police behavior on the street.

Seattle is the notable exception. Its 2021 resolution explicitly prohibits city funds from being used for enforcement of entheogen laws. That is slightly stronger language than the "lowest priority" framework used elsewhere.

The first wave: Denver and Oakland (2019)

Denver and Oakland launched the US city decriminalization movement in a single remarkable month in 2019 — and both measures have dedicated pages on this site with full vote analysis and legal breakdowns.

Denver Initiative 301 passed on May 7, 2019, with 50.56% of the vote — the narrowest margin of any city measure and the one that started it all. It covered psilocybin mushrooms only, making Denver the first city in the US to decriminalize any psychedelic substance.

Oakland's Decriminalize Nature resolution passed on June 4, 2019, with a unanimous 8-0 City Council vote. It went further than Denver in two ways: it covered all entheogenic plants and fungi (not just mushrooms), and it was the resolution that launched the national Decriminalize Nature campaign that spread to over 20 cities.

The Decriminalize Nature campaign: how it spread

Decriminalize Nature is the national advocacy organization whose model resolution became the template for nearly every city measure that followed Oakland's 2019 vote. Understanding it explains why so many city measures are nearly identical in scope and language.

The organization, founded by Carlos Plazola and others in Oakland, drafted a model resolution that cities could adopt with minimal local customization. The template calls for making "entheogenic plants and fungi" — defined by chemical class rather than named substances — the lowest law-enforcement priority. This broad framing covers psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, ibogaine, and related compounds without needing to list each individually.

Decriminalize Nature chapters formed in dozens of cities after Oakland's vote. Each chapter worked with its local city council or pursued a ballot initiative depending on what the local political environment allowed. The Massachusetts cities — Somerville, Cambridge, Northampton, Easthampton, Amherst — all passed resolutions in quick succession using the same playbook.

Why the campaign moved so fast from 2019 to 2022

Several forces accelerated the spread. MAPS and Johns Hopkins published high-profile clinical trial results in 2020 and 2021, giving advocates credible scientific backing. Oregon passed statewide reform in November 2020, showing that broader change was possible. And COVID-19 lockdowns shifted public conversation around mental health, increasing interest in alternative treatments.

By 2022, city councils that had been reluctant found the political risk much lower than it had been in 2018. Ann Arbor's council noted publicly that they had not been prosecuting personal possession anyway — the resolution was simply making existing practice official.

Every city that has acted: complete table

The table below lists all US cities and jurisdictions that have passed a decriminalization measure for entheogenic plants, in chronological order. Four cities — Denver, Oakland, Washington DC, and Detroit — have dedicated pages on this site with full legal analysis.

Note: "Portland" in this table refers to Portland, Maine — not Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon has not passed a city-level entheogen measure; Oregon's statewide Measure 109 and Measure 110 are the relevant laws there.

What actually changed after decriminalization

The most important — and least-covered — fact about city psychedelic decriminalization is that enforcement rarely changed, because it was rarely happening before. Personal possession of psilocybin mushrooms for personal use was almost never prosecuted in cities like Ann Arbor, Cambridge, or San Francisco before their councils passed resolutions.

After Denver's Initiative 301 passed in 2019, Denver Police citations for psilocybin dropped to near zero. But they were already near zero before the vote. Ann Arbor's police chief stated publicly after their 2020 resolution that his department had never been arresting people for personal entheogen use. The resolutions made official what was already unofficial practice.

That said, the measures did create real benefits. They gave community members a written policy they could point to if questioned by officers. They created political precedent that made county-level non-prosecution pledges more credible — as happened when Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit announced in January 2021 that his office would not prosecute entheogen possession after Ann Arbor's city resolution.

The gifting economy: the non-obvious real-world effect

The most concrete behavioral change that city decriminalization produced was not in enforcement — it was in commerce. In San Francisco, Berkeley, and Portland, Maine, a "gifting economy" emerged after decriminalization.

These businesses sell legally priced goods — a crystal, a piece of artwork, a wellness consultation — and give entheogenic mushrooms or other plant medicines as a gift alongside the purchase. The model exploits the lowest-priority enforcement status to operate semi-openly. Some of these shops in San Francisco operated storefront businesses for months before attracting any police attention.

This model is legally precarious. Distribution and sale of entheogenic substances remain criminal under state and federal law regardless of local enforcement policy. The city measure's "lowest priority" status does not immunize commercial distribution — it covers personal possession and use only. Anyone operating or purchasing from a gifting business is relying entirely on continued city non-enforcement and remains exposed to state or federal risk.

What decriminalization does not protect you from

City decriminalization creates a narrow zone of protection from city police enforcement only — and every city measure has the same set of blind spots that rarely appear in news coverage of these votes.

State law

Every state in which a city has decriminalized psychedelics still classifies psilocybin and other entheogens as controlled substances at the state level. State police are not bound by city resolutions.

Michigan State Police, California Highway Patrol, Massachusetts State Police, and Washington State Patrol all retain full authority to arrest and charge for entheogen possession within decriminalized cities. The city measure has no effect on them.

County sheriffs

County law-enforcement agencies are separate from city police departments. Wayne County Sheriff deputies in Detroit, Washtenaw County in Ann Arbor, and Alameda County in Oakland are all free to enforce state drug laws within city limits regardless of city ordinances or resolutions.

The exception that proves the rule: Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit voluntarily announced non-prosecution for entheogen possession in January 2021 — but that was a discretionary decision, not a legal obligation created by Ann Arbor's city measure. A new county prosecutor could reverse it at any time.

Federal enforcement

Federal law — the Controlled Substances Act — classifies psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, and ibogaine as Schedule I substances. The DEA has federal jurisdiction everywhere in the United States. No city resolution or ordinance can bind the DEA, and the DEA is not subject to city lowest-priority directives.

In practice, the DEA does not typically focus resources on individual personal-use possession cases in decriminalized cities. But federal exposure remains real, particularly for distribution or larger quantities.

Schools and minors

Every city measure explicitly excludes activity in or near schools and activity involving minors. Adults who use entheogenic plants near school grounds, in the presence of children, or who provide substances to anyone under 18 receive no protection from city decriminalization measures.

Statewide decrim vs. city-only measures

City decriminalization and statewide reform are different legal instruments that offer different levels of protection — and the gap matters if you live outside a decriminalized city or want protection from county or state enforcement.

Oregon's Measure 110 (2020) decriminalized personal possession of all controlled substances at the state level — a far broader change than any city resolution, because it bound state police and changed the legal framework for county prosecutors. Oregon has since partially walked back Measure 110, but the architecture was fundamentally different from city measures. See our Oregon Measure 110 guide for the full story.

Colorado's Proposition 122 (2022) went further still, creating a regulated therapeutic framework for psilocybin and eventually other psychedelics — not just decriminalization, but a legal pathway to therapeutic use. See our Colorado Proposition 122 guide.

If you live in a city without a decriminalization measure and outside a statewide framework, city-level protection does not apply to you. You are subject to your state's controlled substance law and federal law. The are mushrooms legal guide and the legal status by state tool cover current state-by-state status for psilocybin and other psychedelics.

The map: where statewide reform has passed (as of 2026)

Oregon and Colorado have the most developed statewide frameworks. Several other states have active legislative efforts — but as of mid-2026, no additional state has enacted a statewide therapeutic or decriminalization framework. City measures remain the only protection available in most jurisdictions outside those two states.

For the full picture of where psychedelics are legal, where therapeutic frameworks exist, and which states have active bills, see our cities that decriminalized psilocybin guide and the psilocybin legal status guide.