Drugs & Entheogens

This archive covers progress in drug policy reform, psychedelic-assisted therapy, harm reduction, and the science behind entheogenic substances. From clinical trials to legal milestones, these stories track how researchers, policymakers, and communities are rethinking humanity’s relationship with mind-altering compounds.

Silhouette of person holding cannabis leaf, for article on Minnesota cannabis legalization

Minnesota becomes 23rd U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana

By / / Good News For Humankind

Minnesota’s new cannabis law will automatically clear tens of thousands of low-level marijuana convictions, pairing legalization with one of the most ambitious record-clearing efforts in the country. Adults 21 and older can now possess cannabis under the law Gov. Tim Walz signed in May 2023, making Minnesota the 23rd state to legalize recreational use. What sets it apart is the justice piece: people don’t have to navigate courts to clear their records — the state does it for them, opening doors to jobs, housing, and education long blocked by old convictions. As legalization spreads, Minnesota offers a model that finally asks who bore the costs of prohibition, and who deserves a fresh start.

Dried psilocybin mushrooms on a surface for an article about psilocybin therapy legalization in New Mexico, for article on Oregon psilocybin facilitators

Oregon licenses U.S.’s first-ever legal psilocybin facilitators

By / / Good News For Humankind

Oregon licensed its first three psilocybin facilitators in April 2023, making it the first U.S. state to formally authorize practitioners to guide adults through psychedelic sessions at regulated service centers. The approvals were part of a much larger pipeline, with more than 300 permit and license applications already submitted and the state’s first psilocybin manufacturer licensed the month prior. Voters had approved this supervised-access model back in 2020, choosing a path that doesn’t require a prescription or diagnosis but does require trained guidance. Real hurdles remain, including local bans in over 100 Oregon cities and open questions about affordability. Still, this is the first legal home in the country for a therapy that researchers increasingly believe could transform how we treat depression, anxiety, and trauma.

Welcome to Oregon sign amidst evergreen trees, for article on psilocybin license

Oregon approves the U.S.’s first legal psilocybin mushroom farms

By / / Good News For Humankind

Legal psilocybin mushrooms are now being grown in Oregon for the first time in over 50 years of U.S. prohibition, with Satori Farms PDX becoming the first licensed producer in the country. Owner Tori Armbrust, a longtime gourmet mushroom grower, plans to supply two service centers within months, where trained facilitators will guide adults through supervised sessions. The framework, approved by Oregon voters in 2020, has already drawn more than 200 license and worker permit applications, and the first cohort of state-trained facilitators has graduated. Cost and federal scheduling remain real hurdles, but Oregon is quietly turning a decade of promising mental health research into the country’s first working model — one that other states, and people struggling with treatment-resistant depression, will be watching closely.

Abstract image with woman's face repeated, for article on psychedelics approved as medicines

Australia becomes world’s first country to officially recognize psychedelics as medicines

By / / Good News For Humankind

Psychedelic medicine just crossed a historic threshold — Australia is now the first country to give psychiatrists a legal pathway to prescribe psilocybin and MDMA as regulated treatments for PTSD and treatment-resistant depression. For patients who have cycled through every available option without relief, that’s a genuinely new door opening. The decision followed thousands of public submissions and a growing body of clinical evidence, including a landmark New Zealand Journal of Medicine study on psilocybin’s efficacy. It shows that political barriers — not just scientific ones — can eventually fall when evidence and public pressure align.\n\n—\n\n**Word count: 95**

Cannabis being weighed, for article on legal cannabis dispensary, for article on Germany cannabis legalization

New York opens its first legal recreational cannabis dispensary

By / / Good News For Humankind

New York’s first legal recreational cannabis dispensary opened with a meaningful twist: the very first retail license went to Housing Works, a nonprofit that serves people with HIV, homeless New Yorkers, and the formerly incarcerated. Revenue from the shop will flow back into those social services, turning a newly legal market into direct support for communities hit hardest by the war on drugs. New York reserved its earliest licenses for nonprofits, people with past marijuana convictions and their families, women- and minority-owned businesses, and veterans, backed by a $200 million equity fund. It’s an ambitious bet that legalization can repair harm rather than just generate profit, and other states are paying close attention.

Artwork of path into mind, for article on Colorado psychedelic decriminalization

Colorado voters pass historic psychedelic decriminalization act

By / / Good News For Humankind

Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act goes further than any previous U.S. state psychedelic law, removing criminal penalties for personal use of psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline — and building a licensed therapy clinic system alongside it. The FDA has already granted psilocybin “breakthrough therapy” status for treatment-resistant depression, giving this reform unusual clinical credibility. Colorado helped pioneer cannabis legalization in 2012, and advocates are watching to see whether psychedelic reform follows a similar path outward. For people who haven’t found relief through conventional treatments, this law opens a genuinely new door.