BCSP Staff, Author at UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics Releases Second Annual UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey Results

Posted on May 13, 2026May 13, 2026

BERKELEY, CA — The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) today released the results of its signature 2025 UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey. The final report, “A Rising Tide of Cautious Support,” examines how U.S. voters perceive psychedelics, and related public policy proposals and educational opportunities, while also exploring attitudes toward those who use psychedelics. The report is available here.

The UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey is one of the first national public opinion surveys dedicated specifically to tracking attitudes on psychedelics over time. Now in its second administration, it offers researchers, policymakers, educators and journalists a unique window into evolving U.S. public opinion at a pivotal moment for the field. As the U.S. government signals increased interest in this space, like the recent executive order, it’s critical to understand where the public stands on psychedelics and what concerns they hold around their use.

“The BCSP’s mission is to advance psychedelic discovery for the public good,“ says Andrea Venezia, Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and a lead author of the report. “Conducting this survey reflects our commitment not only to conducting research to help with complex societal issues, but to understanding the broader social and cultural landscape in which that research takes place. If policymakers want to accelerate psychedelic research and related options for the treatment of certain mental health conditions, the need for sound science and public education is more important than ever before.”

The 2025 UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey reveals a nuanced picture of U.S. voter opinions, in which four themes stood out:

Growing awareness, but trust is lacking.
74% of U.S. voters report having been exposed to information about psychedelics in the past year, and familiarity with someone who has used psychedelics continues to rise. However, voters report significant uncertainty about where to turn for trustworthy information, and confidence in available sources remains relatively low across the board.
Cautious but growing support for psychedelic policy reform.
Support for scientific research into psychedelics and for highly regulated access — such as in therapeutic or clinical trial settings — is growing. Voters show considerably more enthusiasm for controlled and supervised models of access than for broader decriminalization or recreational use, suggesting that the public is open to psychedelics but wants guardrails in place.
Safety concerns remain widespread.
While awareness of the potential benefits of psychedelics is growing, many voters continue to harbor significant concerns about their safety. Less than 1 in 4 U.S. voters view psychedelics as safer than alcohol or tobacco, and worries about adverse effects and misuse remain common, underscoring the need for clear, evidence-based public education.
Stigmas persist and likely shape public perception.
Despite increasing societal visibility, people who use psychedelics continue to face negative social perceptions from a substantial portion of the public. For example, about 25% of the sample said “addicts” and “irresponsible” described users well and only 16-17% said “moral” or “smart” described them well. These stigmas could be tied to concerns about safety and legality, and may present a meaningful barrier to both public education efforts and policy reform.

To explore these findings further, the BCSP will host a webinar on Wednesday May 27, 2026 at 10am PDT/1pm EDT featuring report authors Andrea Venezia, Tyrone Sgambati and Kuranda Morgan from the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Joining as guest speaker is Michelle Priest, co-principal investigator for the RAND Psychedelics Survey, who will provide a look at how her survey data intersects with that of the BCSP’s. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear directly from the researchers about the findings and ask questions about what they may mean for the future of psychedelic policy, research and education. Registration is free and open to the public: https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_S2laufU_TSqzBfJAv15Cdg#/registration

The full 2025 report, a Q&A with our research scientist, registration to the webinar and the prior 2023 report, can be found at psychedelics.berkeley.edu/survey. Andrea Venezia (report author and Executive Director of the BCSP) and Tyrone Sgambati (report author and postdoctoral research scientist) are available for interviews.

Figures, tables or infographics available here. Alternative sizes or graphics upon request.

Media Contact:

Rana Freedman, Executive Director of Communications

Email: bcspmedia@berkeley.edu

About the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) is an academic research center dedicated to the advancement of psychedelic discovery for the public good. The BCSP serves as a leading trusted source for scientific and interdisciplinary inquiry through rigorous scientific research, balanced journalism, accessible public education and reciprocal community engagement. The BCSP envisions a world in which progress in psychedelic research, public education, policy and practice lead to improvements in health and well-being. The BCSP is guided by the values and principles of acting with integrity and transparency, conducting rigorous research, serving as responsible stewards of public resources, embodying equity and reciprocity, and approaching the work with curiosity. For more information, visit psychedelics.berkeley.edu.

Five Big Takeaways from the 2025 UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey

Posted on May 13, 2026May 13, 2026

Psychedelics are having a moment — in labs, in legislatures and in mental health spaces. But how does the U.S. public actually feel about them? That’s what the UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey set out to find. Now in its second administration, this year’s survey tracks shifting American attitudes during a period of rapid legal, scientific, political and cultural change — providing the kind of data that can inform policymaking and public education. Building on an inaugural survey in 2023, the BCSP researchers refined their methodology and expanded into new areas of public opinion. Below, postdoctoral research scientist Tyrone Sgambati walks us through five big findings from 2025. (Note: The BCSP does not advocate for any specific policy positions or ballot measures). Read more about the report here.

Join the BCSP authors of the report (titled A Rising Tide of Cautious Support), Tyrone Sgambati, Andrea Venezia and Kuranda Morgan, for a webinar on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at 10amPDT/1pmEDT to go over the results of the survey. Registration is free and open to anyone.

Takeaway #1

Exposure to psychedelics is reaching new heights in the U.S., with an increasing number of voters reporting proximity to psychedelics.

While definitions differ, when people use the term psychedelics, the substances they are referring to often include psilocybin, LSD, DMT, ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, mescaline, ibogaine, ketamine and MDMA. In our 2025 survey, we found that 57% of voters had either used psychedelics themselves or knew someone close to them who had — up from 53% in 2023. What’s especially interesting is that certain demographics saw much larger increases over that same time period. Three groups stand out: Black voters, older voters (over 65) and conservative voters all saw outsized increases in proximity to psychedelics. That means, for example, 15% more Black voters reported proximity to psychedelics than they did two years ago. Those groups are still below the national average in terms of overall exposure, but they’re catching up fast.

A large proportion of voters see psychedelics as potentially useful for mental health conditions, whether that’s end-of-life distress, PTSD, trauma, anxiety or depression.

Takeaway #2

There is a lack of trust in professional sources of information about psychedelics, such as medical professionals.

In the survey, we asked about trust on different categories of people providing information on psychedelics. They included medical professionals, mental health professionals, professors at universities, faith leaders, etc. One big takeaway for us was that out of seven sources of information about psychedelics, none were overwhelmingly trusted by the population. Mental health professionals came out on top, but only around 30% of voters said they found them very trustworthy on this topic. That said, the most common response across the board was “somewhat trustworthy” and to me, that points to a potential opening for these sources to build trust with voters.

