Utah failed to legalize psilocybin — but local research, and an underground scene, is booming

Utah lawmakers rejected a bill this year that would have allowed a few thousand people with chronic, untreatable depression to try psilocybin — the Schedule 1 drug many know as magic mushrooms.

Research has shown the fungi is safe and effective, according to the Legislature’s own committee selected to vet the viability of this and other psychedelic drugs to help combat Utah’s growing mental health crisis. But lawmakers decided they wanted approval from the Food and Drug Administration before moving forward.

Yet Utahns have been experimented on with psychedelics in one way or another for years. Some of the nation’s first studies on using LSD for generalized anxiety are taking place here. Researchers at the University of Utah have also built a body of research around psychedelics, and ketamine clinics abound.