Politics
There’s Been A ‘Striking Increase’ In Support For Psychedelic Therapy And Research In The Last Two Years, Poll Shows
There’s been a “striking increase” in support for legal and regulated therapeutic access to psychedelics as well as expanded research exploring their medical potential—with a new poll finding that voters have been “warming up” to the alternative treatment option over the last two years.
As the state and federal reform movement has intensified, the University of California, Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) on Wednesday released its second national survey on how voters view the substances, as well as their opinions about differing psychedelics policy proposals.
Overall, the results show that “regulated use with clear guardrails related to safety is gaining traction, while support for unregulated access is not,” the center’s memo on the poll says. That’s based on an analysis of the survey data from 2025, which revealed a “striking increase” in voter approval of “two different kinds of policy approaches” for psychedelics as compared to a prior survey done in 2023.
Support for making psychedelics available as a prescription medicine increased 12 percentage points between 2023 and 2025—growing from 29 percent to 41 percent. Similarly, support for allowing the legal, therapeutic use of psychedelics grew 10 percentage points, from 36 percent to 46 percent in the span of two years.
The other policy approach that gained traction over the last two years was making it easier for scientists to study psychedelics. In 2023, just under half (49 percent) of voters said they backed that proposal; by 2025, support leaped to 63 percent.
“Voters appear to be warming up to psychedelics as medical treatments accessed within regulated medical and therapeutic frameworks,” the authors of the survey report said. They added, however, that there was a notable exception, with one policy concept that curiously saw a “nonsignificant” 1 percentage point decrease in support since 2023: Decriminalization.
In the latest poll, only 28 percent of voters said they backed removing criminal penalties for the personal use and possession of psychedelics—a policy that has for years enjoyed majority, often bipartisan, support when applied to marijuana.
“Despite an increase in local legislation that decriminalizes personal possession, we observed only tepid support from voters for this kind of policy,” the survey report said. “The wave of support for scientific research and for other highly regulated options might indicate that many voters are curious about psychedelic substances and their effects, but have concerns about their safety and efficacy.”
“One interpretation is that people could be worried about the risks—or mindful of their current and historical legal parameters and stigma—resulting in them being more supportive of psychedelics in a controlled environment,” it said.
Meanwhile, the researchers also found that policy views about the therapeutic use of psychedelics varied when responders were asked about their application in specific instances. For example, 48 percent said they favor regulated psychedelics access, and 38 percent said they favor removing criminal penalties for psychedelics, if the person using them is in end-of-life care.
Majorities of voters also support regulated therapeutic access to psychedelics for military veterans (56 percent), people with depression (60 percent) and those experiencing addiction (54 percent).
For decriminalization, support for the reform was highest for end-of-life care. Another 26 percent said they back the policy for anyone aged 21 and older, followed by veterans (22 percent), those with depression (17 percent) and people with addiction (12 percent).
With respect to perceived safety of psychedelics, 37 percent of respondents said it’s either “pretty” or “extremely” safe to use the substances in a supervised setting, 20 percent said the same about the safety of psychedelics compared to tobacco and 18 percent expressed the same about its relatively safety compared to alcohol.
“Our main areas of exploration—exposure to psychedelics, trust, policy changes, and stigmas and concerns—yielded findings that are relevant for the quickly evolving psychedelics policy landscape,” the report concluded.
“Despite large increases in support for several policy ideas, only a single idea—making scientific research on psychedelics easier (63 percent)—had majority strong support, which we believe reflects the caution with which voters view psychedelics. We also identified some appetite for public high school education on the risks and benefits of psychedelics (35 percent ‘strong support’ and 30 percent ‘somewhat support’), further underscoring voters’ desire for information and its dissemination.”
The data also reflected “widespread concern and stigma around psychedelics,” the authors wrote, noting the safety comparisons to tobacco and alcohol. Between 35 percent and 38 percent of voters also said psychedelics are “addictive” and “can cause new mental health challenges.”
Additionally, while 48 percent of respondents described psychedelics users as “open-minded” and another 37 percent called them “creative,” about a quarter said people who take the plant-based medicines are “irresponsible” (24 percent) or “addicts” (24 percent).
“The complex mix of perceptions and attitudes shown in these data, paired with systematic demographic variations, suggest that effective messaging strategies and public education will need to build trust with specific audiences and fill knowledge gaps,” the survey concluded.
The BCSP survey involved interviews with 1,577 U.S. voters from April 16-28, 2025, with a +/-2.5 percentage point margin of error.
A separate survey released by the RAND Corporation in February found that, while support for legalizing the use of psychedelics was relatively low, public opinion on the issue seemed be closely following in the footsteps of the marijuana reform movement before the first states started enacting cannabis legalization.
RAND researchers also released data in January showing that nearly 10 million American adults microdosed psychedelic substances such as psilocybin, LSD or MDMA in 2025.
Meanwhile, the latest survey data out of UC Berkeley is being released about a week after a bipartisan coalition of 32 members of Congress urged federal health officials to expedite ongoing reviews of psychedelic therapies.
For their part, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last month announced steps that they say will help with “accelerating” therapeutic access to psychedelics for patients dealing with serious mental health conditions.
That move followed a psychedelics executive order that President Donald Trump signed.
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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said recently that the Trump administration is “very anxious” to create a pathway for access to psychedelics therapy and that top officials across federal agencies want to “get it out to the public as quickly as possible.”
In an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience in February, Kennedy said he’s confident “we’re going to get it done,” with plans to develop and finalize rules that would enable patients with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression to access psychedelic substances like psilocybin and MDMA in a “very controlled setting.”
Last June, Kennedy said his agency is “absolutely committed” to expanding research on the benefits of psychedelic therapy and, alongside of the head of FDA, is aiming to provide legal access to such substances for military veterans “within 12 months.”
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins also disclosed in April that he had an “eye-opening” talk with Kennedy about the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine. And he said he’s open to the idea of having the government provide vouchers to cover the costs of psychedelic therapy for veterans who receive services outside of VA as Congress considers pathways for access.
Bipartisan congressional lawmakers introduced legislation this session to provide $30 million in funding annually to establish psychedelic-focused “centers for excellence” at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities, where veterans could receive novel treatment involving substances like psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine.
A U.S. Senate committee held a hearing last month on a bipartisan bill to promote research into the therapeutic potential psychedelics by creating a new office at VA that would advance the development innovative treatments for serious mental health conditions and assist in reviewing the scheduling status of drugs like psilocybin, ibogaine and MDMA.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) has said ibogaine represents an “astonishing breakthrough” in the nation’s current “sick care system” that’s left people with serious mental health conditions without access to promising alternative treatment options.
Image courtesy of CostaPPR.
