Resources

Recent Court Cases
  • Canada, 2025, Regina v Akila, Ontario Court of Justice, 7 October 2025 (on psilocybin and the right to freedom of thought under the Canadian Charter)

  • Spain, 2025:  Penal del Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid, Sentencia No 316/2025 (holding that Ayahuasca does not fall under Spanish criminal law)

  • Germany: Administrative Court Cologne (VG Köln, 29. June 2026, 1 L 1267/26): An interesting decision on psychedelic-derivatives (such as 1Fe-LSD, 4-PrO-MET) by a first instance court. In Germany, some shops sell psychedelic derivatives that do not fall under the German New Psychoactive Substances Act, and authorities often play catch-up with new chemical innovations. The Cologne court has ended this and considers these substances as novel foods that need to meet the conditions of the EU Novel Food Regulation, (EU) 2015/2283, which of course they don’t. So Food law becomes the instruemnt for regulation, a point that has come up several times with respect to psilocybin mushrooms in the Netherlands and Psychomodulatory Substances in the Czech Republic. As this is EU law, authorities in other countries may use the same line of reasoning to close-down derivative business (whether food law is an appropriate instrument remains to be argued). 

  • Netherlands: The Dutch Supreme Court (10 April 2026, ECLI:NL:HR:2026:450). By contrast, the Dutch Supreme Court recently decided that, although consumed orally and subject to Dutch Food Law, magic truffles do not fall under the reduced tax rate of 9% that applies to food, because due to their psychedelic effects, magic truffles can only be consumed in small quantities, meaning that the intake of essential nutrients via magic truffles is negligible, and magic truffles are consumed solely for a purpose other than the intake of essential nutrients.  Hence, the general rate of 21% VAT applies.
International Drug Control
Recent papers and blog post
2026
  • Katherine Cheung, Caleigh Propes & David Yaden,  Balancing safety and access in Oregon’s psilocybin services, International Journal of Drug Policy 2026, Volume 155, 105384.
    Drawing on the first full year of data published by the Oregon Health Authority, this commentary examines how safety and access are being balanced through Oregon’s policy on the regulated psilocybin services.

  • Sarah Kratina et al., Policy pathways and historical insights: Canada’s evolving approach to psychedelic access for end-of-life distress, International Journal of Drug Policy, September 2026, 105414.
    The authors trace the historical development of Canadian drug policy, palliative care, and medical assistance in dying (MAID), and explain how these have shaped access to psychedelic therapies for patients experiencing psychological or existential suffering at the end of life. Open Access: linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0955395926002665 .

  • Julia Etkin & Christopher Robertson, Super Placebo Psychedelics: How Might FDA Evaluate Blinding Failure?, Yale Journal on Regulation (Blog post, open access: https://www.yalejreg.com/nc/super-placebo-psychedelics-how-might-fda-evaluate-blinding-failure/.
    The authors argue that although patient-blinding often fails in psychedelics research, drug approvals may be tenable provided that objective benefits can be proven with robust rater-blinding that is enforced and documented. 
  • Shayla Love, A lost peyote document from 1619: 5 Questions for philosopher Osiris Sinuhé González Romero, The Microdose (20 July 2026) https://themicrodose.substack.com/p/a-lost-peyote-document-from-1619
     An interview about a document from 1619 that was recently found, which appears to be the precursor to the peyote prohibition that followed around a year later, when the Catholic church banned peyote internationally (even in places it didn’t grow).

  • Gearin, Cohen, Garcia-Romeu: Setting, context and the regulatory atmospheres of psychedelic medicine. International Journal of Drug Policy, July 2026, 105327 
    The paper examines the interplay between affective atmospheres impacting the effects of psychedelics and legal regulations of spaces and people creating those atmospheres. “We introduce the concept of regulatory atmospheres to describe the diffuse and sometimes invisible ways in which policy shapes the contextual conditions of psychedelic use.”
    Open Access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955395926001799

  • Bublitz, Market approval and the right to health: a human rights perspective on MDMA-assisted therapy. Journal of Medical Ethics – Practical Bioethics 
    The paper examines the norms underlying the drug approval process, at the example of the FDA’s MDMA-AT rejection It argues that rejection of drug approval affects the human right to health of people who would have benefitted, that the right is pased over by some critics too easily, and that it should also affect regualtory stances on functional unblinding and exceptional use programs.
    2026;2:e000039. Open Access:https://doi.org/10.1136/jmepb-2025-000039  
Publications by Convenors