Americans’ Support For Legalizing Psychedelics Is Where Marijuana Was In The 1990s Before State Reforms, Poll Shows

Support for legalizing the use of psychedelics might relatively low today,
according to a new survey from the RAND Corporation, but public opinion on
the issue seems be closely following in the footsteps of the marijuana
reform movement before the first states started enacting cannabis
legalization.

As more states and localities, as well as Congress, see momentum around
psychedelics reform, the poll that was released on Tuesday shows that
Americans are currently feeling relatively tepid about the prospect of
expanding access to hallucinogenic substances. However, there’s reason to
believe that could change dramatically in the years to come if
cannabis-related polling is any indication.

For now, just 23 percent of respondents said that psilocybin mushrooms
should be legal, and even fewer (around 10 percent) expressed support for
legalizing LSD or MDMA. By contrast, RAND’s data reaffirms that there’s
strong majority support (65 percent) for the legalization of marijuana.

Of course, it’s relatively early in the push for psychedelics reform. And a
look at the public opinion trajectory for cannabis may offer a window into
what’s to come.

“Support for the legal use of psilocybin mushrooms is similar to what it
was for cannabis in the mid-1990s—just before state medical cannabis laws
started to be implemented,” the poll found, with authors adding that it’s
“unclear whether psilocybin will follow a similar trajectory in terms of
public opinion or policy changes.”

The think tank said that are “some reasons” that could explain the trend.
For example, one could also better understand the current sentiment toward
psychedelics in the context of how opinions shifted around same-sex
marriage.

“From 1995 to 2016, public support for legalizing marijuana rose in tandem
with support for same-sex marriage,” it said. “This suggests that both
shifts may have been driven by broader, time-specific increases in socially
liberal attitudes rather than by issue-specific factors. If that period
reflected a unique generational or cultural moment, the same underlying
forces might not be present in the near term.”

Support for legalizing psilocybin was high (62 percent) among those who’ve
used the psychedelic. Similarly, 80 percent of adults who’ve used marijuana
are in favor of the plant’s legalization.

Only 42 percent of those who support the legal use of psilocybin say that
adults should be able to use them for *any* reason, while 56 percent say it
should be allowed for medical purposes. Overall, just over 10 percent of
respondents said psilocybin should be allowed for any use; for LSD and
MDMA, that percentage drops to under 10 percent, and support for the
medical use of the three psychedelics is all under 30 percent for the
general public.

“When respondents were asked about reasons for allowing legal use,
addressing a mental or physical health condition is the most endorsed
reason for psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA,” the survey found. “When respondents
were asked where adults should get psilocybin mushrooms if they were legal,
using them at a medical facility under supervision is the most endorsed
option (49 percent). About 28 percent endorse getting psilocybin mushrooms
from a dispensary, and 23 percent endorse allowing adults to grow or forage
for personal use.”

“Among the three psychedelic substances that our policy questions focused
on (psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and MDMA), psilocybin mushrooms had the most
support among U.S. adults when asked a simple question about its legality
and when asked more-detailed questions about reasons for use and potential
sources of supply,” RAND said. “These findings may not be surprising
considering that psilocybin mushrooms are the most-used psychedelic
substance among U.S. adults.”

“Among the three psychedelic substances that our policy questions focused
on, psilocybin mushrooms are also the most commonly included psychedelic
substances in state and local policy initiatives in the United States,” it
said.

The survey, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the
University of Chicago, involved interviews with 10,122 American adults from
September 9, 2025 to October 1, 2025. The margin of error was +/-1.33
percentage points.

“To the best of our knowledge, the 2025 RPS is the first probability-based
and nationally representative survey to examine policy preferences for
individual psychedelic substances rather than asking about the entire class
of psychedelics,” RAND said.

Meanwhile, RAND researchers separately released data last month showing
that nearly 10 million American adults microdosed psychedelic substances
such as psilocybin, LSD or MDMA in 2025.

The results of the RAND Corporation survey indicated that microdosing—which
involves ingesting a small amount of a drug to improve mood and well-being
without experiencing hallucinations or a full-scale trip—is a popular
practice in the U.S., despite the recent polling that shows limited support
for broader legalization of psychedelics.

The latest results are a follow-up to an earlier report RAND issued in 2024
that made the case that “now is the time” for federal policymakers to
decide how to regulate psilocybin and other psychedelic substances.

Despite federal prohibition, that report noted, since 2019 more than two
dozen localities have deprioritized the enforcement of laws around
psychedelics, “generally making it a low or the lowest priority for law
enforcement officials.” Voters in Oregon have also legalized supervised use
of psilocybin, while Colorado voters legalized not only facilitated
psilocybin use but also personal possession and production of psilocybin,
DMT, non-peyote mescaline and other psychedelics.

“Now is the time for federal policymakers to decide what they want these
supply models to look like and to start taking action,” the RAND report
says. “Or, if they prefer a patchwork of state policies—possibly including
those that allow for commercial supply and promotion—they can do nothing
and just watch the industry grow.”

“If that happens,” it adds, “it can be difficult to make major changes to
supply or regulations, but that will depend on the size and political power
of the industry that has taken root.”

The RAND Corporation, which is funded in large part by the U.S. government,
is a nonprofit think tank and public consulting firm that’s helped advise
policymakers on various issues. In 2021, for example, it released a
government-funded report concluding that past cannabis use had relatively
little impact on U.S. Army recruits’ overall performance.

Researchers at RAND also contributed to a 2018 report that found that
past-month marijuana consumption decreased by a small but statistically
significant amount among 8th and 10th grade students in Washington State
following legalization there.

*Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.*

The post Americans’ Support For Legalizing Psychedelics Is Where Marijuana
Was In The 1990s Before State Reforms, Poll Shows appeared first on Marijuana
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