Takeaway #3

Support for policy reform is increasing.

This is one of the most interesting takeaways to me. We tracked support for policy proposals over time, and the picture is nuanced. On the one hand, we saw strong increases in support for regulated access — making psychedelics available as a prescription medicine and legalizing them for therapeutic use — and making it easier for scientists to study them. More than 50% of voters support making psychedelics easier to research, making it the most popular policy reform proposal we are tracking. On the other hand, support for decriminalizing personal use and possession of psychedelics remained unchanged, with only around 25% of voters indicating their support.

My read on that distinction is that a minority share of the population are increasingly supportive of regulated, controlled access, but significant concerns around safety remain.

Takeaway #4

People generally perceive psychedelics as most useful for PTSD and other mental health conditions.

A large proportion of voters see psychedelics as potentially useful for mental health conditions, whether that’s end-of-life distress, PTSD, trauma, anxiety or depression. Support was generally higher for treatment-resistant diagnoses, which might indicate a belief that psychedelics shouldn’t be the first line of treatment, but might be worth considering when nothing else has worked.

It’s also worth noting the high levels of uncertainty in these responses. For each of the uses we asked about, 17-33% of voters said they simply didn’t know how useful psychedelics would be — which speaks to a broader gap in public knowledge around the efficacy and the safety of psychedelics.

Takeaway #5

Concern and stigma about psychedelics is widespread, though many voters report not knowing enough to make judgements.

We asked voters to compare the safety of psychedelics to alcohol and tobacco, and only about 20% of voters said that psychedelics were safer than either. But when we asked about use in a supervised setting, the numbers shifted: 34% felt that supervised psychedelic use would be safe. We take that as a sign that people do believe that context and precautions matter.

We also found that over a third of voters consider psychedelics addictive, and 24% view people who use them as irresponsible or addicts. At the same time, users are most commonly perceived as open-minded and creative. So social perception is really mixed amongst our participants: creative and open-minded on one hand by some, while reckless and irresponsible by others.

Learn more about the 2025 UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey here.

A neuroscientist describes your brain on psychedelics in 101 seconds

Posted on May 11, 2026May 13, 2026

Berkeley, CA – May 4, 2026

Written by Kara Manke and Charlotte Khadra for UC Berkeley News

Michael Silver wants to know what your brain looks like on psychedelics.

From Timothy Leary to Michael Pollan, countless psychologists, journalists and cultural leaders have documented the profound impact psychedelics can have on the human mind. And long before these substances became popularized in Western society, psychoactive plants were a key component in many Indigenous healing practices.

But underneath these mental states is a physical organ — the brain — composed of a tangled web of neurons and other cells that somehow work together to create these transformative experiences. As Silver explains in this 101 in 101 video, scientists still know very little about what exactly is happening inside the brains of people on psychedelics.

As the director of the BCSP, Silver is leading a team of researchers who are using brain imaging to uncover the “nuts and bolts” of how psychedelics work in the brain.

By collecting “movies” of the brain activity of people on psychedelics, they hope to link changes in brain activity with changes in perception. This detailed, mechanistic understanding of psychedelics and the brain could not only transform how we understand the human mind and consciousness — it could also lead to new and possibly more effective treatments for mental illness.

“A psychedelic experience in the right therapeutic context can result in enduring, maybe permanent changes in people… there have been studies in the lab environment where the majority of people rated it as one of the most profound and sometimes spiritually meaningful experiences of their lives,” said Silver, a professor of optometry and vision science and of neuroscience at Berkeley. “We believe that this kind of information will eventually be critical for improving well-being in society and reducing suffering.”

Watch more 101 in 101 videos featuring UC Berkeley faculty and experts here.

Collective Continuance: Indigenous Knowledge Fellowship Q&A with Marlena Robbins

Posted on February 16, 2026April 8, 2026

Q&A with Marlena Robbins

Marlena Robbins is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, and Program Coordinator for the Collective Continuance Fellowship (CCF). Her research examines multigenerational perspectives on psilocybin mushrooms in urban Native communities and the development of the CCF as a model for ethical engagement in psychedelic research. Drawing on implementation science, Indigenous methodologies, and public health prevention theory, she studies how research design, governance, and training structures can shape the future of psychedelic science. She has contributed to tribal engagement strategies for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and served on the Colorado Natural Medicine Tribal Working Group.

In addition, Marlena was a co-author on the recently published paper, Indigenous Knowledge Systems & Psychedelic Science: Towards Ethical and Reciprocal Collaboration. BCSP financial support made the publication open-access, and we will continue to support future publications that center Indigenous voices, ethics and knowledge production in the psychedelic field.

BCSP

Can you tell us a bit about your research and your background in the psychedelic field?

Marlena Robbins

My entry into this work started with building a relationship with the medicine itself. When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I wanted to understand psilocybin-assisted therapy for end-of-life care to help him with his transition. That experience led me to apply to the Doctor of Public Health program at UC Berkeley, where I began learning about ethnopsychopharmacology and the development of culturally informed psychedelic-assisted therapy for groups that identify with particular cultural traditions.

My public health training pushed me to think beyond individual experiences and toward systems, institutions, and prevention. I started asking broader questions: How do these culturally grounded approaches intersect with Western mental health practices? Where do they align and where do they diverge? And what gets lost, or overlooked, when Western science becomes the primary framework for understanding healing?

How do we find balance, where both Indigenous knowledge systems and Western science are treated as valuable, with tools that can teach and learn from one another?

BCSP

How did you first get involved with the BCSP and the fellowship?

Marlena Robbins

I received the Indigenous Student Research Fellowship through the BCSP and both Dr. Tina Trujillo and Dr. Andrea Gomez became mentors to me. At a time when conversations about commercialization and exploitation of Indigenous communities were becoming more visible in the psychedelic space, it felt meaningful to see an initiative that centered Indigenous presence within an academic research environment.

While the fellowship offered funding, it also signaled that Indigenous perspectives and methodologies belonged in scientific institutions as something worth investing in and learning from.

BCSP

How did this intersect with your dissertation work?

Marlena Robbins

The fellowship supported the early development of my dissertation research. One of my dissertation papers examines the first iteration of the Indigenous Student Research Fellowship and what emerged from that initial cohort. My second paper focuses on the continued development of the fellowship, which is now called the Collective Continuance: Indigenous Knowledge Fellowship. In that paper, I look at how the fellowship might serve as a broader model for the psychedelic field as it begins to ask more foundational questions: What does reciprocity look like in practice? What does ethical research actually involve when Indigenous knowledge systems are engaged? And how can Indigenous ways of knowing exist alongside Western science without being extracted, simplified or translated only on Western terms? This felt especially urgent in the psychedelic field, where interest is accelerating faster than shared ethical infrastructure.

