1. What the law is
A judgment, not a statute, is what protects a psilocybin user in Colombia. The personal-dose table in Ley 30 de 1986 names cannabis, hashish, cocaine and methaqualone, and no quantity in it covers psilocybin. The cover comes from the Constitutional Court, which in 1994 struck the arrest and fine for carrying a personal dose as a violation of the free development of personality, and in 2012 read into the trafficking offence an exception for any dose held only for personal use. A 2009 amendment wrote a prohibition into the constitutional text without attaching a penalty, and the Court has refused to supply one. A December 2023 decree repealed the police procedure for a personal dose, but the Police Code still fines consuming drugs near schools, in parks and in other public places, within limits the Court has set. Trafficking and distribution stay criminal.
2. History
The legal events behind this entry, dated and oldest first. Our own reviews and corrections are listed under Changes to this record.
Decriminalized status takes effect.
3. Proposed laws
Proposals that are not yet law and would change this entry if adopted.
One bill in the Senate register concerns the personal dose. Proyecto de Ley 104 de 2026 Senado, from Senator Juan Fernando Caicedo Callejas and others, is titled as providing for the seizure and destruction of psychoactive substances, the personal dose included. It sits in the Senate's First Committee awaiting its first-debate report. The Senate register, searched on 15 September 2026 across every legislature, has no bill naming psilocybin, mushrooms or psychedelics in its title, though a title search would not find such a clause inside a broader bill. A bill filed in the House of Representatives appears there only once it reaches the Senate.
4. Common questions
Is psilocybin legal in Colombia?
Psilocybin is decriminalized in Colombia.
Are magic mushrooms ("shrooms") legal in Colombia?
"Magic mushrooms" and "shrooms" are common names for fungi that contain psilocybin, and this entry states the law on psilocybin itself, which some laws treat separately from the fungus. Psilocybin is decriminalized in Colombia.
Read the law
Constitutional Court Sentencia C-221 de 1994 (5 May 1994) struck Ley 30 de 1986 art. 51, which punished carrying, keeping or consuming the personal dose with arrest and a fine, and art. 87, which sent drug users who had committed no offence to treatment institutions, and upheld the personal-dose definition in art. 2 lit. j. Ley 1453 de 2011 deleted the personal-dose exception from Penal Code art. 376; Sentencia C-491 de 2012 (28 June 2012) upheld the article only on the understanding that it does not punish carrying or keeping a dose held exclusively for personal consumption, of any narcotic or psychotropic substance. Decreto 2114 de 2023 (7 Dec 2023) art. 1 repealed Decreto 1844 de 2018, the regulation that set the police procedure for carrying and holding a personal dose. Police fines remain in the Police Code (Ley 1801 de 2016). Art. 140 num. 7, as cut by Sentencia C-253 de 2019, still bars consuming "sustancias prohibidas", which the Code does not define, in public space, and num. 8 bars carrying them there (Multa General tipo 2). Art. 34 num. 3 bars carrying or consuming psychoactive substances, the personal dose included, around schools. Art. 140 nums. 13 and 14, added by Ley 2000 de 2019, carry Multa General tipo 4 for consuming or carrying them near schools, in parks and sports venues and in areas a mayor designates; Sentencia C-127 de 2023 (27 April 2023) upheld both on the understanding that they protect children and that "carrying" does not reach carrying for one's own use. Scheduling: Ley 43 de 1980, approving the 1971 Convention, lists psilocin and psilocybin in List I (entries 7 and 8). Ministerio de Salud Resolucion 116 de 2026 (27 January 2026, Diario Oficial 53.396 of 12 February 2026), which modified article 4 and the technical annexes of Resolucion 315 de 2020, carries them as entries 407 and 408 of Anexo Tecnico 1, and the Fondo Nacional de Estupefacientes register files both under the Lista Verde (List I).1
Sources
This entry's status is checked against the primary sources below, and the methodology explains how each entry is graded for confidence.
- 1.corteconstitucional.gov.co (opens in new tab) · corteconstitucional.gov.co
- 2.colombiareports.com (opens in new tab) · colombiareports.com
This entry is for information only and is not legal or medical advice. Laws change, and enforcement can differ from the letter of the law, so check the current position against the primary sources above before relying on it.
Changes to this record
5 changes on file, the latest on . Show allHide
Every change we have made to this record, dated, corrections included. Nothing changes silently.
The entry now lists a Senate bill that would provide for the seizure and destruction of drugs, including the personal dose.
The entry now names the Colombian law that lists psilocybin, Ley 43 de 1980, and dates the 2026 Ministry of Health resolution that keeps it on the national list.
This entry said a 2023 decree ended police fines for drug use in Colombia. It did not: the decree repealed a police procedure, and the Police Code still fines consuming drugs near schools, in parks and in other public places, within limits the Constitutional Court has set. The entry also now explains which court rulings protect a psilocybin user.
Colombia's entry now cites the Constitutional Court's 1994 judgment directly and dates it 5 May 1994. The rewritten summary explains that no statutory quantity covers psilocybin and that police fines for personal-dose possession ended in December 2023.
Colombia's status was confirmed, and the entry gained the three instruments that actually produce it: the 1994 judgment, the 2012 judgment that kept the trafficking offense alive, and the December 2023 repeal of the police fines for personal-dose possession.
Psilocybin Media Group. "Colombia: psilocybin legal status." The Psilocybin Record, accession CO-001, version of 15 Sep 2026. https://psilocybinlegalization.com/record/colombia