Health officials will launch the revolutionary ‘magic mushroom’ therapy program by December, one year ahead of schedule, following a surge of interest from patients desperate for new options.
According to the plans of the state Department of Health, the first patients will receive treatment by the end of December 2026 through its Medical Psilocybin Program.
The state had received strong interest, and officials were pushing to make treatment available sooner, Dominick Zurlo, director of the Center for Medical Cannabis and Psilocybin, told the program’s advisory board. “Because there has been such large interest in this and a push for us to try to be able to help people with psilocybin treatments earlier, we have set a goal now to have the program at least to be able to see the initial patients by the end of December of 2026,” Zurlo said.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Medical Psilocybin Act last year, which creates the program. The law makes New Mexico one of the few states to permit supervised access to psilocybin, the naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain mushrooms.
Some states’ psychedelic reforms were approved directly by voters, but New Mexico’s program was created through legislation.
But this will not be a case of patients walking into a shop and buying psychedelic mushrooms at will. The treatment will take place in controlled medical conditions for patients, including people suffering from treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, and certain patients receiving end-of-life care.
Treatment requires extensive preparation before the psychedelic session. It will be a supervised administration in an approved setting, followed by therapy designed to help patients process and integrate their experiences.
Psilocybin has emerged as one of the most controversial and closely watched frontiers in mental health research. It remains illegal under federal law as a Schedule I controlled substance.
Clinical studies showed that carefully supervised treatment involving psilocybin and psychotherapy may significantly improve some patients. Some participants have reported reduced depression, diminished anxiety about death, fewer cravings, or profound changes in how they view their lives and traumatic experiences. In some studies, benefits have continued for months after one or a couple of guided sessions.
But the treatment is not yet a miracle cure. Researchers are still trying to understand its long-term effects on patients and how to safely administer it outside clinical trials.
New Mexico’s program will operate within a strictly regulated state framework. It will use naturally derived psilocybin under medical supervision.
Officials stress that the law does not create a free-for-all for recreational mushroom use. Wild mushroom foraging remains both illegal and potentially dangerous.