BCSP

Tell us about your new role as the Collective Continuance: Indigenous Knowledge Fellowship program coordinator at the BCSP.

Marlena Robbins

I come into this role as a student first. I’m still learning, and I’m careful not to position myself as an expert. I’m holding this role as a doctoral candidate applying what I’ve learned over the past four years, and as a Diné woman carrying lived experience shaped by how and where I grew up.

My intention is to help center Indigenous knowledge systems within psychedelic science because the field feels lopsided. Western scientific methods dominate, even when the medicines being studied come from Indigenous context with their own epistemologies and ethical frameworks. Part of my role is to help introduce these paradigms thoughtfully and gently while also asking the scientific community to reflect on its assumptions about what counts as valid knowledge.

There are ways of knowing that have been carried for thousands of years. The question I keep returning to is how do we find balance, where both Indigenous knowledge systems and Western science are treated as valuable, with tools that can teach and learn from one another?

BCSP

Who else is shaping the fellowship?

Marlena Robbins

We are working with a focus group of six Indigenous advisors who are helping to guide the fellowship’s design. We’ve shared insights from interviews with previous cohort members, conversations with BCSP staff and reflections from the fellowship’s earlier leadership, including Dr. Gomez, Dr. Trujillo, Dr. David Presti and Dr. Dacher Keltner.

The advisors have been generous with their time, energy and ideas. Then the pilot cohort will also play an active role by testing the partnerships that we’re building, allowing us to learn from how the fellowship functions in practice and not just in theory.

BCSP

Tell us about the upcoming cohort of fellows.

Marlena Robbins

The pilot cohort will include two fellows. We’ll invite them to share their work and to help further shape the fellowship by reflecting on what felt supportive, what didn’t work as intended and what needs rethinking. This phase is intentionally iterative. The fellows are seen as contributors and co-designers of the program’s evolution.

BCSP

The fellowship centers expertise, lived experience and relationship-based governance rather than relying solely on traditional academic hierarchy. Can you speak to the power of structuring the program that way?

Marlena Robbins

The fellowship invites collaboration across roles including Indigenous researchers, advisors, scholars, scientists and traditional practitioners, all with space to lead and design. There is an Indigenous advisory council and there are the fellows, who are UC Berkeley students. Some may be Indigenous and some may not, but all are engaging seriously with the intersection of Indigenous knowledge systems and psychedelic science. Many fellows have been trained within a narrow scientific framework. This fellowship asks them to learn additional methods shaped by Indigenous methodologies, data sovereignty and ethical research practices. We also prioritize partnerships with Indigenous-led organizations that already hold this knowledge, instead of asking institutions to reinvent it. This approach is intended to prevent extractive research relationships, misuse of Indigenous knowledge and institutional practices that reproduce harm even when intentions are good.

BCSP

How does your experience as a doctoral student shape how you’re approaching the fellowship?

Marlena Robbins

My experience as a doctoral student strongly shapes how I approach this fellowship. Early-career researchers often face foundational questions such as how to refine research questions, select methods, navigate Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes, and understand the responsibilities that come with working across knowledge systems, questions I encountered firsthand when beginning my own multigenerational research.

The fellowship is designed as an added layer of support for scholars whose training may not fully prepare them to engage Indigenous knowledge systems. For example, if a researcher hopes to work with Indigenous elders around psychedelic medicines, such as engaging Mazatec communities in conversations about psilocybin mushrooms, the research questions extend beyond methodology. How are relationships built over time? How is trust established? Who guides the research process? And who holds authority over how knowledge is shared and used? The fellowship creates space for researchers to think through these questions with careful approaches that are responsive to community contexts.

BCSP

How do you think about the fellowship playing a broader role in the psychedelic field?

Marlena Robbins

At a systems level, change begins upstream. If we engage students early and support them in developing research that takes Indigenous-centered perspectives seriously, the fellowship functions as a form of primary prevention at the level of research practice. Operating across individual, institutional and community contexts, it intervenes before extractive or unethical approaches become embedded, supporting research relationships built on accountability, responsibility and respect. This work is informed by socio-ecological approaches to prevention and public health ethics, which emphasize upstream intervention, systems-level change and the prevention of structural harm.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Collective Continuance Fellowship

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Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Social Media Fellow Q&As: Solei Sarmiento

Posted on January 12, 2026January 11, 2026

image of Solei Sarmiento with orange background

Welcome to the BCSP’s interview series highlighting the perspectives of Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Social Media Fellows. Please note these interviews describe the experiences and perspectives of the fellows and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BCSP.

Q&A with Solei Sarmiento

Solei Sarmiento is a Master of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School, where she studies integrative spiritual care through the lens of Mesoamerican traditional knowledge. Her work explores how ancestral practices can support individual healing and inspire organizational and systems-level transformation. She holds a B.A. in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley, where she researched daily awe, contemplative ecological pedagogies and prosocial behavior. As director and co-founder of the nonprofit Sunflower Sutras, she co-creates projects with Indigenous elders, scholars and artists that weave storytelling, traditional knowledge and research to cultivate new forms of learning and leadership. She is committed to bridging research, ancestral knowledge and community practice to advance collective well-being. You can see her work from the fellowship at @sunflower.sutras.

BCSP

Tell us about your Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Social Media Fellowship project. What was your favorite part of the project? Did you learn anything that surprised you?

Solei Sarmiento

The Sacred Medicines online conference–a collaboration between Sunflower Sutras, the Confederation of Amazonic Nationalities of Peru (CONAP) and International Consciousness Research Laboratories–served as the focus of my fellowship’s storytelling work. The project aimed to amplify Indigenous voices and explore ethical, decolonial approaches to psychedelics through thoughtful multimedia storytelling.

We structured this fellowship project in two interconnected phases. The first phase focused on the lead-up to the conference: We connected with elders, Indigenous young leaders and conference facilitators through interviews, while contextualizing the conference through educational carousel posts on decolonial research methodologies. The second phase highlighted select material from the conference itself—shared with the elders’ permission—including their reflections, as well as insights from participants on how the conference influenced their research, psychedelic practice or journey reconnecting with ancestral traditions. These narratives were shared via short-form videos and carousel posts, offering both intimate stories and accessible frameworks for understanding.

Through interviews, profiles and poetic carousels, we explored what bridging looks like in practice: how to uphold reciprocity, navigate cultural complexity and challenge extractive patterns while working across worlds. My favorite part was revisiting and editing footage with the elders, seeing how it connected with conference conversations and witnessing the collaborative energy this storytelling generated. It was especially meaningful to highlight voices like Ruro Caituro Monge, an Andean midwife, and bring perspectives on midwifery and community health into dialogue with broader audiences.

