Utah

1. 1What the law is

Utah's psilocybin route runs through hospitals, and only certain ones. The statute defines a qualifying healthcare system three ways: a privately owned, non-profit, vertically integrated healthcare system operating at least 15 licensed hospitals in the state; a health care system closely affiliated with an institution of higher education listed in Section 53H-1-102; or a health care system closely affiliated with a private postsecondary educational institution as defined in Section 53H-1-101. The drug may be used only under the direct supervision and control of that system and its licensed providers, and only by adults. This is a clinical authorization, not a decriminalization, and it is not a route a patient can enter alone. The section protects only conduct that complies with it, nothing leaves the clinical setting, and possession outside it is a Schedule I offense. Whether any program is running is not established by the public record. The report that participating systems owed the Health and Human Services Interim Committee before 1 July 2026 was listed in the Legislature's reporting registry as report id 648, Overdue with no submission, when checked on 17 August 2026. The registry could not be reached on 28 September 2026, and the statute attaches that duty only to a system that creates a program. Two 2026 acts sit alongside it. One authorizes a safety and feasibility study of psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD, naming MDMA, 5-MeO-DMT and psilocybin; it appropriates no money itself, and the study must begin by 1 January 2027 if legislative appropriations together with gifts and donations reach an amount the institute judges sufficient. The other provides that if the federal government schedules an FDA-approved pharmaceutical composition of a Schedule I substance outside Schedule I, that product is scheduled the same way in Utah automatically. No approved psilocybin medicine exists, so nothing changes under it today.

Utah occupies an unusual position in United States psychedelics law: psilocybin remains a Schedule I controlled substance, yet the state operates an enacted clinical pathway. SB 266 (2024), which took effect May 1, 2024 after Governor Cox allowed it to become law without his signature, established a hospital-based pilot permitting licensed providers at qualifying healthcare systems to administer psilocybin and MDMA as behavioral health treatments in supervised clinical settings. The substances may not be taken home and may not be administered to minors; the pilot runs through 2027. In March 2026, Governor Cox signed HB 390, the Veterans PTSD Clinical Research Amendments, which authorizes the Huntsman Mental Health Institute to run a safety and feasibility study of psychedelic-assisted therapy in veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD. The act carries no money of its own, and it lets the study start only once appropriations, gifts and donations add up to an amount the institute judges sufficient, which is why the $1 million usually attached to HB 390 is a separate appropriation that University of Utah Health reports, and why no state record yet shows the study running. The groundwork was laid in 2022, when HB 167 created the Mental Illness Psychotherapy Drug Task Force to study psilocybin and MDMA; its report recommended a cautious, clinically supervised approach. Outside these programs, possession, cultivation, and sale of psilocybin remain criminal offenses in Utah, and no decriminalization or personal-use measure is in effect.

Utah is the unexpected pilot leader among conservative states. Utah did not go to the ballot box. It routed psychedelics through qualifying healthcare systems, a mechanism with built-in institutional accountability that has proven politically durable in a legislature otherwise cautious on drug policy. The next decision points are fixed in statute: pilot providers must report outcomes to the Legislature by July 1, 2026, and the SB 266 program sunsets in 2027, so lawmakers will weigh extension, expansion, or expiry largely on the strength of that reporting. HB 390's veterans trial, with applications expected by mid-2026, adds a second data stream. The near-term trajectory is continued clinical-channel incrementalism rather than broader access.

2. 2Trials in Utah

Interventional psilocybin trials with at least one site in Utah, as their sponsors filed them with ClinicalTrials.gov, EU CTIS and ISRCTN. Each row links to the registry record, which sets out who may take part.

ClinicalTrials.gov data courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

3. 3History

The legal events behind this entry, dated and oldest first. Our own reviews and corrections are listed under Changes to this record.

1. 2022
   Mar

   Governor Cox signs HB 167, creating the Mental Illness Psychotherapy Drug Task Force to study psilocybin and MDMA for mental health treatment.

2. 2024
   Mar

   Legislature passes SB 266; Governor Cox allows the hospital pilot bill to become law without his signature, citing broad legislative support.

   May

   SB 266 takes effect, permitting providers at qualifying healthcare systems to administer psilocybin and MDMA in supervised clinical settings.

   01 May

   Mixed status takes effect.

3. 2026
   Mar

   Governor Cox signs HB 390, authorizing a safety and feasibility study of psychedelic-assisted therapy in veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute; the statute appropriates nothing and sets a funding condition before the study may begin.

   Jul

   Statutory deadline for SB 266 pilot providers to report patient outcomes and program data to the Legislature; the pilot sunsets in 2027.

4. 4Proposed laws

No psilocybin bill is pending. The Legislature's own list of bills passed in the 2026 general session, checked 16 Aug 2026, carries no psychedelic measure other than HB 390 and the scheduling act SB 83, and that session has adjourned. Two clocks are open instead: the report that participating healthcare systems owed the Health and Human Services Interim Committee before 1 July 2026, registered at le.utah.gov as report id 648, Drugs for Behavioral Health Treatment Report, and recorded there as Overdue with no submission listed as at 17 Aug 2026; and the repeal of the authorization on 1 July 2027.

5. 5Common questions