People in the UK support the medical use of psilocybin alongside therapy, with backing from voters for all parties, according to the results of a new nationwide poll.
The YouGov survey of 2,148 UK adults, commissioned by PAR (Psilocybin Access Rights), found that 68% of respondents support the medical use of psilocybin-assisted therapy for end-of-life psychological distress in the terminally ill, against just 8% opposed.
Support for psilocybin use in physical and neurological conditions such as cluster headaches, traumatic brain injury and stroke recovery reached 61%, with 12% opposed. For serious mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, PTSD, anorexia, OCD and addiction, 53% backed its use against 18% opposed.
Psilocybin is the main psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms. In recent years, studies have shown it can help with mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety as well as treat alcohol and other substance use issues.
Interestingly, the survey found that when people were told about the policies that allow legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy in other countries, support increased by between four and six percentage points on every condition.
The poll showed broad approval for psilocybin reform across the political spectrum. People who said they intend to vote Labour were 77% likely to support, the highest of any voter group. Reform UK voters also back the UK Government allowing end-of-life psilocybin use, by 68% to 11%. Conservative voters also support the measure 68% to 11%. Even on the most contested framing – psilocybin for mental health, without any international context – Reform voters split positively, with 45% expressing support against 26% who did not.
“These figures should reshape the political conversation in Westminster,” said Timmy Davis, co-founder of PAR.
“The evidence tells us what every clinician working in this field already knows – there is no reason for keeping psilocybin trapped in Schedule 1, unable to be prescribed to patients who may benefit. The public is not divided on this. Reform voters, Conservative voters, Labour voters, Liberal Democrat voters, Green voters, every grouping returns clear net support across mental health, neurological and end-of-life applications.”
The findings highlight the growing gap between the UK and its international peers. Australia rescheduled psilocybin, allowing for its prescription in treatment-resistant depression in 2023. Canada has operated a Special Access Programme since 2022. New Zealand introduced compassionate access in 2023. The United States now has regulated psychedelic access frameworks in Oregon and Colorado, and on 18 April 2026 the federal government issued a landmark executive order accelerating psychedelic research and access.
When people learn that the rest of the world is moving forward, and that British scientists previously led in this field, they want their country to act
Conversely, the UK has long been a leader in research into the potential of psilocybin; Imperial College London established the world’s first dedicated Centre for Psychedelic Research in April 2019.
In 2023, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) published its Barriers to Research (part 2) review, identifying the regulatory friction that holds back legitimate clinical research on Schedule 1 substances, including psilocybin. The review made clear recommendations to ease that friction.
However, the successive Conservative and Labour governments have been slow to translate those recommendations into reform. As a result, British researchers continue to operate under restrictions that colleagues in Australia, Canada and the United States no longer face.
Opposition parties have shown support for reform. The Liberal Democrats formally adopted a policy calling for the rescheduling of psilocybin to facilitate research at their Spring Conference in York in March 2026. The Green Party has a long-standing policy backing substantial public funding for psychedelic research as therapies for mental illness and addiction.
Nine MPs, including several from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and all the Green Party MPs, have jointly signed PAR’s open letter to the Home Office calling for an urgent ACMD review of the evidence with a view to rescheduling psilocybin to facilitate access for research and treatment.
“Sixty-eight per cent of the British public support psilocybin-assisted therapy for people facing the end of their lives,’ said Tara Austin, co-founder of PAR. “Close to nine in ten of those who express a view in our data want this option to exist. These are not numbers from a fringe coalition – they are the kind of numbers politicians dream of on policies they actually want to deliver.”
“When people learn that the rest of the world is moving forward, and that British scientists previously led in this field, they want their country to act,” Austin added.
PAR is calling on the UK Government to commission an urgent ACMD review of the evidence justifying psilocybin’s scheduling status in light of clinical evidence accumulated since 2018, and to reschedule psilocybin from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 to permit prescribing and easier clinical research.
“We need to be clear that this is a question of regulating medical access, not legalisation of a street drug,” Davis said.
“PAR is calling for psilocybin to be moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, so that doctors can prescribe it and researchers can study it without the current friction. The public has made up its mind. The real question is whether politicians are brave enough to follow them.”
Image source: Imperial College London