My favorite part was revisiting and editing footage with the elders, seeing how it connected with conference conversations and witnessing the collaborative energy this storytelling generated.

BCSP

What motivated you to apply for this fellowship? How does your personal background or lived experience inform your interest in psychedelic storytelling?

Solei Sarmiento

This project was co-created with Francisco Lopez Rivarola, co-founder of Sunflower Sutras. My motivation for applying to this fellowship grew from the meeting point between my training in contemplative sciences—where I first witnessed Western and Indigenous wisdom traditions in dialogue—and my desire as a Mexican-American to reconnect with my ancestral traditions. As a cognitive scientist in the field of contemplative sciences and chaplain-in-training, I see great beauty in cross-disciplinary, relational and culturally rooted knowledge-making.

This project emerged from two questions we saw resonating across many communities. First: How do we bridge Indigenous knowledge with Western hearts in ways that honor depth, context and reciprocity? And second: For people of color living in “in-between” identities—mixed-heritage, diasporic or mestizo—how can reconnection with ancestral traditions happen ethically, respectfully and with care?

Through conversations with elders and mixed-heritage scholars, we learned that navigating this terrain requires humility, relational accountability and a willingness to sit with ambiguity. Many emphasized that reconnection must arise through dialogue, consent and reciprocity—not through simply consuming traditions, but through showing up in ways that honor the communities who hold them.

From the outset, we were conscious of the long history of extractive research. Those of us in the new generation of contemplative researchers and psychedelic chaplains seeking to bridge Western and Indigenous knowledge systems must reckon with this history and move with great care, humility and respect.

The conference we were documenting centered Indigenous elders and their teachings, and with their permission, we felt a responsibility to share insights at the heart of the gathering. Motivated by the ongoing lack of Indigenous and BIPOC representation in the psychedelic field, we saw educational storytelling—before, during and after the conference—as a powerful way to honor and amplify these voices, helping shape a more ethical, inclusive and culturally grounded psychedelic landscape.

BCSP

Do you see multimedia/social media posts playing a different role than traditional media in shaping public understanding and engagement in the psychedelic landscape?

Solei Sarmiento

Social media plays a distinct role in shaping public understanding by enabling direct engagement, interactive dialogue and broad accessibility. I believe that it has a unique way of fostering conversation and community. In the psychedelic space, dominant narratives often prioritize scientific or legal frameworks, sidelining traditional knowledge and relegating the sacred, lived traditions of Indigenous communities to merely “a folkloric experience.” Through this media project, we aimed to counter that mindset by highlighting traditional knowledge systems as central—not peripheral—to understanding these medicines and imagining how the movement might evolve.

Because Indigenous perspectives have often been underrepresented on social media due to technological, accessibility and cultural barriers, we believe that amplifying their voices can meaningfully shift how the public perceives these traditions, bringing them closer and demystifying them in ways that even traditional media often cannot.

At the same time, these perspectives must contend with the realities of the digital landscape: noise, polarization and heightened risks of misrepresentation, especially in an era of AI-generated content. Our project asks: How can sacred knowledge be shared online without flattening its depth?

Despite the limitations of shorter-form content, social media remains a powerful entry point, one that can spark curiosity, inspire ethical reflection and create space for respectful engagement. Its visual, narrative and experiential forms invite a level of relational learning that traditional media alone rarely achieves.

BCSP

How do you work to create educational, balanced and ethical content while engaging audiences on controversial or misunderstood topics?

Solei Sarmiento

We approach this work by leaning into nuance rather than avoiding it. Bridging Indigenous and Western epistemologies is challenging given the legacy of pain and distrust. One of our guiding principles is approaching the work without a predetermined agenda—staying as faithful as possible to the messages and intentions of elders and collaborators. Media can serve as a bridge when crafted with care, collaboration and feedback. This process also involves acknowledging and unweaving colonized patterns in our own thinking and practice, ensuring the content fosters understanding without reinforcing harmful structures.

BCSP

What multimedia project (or creator) has moved you lately, in the psychedelic space or otherwise?

Solei Sarmiento

The recently released documentary Cobra Canoa, about Alvaro Tukano, one of the elders we worked with, beautifully demonstrates how to document living Indigenous traditions while honoring their depth and vibrancy. Directed by Enio Staub, it is an inspiring example of ethical storytelling. Outside the psychedelic space, I am drawn to @nowness on Instagram, which collaborates with global artists to communicate the beauty and complexity of the everyday through visual storytelling. I am inspired by creators who weave together intricate narratives through beauty, curiosity and ethical care, unafraid to engage with nuance.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Social Media Fellow Q&As: Charlotte James

Posted on January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

image of Charlotte James with orange background

Q&A with Charlotte James

Charlotte Duerr James is a visionary healer, ceremonial facilitator and founder of New Old Ways, a multidimensional learning space where ancestral wisdom, psychedelic ritual and collective liberation intersect. Rooted in both academic inquiry and embodied practice, Charlotte designs transformational experiences that honor intergenerational complexity and invite communities to heal across divides. Her work bridges lineages, identities and modalities, always with reverence, relationality and a deep belief in our shared power to remember, reconnect and reimagine. You can see her work from the fellowship at @newold.ways.

BCSP

What motivated you to apply for this fellowship? How does your personal background or lived experience inform your interest in psychedelic storytelling?

Charlotte James

Afro-diasporic stories and experiences of healing are so frequently left out of the mainstream psychedelic conversation. This often means that the medicines are not reaching our communities because we do not see ourselves included in the conversation about how these medicines, which frequently come from our own forgotten or rejected traditions, can support our healing. I see this as a continuation of the colonial project in which medicines are extracted from Indigenous peoples and cultures, but then monetized in a way that is largely un-accessible for the descendants of these Indigenous cultures.

I was interested in highlighting how sacred Earth medicines and psychedelics can offer us a window into a different narrative about ourselves, our origins and our capacities than has been fed to us for many generations.

BCSP

Tell us about your Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Social Media Fellowship project. What was your favorite part of the project? Did you learn anything that surprised you?

Charlotte James

My project is titled AfroPsychedelia and highlights the contributions of Afrodiasporic traditions and practitioners to contemporary psychedelic knowledge and practice. My intention was to create content that speaks directly to the Afrodiasporic experience and how working with sacred Earth medicines, which are a part of our ancestral traditions and technologies, can serve as a buoy while we traverse the sea of collective collapse, death and rebirth that we are in. Moreover, I was interested in highlighting how sacred Earth medicines and psychedelics can offer us a window into a different narrative about ourselves, our origins and our capacities than has been fed to us for many generations. This campaign was a practice of colonial deconstruction. My favorite part was creating the graphics, as this is one form of my own creative expression and storytelling.

My research for the campaign made it even clearer to me how prevalent entheogens are within African traditional religions and spiritual lineages. We’ve just been quite intelligent and strategic about keeping them part of closed practice.

BCSP

Do you see multimedia/social media posts playing a different role than traditional media in shaping public understanding and engagement in the psychedelic landscape?

Charlotte James

I’m not sure I do, because of the widespread censorship that is happening around psychedelics on social media. It’s fascinating to watch large companies talking about breakthrough treatments and the medicalization of tradition without issue, while community care workers and practitioners have to jump through semantic hoops just to avoid being shadow-banned.

BCSP

How do you work to create educational, balanced and ethical content while engaging audiences on controversial or misunderstood topics?

Charlotte James

Nothing is going to speak to everyone, so my focus has really been on offering content that appeals to those who may already feel the call towards these medicines or who are at least open-minded and curious. I’ve also been offering a balance of more clinically leaning content, which is backed by research around the role psychedelics can play in healing identity- and race-based trauma, and more ancestrally rooted knowledge, with an infusion of personal storytelling from members of my communities that have experienced the healing power of these ancient medicines.

BCSP

What multimedia project (or creator) has moved you lately, in the psychedelic space or otherwise?

Charlotte James

Sita Ji has been activating her medicine community in Jamaica, the Medicine Family Gathering, to become a network of mutual aid and community care in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. I am endlessly inspired by her resiliency and continued sharing and storytelling of the very real impact that natural disaster has on people and place, and the ways in which connection to the medicine is enhanced when it’s truly integrated into a community.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Putting Ethics and Public Engagement at the Center of Psychedelics Exploration

Posted on December 16, 2025December 16, 2025

Participants discuss ethics in psychedelic basic science research at the workshop.

Berkeley, CA – Dec 16, 2025 — Scientific research is always a reflection of the world around it—our history, our values and our people. That is why researchers must do more than just observe; they must constantly look inward. Integrating ethics means practicing humility and accountability every day. It means asking: Does this work promote equity? Is it mutually beneficial?

This is critical in psychedelic science. As interest in psychedelics explodes, researchers on the cutting edge face unique ethical dilemmas. To move forward responsibly, they must ensure that the excitement for discovery is matched by a commitment to doing right by the community.

The BCSP’s core values inform work at the center. Within basic science, journalism, community-building, applied research and policy, the BCSP’s staff ask questions and support each other as they figure out how ethical and values-driven principles can be integrated directly into their work and the work of others in the field of psychedelic science.

On November 7, 2025, the BCSP and the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public gathered 38 participants for a first-of-its-kind workshop designed specifically for psychedelic basic scientists: researchers who investigate the biological mechanisms of action of psychedelics. Organizers hoped to ask, how do diverse perspectives and disciplines shape psychedelic inquiry for basic research? How do incentive structures and operational environments shape research priorities in basic science? How can researchers make sure they’re doing research with communities and not just about them? How might needs, values, and insights from other disciplines and perspectives also shape basic science? How do those in the psychedelic field understand and integrate values such as equity, reciprocity and humility into their work?

“Unlike applied research, basic science research is often oriented towards discovery and foundational knowledge, rather than in direct response to a societal problem,” said Kuranda Morgan, strategy director and civic science fellow at the BCSP, who co-led the workshop alongside Jen Holmberg and Leana King, both neuroscience PhD students and graduate fellows at the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public. “So how do we think about ways that neuroscience can be values-led, culturally attuned, and community-responsive when it can feel more upstream from the problems that society is experiencing?”

Being: Reflexivity in Research

How does one’s own disciplines affect them? How does background shape which issues someone is interested in, their methodologies and their audiences?

When talking about values-led work—and inviting lived experiences and community perspectives to influence that work—it’s important to examine one’s own history and training. That’s why the BCSP began the workshop by establishing context. Sylver Quevedo, who is the scientific director and chair of the board of directors for the Open Mind Collective, a faculty member at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and a principal investigator in an FDA trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, provided theoretical grounding for the day’s discussion, orienting attendees to the strengths of different disciplines, both research that’s driven by the scientific method and research that’s driven by narrative and personal experience.

Next, participants wrote down one of their own values—humility, curiosity and creativity were stand-outs—and considered how it showed up in their work.

Participants shared their values and the ways they show up in their work

Becoming: Exploring psychedelic inquiry through different disciplines

What new opportunities emerge when different ways of knowing work together? What’s the impact of exploring (or not exploring) perspectives from disciplines different from one’s own?

Background, both professional and personal, shapes how researchers approach their work—which is part of why it’s so meaningful to learn from each other’s work in various disciplines. To that end, participants heard from three different speakers about how they view psychedelic inquiry.

Dr. Heather Kuiper, co-founder and director of the Center for Psychedelic Public Health, spoke about how to approach psychedelic inquiry as a public health issue, related to social and community health. If researchers think about psychedelics as potentially improving outcomes, then how can they establish equity within and across the research process?

Dr. Diana Negrín, a geographer and curator with a focus on identity, space and social movements in Latin America and the United States, explored how geographic, historic and sociocultural contexts shape how plant medicines are stewarded and used. As psychedelics continue to become more mainstream, how do researchers acknowledge how their growing popularity shapes the communities and geographies that they come from? How can researchers reflect on the role of their work in changing relationships between communities and the land?

Marlena Robbins, the program coordinator for the Indigenous Student Research Fellowship at the BCSP and a DrPH candidate at UC Berkeley, spoke about Indigenous knowledge as science. How can researchers respect and learn from Indigenous research ethics, including relational accountability, reciprocity, kinship and trust? What is the importance of cultivating a relationship with the plants themselves?

In breakout groups, participants discussed ethical tensions that came up in their work. Then, each group worked through one dilemma: What are the historical contexts, and forms of insight might add to it? What would it look like if the ethical dilemma was addressed, and what would be the adverse effect if it wasn’t?

“We went through the process of collective sense-making: studying a problem, how it manifests, and what it might look like to have it solved, with people who are different from you,” said Morgan. “That builds a cultivated awareness, which can inform how you think about administering a sacrament or diversifying your research study participants.”

Together, workshop attendees brought together those “flowers” to create a garden of ethical dilemmas.

An example of an ethical dilemma explored in break-out groups

Participants created a garden of ethical dilemmas to learn about how others are navigating tensions in their work

Belonging: Approaches to ethics and engagement

What does it look like to be inclusive in a research practice? What approaches can successfully advance interdisciplinary work?

How others bring their backgrounds to their work can broaden one’s understanding of psychedelic inquiry—and lead to collaboration, both with other researchers and with subjects of research. The organized asked three speakers to discuss engaged medical research and how to pursue interdisciplinary work in the psychedelic field.

Dr. Lea Witowsky, executive director of the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public at UC Berkeley, spoke about three projects that bridge science and society: the Kali Center graduate fellowship, which provides graduate students with ethical training; an event that bridged perspectives between the autism community (care-givers and self-advocates) and scientists studying autism; and an art residency focused on visualizing genetic data in textiles.

Dr. Brian Anderson, a psychiatrist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and an associate clinical professor at the UCSF School of Medicine, spoke about how he co-designed a study about demoralization from long-term AIDS diagnosis with the community he researched, focusing on increasing connection through group therapy and dealing with trauma that didn’t qualify as PTSD through psilocybin therapy. Anderson shared how conversational spaces like town halls can steer research questions.

Dr. Bryan Howard, a co-founder of Oakland Hyphae, the first industry-recognized psychedelic testing lab, talked about the importance of trials outside of an academic setting to understand the potency and experiences of various psychedelic substances.

Moving forward

At the end of the workshop, participants gathered together to reflect on what they learned and specific actions that they could take to further develop ethical frameworks in their own research.

“The BCSP is really unique, in that we have these different disciplines: journalism, basic science, applied research, and convenings and events,” says Morgan. “Values-led ways of working are at the core of the BCSP’s identity, and we’ll continue thinking about how to imbue engaged practices, right relationship, cultural attunement and values into our work.” The workshop was a meaningful way to have those conversations—and just the beginning.

Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Social Media Fellow Q&As: Chelsea Coyle

Posted on December 15, 2025December 15, 2025

image of Chelsea Coyle against an orange background

Q&A with Chelsea Coyle

Chelsea Coyle is a brand strategist, community builder, and creative designer empowering psychedelic and wellness brands to grow purpose-driven movements. She has helped leading organizations build engaged communities of over 200,000 people collectively, fueled by strategic collaborations and storytelling across digital and in-person channels.

As community manager for the Microdosing Collective, Chelsea drives initiatives for safe, legal access to microdosing psychedelics. She’s also the founder of Psychedelic Genius, launched as an inaugural winner of the Mycoskie–UC Berkeley Psychedelic Social Media Fellowship, which focuses on normalizing psychedelic careers and helping newcomers find their zone of genius.

Chelsea advises psychedelic clinics, wellness brands and thought leaders, turning inspiration into action through storytelling, design and community-driven strategy, helping people find their place, purpose and power within the psychedelic and wellness movement. You can see Chelsea’s fellowship work on Instagram.

BCSP

What motivated you to apply for this fellowship? How does your personal background or lived experience inform your interest in psychedelic storytelling?

Chelsea Coyle

I was actually sent the fellowship page by a close friend and colleague the night before it was due. The moment I read the description, I felt like it was made for me. Needless to say I was up until 2am building my application. I’ve always been fascinated, borderline obsessed, with studying what makes content and communities successful: the kind that sparks conversation, encourages intentional reflection and creates a deeper connection to something that can make a meaningful, positive impact on the world. I believe there’s room for every voice in this space, and I knew this fellowship was the perfect opportunity to begin shaping mine.

A big part of why I’m so passionate about psychedelic storytelling is that I believe both subjective lived experiences and objective science are essential to advancing this movement and providing safer, broader access for those who need it most. These two pillars shaped my own introduction to psychedelics, and while my experiences were mostly positive, I know not everyone has that opportunity. I want to help ensure that people approaching these medicines do so with safety, community, intentional expression and a focus on destigmatization.

Social media pushes us to be extremely strategic and compelling, grabbing attention in the first two seconds of a video or the first line of copy, while also asking the bigger question: What story are we telling over time, broken into digestible pieces?

BCSP

Tell us about your Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Social Media Fellowship project. What was your favorite part of the project? Did you learn anything that surprised you?

Chelsea Coyle

My project, Psychedelic Genius, is dedicated to normalizing career pathways within the psychedelic field and supporting people who want to enter the industry in a professional, informed and meaningful way. As with any emerging and still-stigmatized area, psychedelic medicine needs intentional support in helping people build careers where they can contribute their unique strengths (their own “genius”) toward making a positive impact.

For the purpose of this fellowship, the project is beginning with a focus on interview-driven content, learning from professionals who have already established their careers in the space. In the long term, Psychedelic Genius aims to become a hub for individuals passionate about contributing to the science, policy, business and culture of psychedelics.

My favorite part of the Mycoskie–UC Berkeley Psychedelic Social Media Fellowship project was getting to fill a gap in the industry that I felt was absolutely essential. It gave me the freedom to explore my own creative pursuits in a self-directed way, while collaborating with an incredible, curated team. Each of us was practicing what it truly means to work in our zone of genius: from creative direction and graphic design to copywriting and video editing. Every piece of content we produced had intentionality behind it, and in my experience, that’s the kind of work that creates the greatest impact over time.

What surprised me most was how supportive the community has been. I came into the project feeling nervous about how my work would be received, but the psychedelic community, and specifically the people I’ve been surrounded by, have embraced it. It reinforced a big lesson for me: Hard work and thoughtful creation pay off in meaningful ways.

BCSP

Do you see multimedia/social media posts playing a different role than traditional media in shaping public understanding and engagement in the psychedelic landscape?

Chelsea Coyle

In today’s social media world, attention spans are shrinking, and while that can get a bad rap, I actually see it as an opportunity for creatives who know how to adapt. Social media pushes us to be extremely strategic and compelling, grabbing attention in the first two seconds of a video or the first line of copy, while also asking the bigger question: What story are we telling over time, broken into digestible pieces? Public understanding on social media comes from steady and compelling learning, asking for consistent engagement rather than long engagement right away.

Traditional, longer-form media is just as important but serves a different role. If social media is the appetizer, long-form content is the full-course meal: the deep dive, the textbook, the space for the seeker and the passionate learner. Both are needed to leave the table full. And as creatives, it’s our job to make sure the whole meal is delicious.

BCSP

How do you work to create educational, balanced and ethical content while engaging audiences on controversial or misunderstood topics?

Chelsea Coyle

Educational: I base statements in research whenever possible, but I also highlight lived experiences. Storytelling is most powerful when it invites curiosity, both from me and from the audience. I approach each piece as a chance to explore a question, spark reflection, and guide people toward deeper understanding.

Balanced: I’m always willing to acknowledge the “shadow” side—the risks, limitations or controversies—because trust comes from honesty. No topic is entirely positive, and embracing complexity creates credibility.

Ethical: For me, ethics start with intention and dialogue. I create not to lecture, but to invite conversation and collaboration with the community. I’m willing to be wrong, iterate and reflect on my own intentions, asking myself, “Am I creating to genuinely make a positive impact, or just checking a box?” This reflection guides every decision, ensuring content is responsible, engaging and meaningful.

BCSP

What multimedia project (or creator) has moved you lately, in the psychedelic space or otherwise?

Chelsea Coyle

Psychedelics.com: They do an incredible job capturing the science, business, culture, policy and practice of psychedelic medicine. Their content meets people at crucial points in their journey and is designed to optimize for the most positive and thorough experience possible. I especially appreciate their mycelium mindset: the way they amplify the work of both large and small creators. To me, this reflects a deep understanding of how important it is to elevate all voices in the space and cultivate a well-rounded, thriving industry.

House musicians: Music and movement fuel my creative process. Whether I’m attending live shows and mixing music in my down time or integrating music into my workflow, it helps me operate at the vibe I want to express through my work. Here’s a playlist.

Atmos: Nature is a huge source of inspiration for me. Seeing immersive, mission-driven content that sparks action reminds me why storytelling matters. Their visuals, copy and overall storytelling are a constant reference point for the quality and intentionality I strive for in my own projects.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Social Media Fellow Q&As: Xochitl Bernadette Moreno

Posted on December 15, 2025January 13, 2026

image of Xochitl Bernadette Moreno against an orange background

Q&A with Xochitl Bernadette Moreno

Xochitl Bernadette Moreno is a Xicana filmmaker, ceremonialist and media maker whose work bridges ancestral wisdom, social justice and community healing. A longtime activist and co-founder of Essential Food & Medicine and Esphera, she creates films and rituals that restore connection to land, spirit and culture. As co-host of KPFA’s La Onda Bajita, the longest running Chicano radio show in the country, and creative director of Earth Amplified Media, she weaves art and activism through sound, ceremony and storytelling. Her current feature documentary, Ancestral Medicine: Healing the Streets, explores how formerly incarcerated and unhoused people use ancestral and psychedelic medicine to recover from trauma.

Follow Xochitl’s work on Instagram @ancestralmedicinefilm and @xochicana.

BCSP

What motivated you to apply for this fellowship? How does your personal background or lived experience inform your interest in psychedelic storytelling?

Xochitl Bernadette Moreno

I applied to the Mycoskie–UC Berkeley Fellowship because it felt like an opening to tell stories at the crossroads of healing and justice. I come from a lineage of storytellers and healers: My great-grandfather, Antonio Garduño, was one of Mexico’s pioneering photojournalists whose early work documented the Mexican Revolution. His photographs captured Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata in moments of power, pause and people’s struggle, helping to define the visual memory of that era. He later became a trailblazer of fine-art and erotic photography, exploring beauty and freedom of the human form in ways that were radical for his time.

I’ve spent my adult life collaborating with community medicine keepers and people surviving incarceration and addiction. Psychedelic storytelling allows me to honor both the scientific curiosity of this moment and the ancestral practices that have sustained our peoples for centuries. My own experience working with ceremony and mutual-aid networks has taught me that recovery isn’t just personal—it’s communal, relational and deeply spiritual.

The fellowship reminded us that we are not working in isolation; there is a growing network of practitioners, storytellers and scientists all moving in the same direction.

BCSP

Tell us about your Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Social Media Fellowship project. What was your favorite part of the project? Did you learn anything that surprised you?

Xochitl Bernadette Moreno

My fellowship project centered on Ancestral Medicine: Healing the Streets and the work of the Holistic Detox & Recovery Support System (HDRSS). We created a multimedia campaign connected directly to the film’s production, sharing stories and educational content about ancestral medicines like kambo, ayahuasca, iboga, 5-MeO-DMT and the sweat lodge as pathways of recovery for people rebuilding their lives after incarceration or homelessness.

The campaign became a bridge between the online community and the in-person movement. It allowed us to share updates from the field while cultivating real dialogue about decolonizing healing and the intersections of trauma, addiction and ceremony. My favorite part was witnessing how those digital stories found their mirror in human-to-human encounters at the Psychedelic Science 2025 conference in Denver, where members of the psychedelic research and community-care worlds came together around shared values of respect, reciprocity and cultural grounding.

What encouraged me most was the response: from people who felt seen, to researchers and clinicians seeking new models for community-based recovery. The fellowship reminded us that we are not working in isolation; there is a growing network of practitioners, storytellers and scientists all moving in the same direction. It strengthened our commitment to continue documenting these stories and following the mission of bridging ancestral knowledge and contemporary healing in authentic, ethical ways.

BCSP

Do you see multimedia/social media posts playing a different role than traditional media in shaping public understanding and engagement in the psychedelic landscape?

Xochitl Bernadette Moreno

Yes. Traditional media often presents psychedelics through academic, scientific or clinical frameworks, focusing on new studies, therapies and policies. Yet much of this conversation overlooks the deep, continuous lineage of Indigenous communities who have practiced with sacred plants and earth medicines for thousands of years. Their traditions are the original research, passed down through ceremony, song and relationship with the land.

Meanwhile, in urban contexts, there’s also a living psychedelic culture of the streets: people healing through community, creativity and survival long before it was recognized as “psychedelic therapy.” These two worlds—the ancestral and the institutional—often speak different languages.

Multimedia storytelling has the potential to bridge that divide. A short film, a reel or a digital story can transmit both the immediacy of lived experience and the depth of ancestral continuity. It can help viewers recognize that the psychedelic renaissance didn’t begin in research labs, but in jungles, deserts, sweat lodges and the collective memory of Indigenous peoples.

The task is to create narratives that honor both sides: the rigor of science and the wisdom of lived and ceremonial experience. Social media can humanize the research, ground it in community and remind audiences that healing isn’t just about innovation—it’s about remembering. For me, it’s a portal where empathy, evidence and ancestry meet.

BCSP

How do you work to create educational, balanced and ethical content while engaging audiences on controversial or misunderstood topics?

Xochitl Bernadette Moreno

I treat every post as an offering. Before creating, I ask, does this honor the people and medicines represented? I collaborate with elders, cultural advisors and clinicians to ensure that our storytelling is accurate, grounded and respectful of the traditions it touches.

When we share about sacred plant or animal medicines, we include both the clinical research and the cultural lineage behind them. We avoid sensationalism by emphasizing relationship over spectacle—centering the people and communities who carry these traditions, not just the substances themselves.

This also means humanizing populations who are often left in the shadows: people in recovery, those who’ve been incarcerated or unhoused and Indigenous practitioners whose knowledge predates modern “psychedelic science” by millennia. By showing their resilience, wisdom, and humor, we challenge stigma and open space for empathy.

Ethical storytelling, for me, is not just about avoiding harm. It’s about cultivating reciprocity and reverence. It’s a slow process of listening, giving credit and sharing the responsibility of representation so that healing can be seen in its full, human complexity.

BCSP

What multimedia project (or creator) has moved you lately, in the psychedelic space or otherwise?

Xochitl Bernadette Moreno

I’m continually inspired by Monica Cadena, an Afro-Chicana storyteller known as @sacred.alchemist whose work fuses poetry, ritual and digital strategy to center Black, Brown and Indigenous healing. Beyond her creative reels and essays, she’s also written on psychedelics and culture for outlets like Doubleblind, bringing rigor and heart to the conversation.

At Bioneers, I’ve been moved by the portrait work around the Indigeneity Program, especially the leadership and photography of Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), whose images honor Native presence with contemporary power and who helps steer Indigenous storytelling at the conference.

And the film Eskawata Kayawai: The Spirit of Transformation (directed by Lara Jacoski and Patrick Belem) stays with me: a seven-year documentary about the Huni Kuin’s cultural and spiritual renaissance and their relationship with Nixi Pae (ayahuasca), guided by leaders like Ninawá Pai da Mata. It’s a luminous example of reciprocity and community-led media.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

New Findings from Second UC Berkeley Psychedelics Survey

Posted on December 11, 2025April 6, 2026

Note: This article was originally published on 06/17/2025; it has been updated to include additional methodological details and update certain sections for clarity and accuracy.

In 2023, Michael Pollan, Imran Khan, and their team launched the pilot of a ground-breaking public perception survey about psychedelics to learn if psychedelic news, research, and education efforts such as those at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) informed mainstream culture and voters’ perceptions about the use of psychedelics in society. The BCSP is grateful for the generous support of donors that allowed for a second administration of the survey in April 2025.

A new team—BCSP Executive Director Andrea Venezia, Postdoctoral Researcher Tyrone Sgambati, and Civic Science Fellow Kuranda Morgan, along with Dave Metz and Miranda Everitt, Partners at FM3, a public opinion, research, and strategy firm—led the second administration of the survey for this ongoing public perception research project.

On June 18, the research team presented initial findings at Psychedelic Science 2025 in Denver. Since then, the team has been conducting deeper analyses and will release further findings and implications in early 2026.

Highlights from Initial Findings

Proximity to the use of psychedelics

The BCSP asked respondents if they or someone close have used a psychedelic at some point in their life. The BCSP called this metric proximity to the use of psychedelics.

Most respondents reported proximity to the use of psychedelics. A majority of respondents, 55%, reported that they or someone close to them have used psychedelics at some point in their lives, up from 52% in 2023.

Proximity to use increased for some demographics between 2023 and 2025. Compared to 2023, proximity to the use of psychedelics by self-reported political conservatives rose from 43% to 50%. Self-reported liberals stayed steady, going from 64% in 2023 to just 65% in 2025^ns. Like conservatives, older respondents (65+) also reported an increase – from 34% in 2023 to 46% in 2025. Black voters reported the largest increase over the two-year time period, from 26% to 42%.

Shifts in support for psychedelics policy proposals

The BCSP is tracking how support for different policy proposals concerning psychedelics is changing over time. As part of that effort, in both 2023 and 2025 we asked voters how much they would support or oppose several policies.

Note: See the final methodological bullet section at the end of this release for information on changes in item wording over time.

There is strong support for certain legal uses of psychedelics. In 2025, the majority of voters either somewhat or strongly support making it easier for scientists to study psychedelics (81%), allowing therapeutic access to be legal (72%), obtaining federal approval so that people can access psychedelics as prescription medicine (66%), and removing criminal penalties for personal use possession of psychedelics (51%). Notably, voter support increased significantly over time for all of these propositions, except removing criminal penalties for personal use possession of psychedelics.

Who voters believe should have access to psychedelics

We also asked voters what level of access to psychedelics – between remaining illegal with no access at all, regulated therapeutic access, or removal of criminal penalties for possession and use – they deemed appropriate for several different groups of people.

More than half of respondents believe certain groups should have regulated therapeutic access to psychedelics. More than half of respondents said military veterans (56%), people with depression (61%), and people with addiction (55%) should have regulated therapeutic access. Less than half believed people receiving end of life care (48%) or all adults 21 and over (38%) should have this kind of access.
Removal of criminal penalties was not seen as the most appropriate level of access for any group. Among the groups we asked about, the largest number of respondents (38%) thought it was appropriate to remove criminal penalties for people who are receiving end-of-life care and use psychedelics. The fewest number of respondents (11%) thought it was appropriate to remove criminal penalties for people with addiction.
Respondents had the most permissive attitudes towards people receiving end-of-life care. A combined 86% of respondents believed it was most appropriate for people receiving end of life care to either have access to regulated therapeutic access to psychedelics or for criminal penalties for possession and use of psychedelics to be removed for this population.

Support for psychedelics education in high school

As proximity to psychedelics increases in society, the BCSP wanted to learn if respondents thought it would be helpful to have programs to educate high school students with factual, scientific information about benefits and risks associated with psychedelics. This is a new area of inquiry for the UC Berkeley Psychedelics survey.

Almost two-thirds of respondents are at least somewhat supportive of educating high school students about the risks and benefits of psychedelics. More than half of respondents (65%) support the idea, with 34% indicating strong support and 31% indicating that they are somewhat supportive. Support for psychedelic education programs also cut across race/ethnicity, with all racial/ethnic groups assessed reporting over 60% combined “somewhat” and “strong” support (62% for Indigenous respondents, 63% for White respondents, 66% for Asian Pacific Islander respondents, 72% for Latino respondents, and 76% for Black respondents).

How the BCSP Collected, Analyzed, and Reported These Data

The data in this release come from two probability samples of registered U.S. voters contacted at random using information available in voter registration lists. The 2023 sample consists of 1,500 voters and the 2025 sample consists of 1,577 voters.
All reported proportions and differences are based on data that are weighted (gender, ethnicity, age, region, education and political affiliation) to approximate the characteristics of the underlying population of registered U.S. voters.
Unless noted with a superscript “ns”, all of the percentage differences (i.e., changes between 2023 and 2025) presented in this release are statistically significant at the 5% level.
The exact wording describing each policy proposal to respondents changed between 2023 and 2025 as our team worked to reduce measurement error for future administrations of the survey. Although these changes in wording were minor, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that shifts in support are partially or fully attributable to them. More detail about these changes will be available in our forthcoming report.