In the Netherlands, grow kits are sold legally, but mushrooms that contain psilocybin or psilocin have been banned since 1 December 2008. The Trimbos Institute puts it plainly: the kit is legal to buy because you are not buying mushrooms, but as soon as mushrooms appear above the surface, they are illegal. In the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States the mushrooms are illegal as well, and the rules for kits and spores are stricter or less clear. Checked on 10 October 2026; this page is information, not legal advice.
Overview
| Country | The mushrooms | Kits and spores | Main source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | banned since 1 Dec 2008 (Opium Act, List II) | legal to sell; growing mushrooms from them is not | Trimbos, Opium Act |
| United Kingdom | Class A since 18 Jul 2005, fresh or prepared | no explicit rule found; producing mushrooms is an offence | Drugs Act 2005 |
| Germany | controlled (BtMG, Annex I) | covered when intended for intoxication | BtMG |
| Czechia | growing more than a small quantity is a crime since 1 Jan 2026 | not addressed separately | Act 270/2025 |
| United States | psilocybin and psilocyn are Schedule I | spores without psilocybin not federally controlled; California bans cultivating them | 21 CFR 1308.11 |
Netherlands
Since 1 December 2008, mushrooms that naturally contain psilocin or psilocybin are on List II of the Opium Act. The list names the species, Psilocybe cubensis among them (Opium Act, List II). The decree that made the change took effect on that date (Staatsblad 2008, 486). The pure substances psilocybin and psilocin are on List I, the list that also contains cocaine.
Sources differ on dried mushrooms. The explanatory note to the 2008 decree says both processed and unprocessed mushrooms fall under List II, and the Trimbos Institute agrees. The Jellinek, the Amsterdam addiction care organisation, writes that dried mushrooms fall under List I again (Jellinek). Either way, they are illegal.
Grow kits are a different matter. The Trimbos Institute's drug information site states that containers for growing psychedelic mushrooms can still be bought legally in the Netherlands, because you are not buying mushrooms, and that the mushrooms become illegal as soon as they appear above the surface (Trimbos, drugsinfo.nl). In other words: buying the kit is legal, letting it fruit is not.
The Public Prosecution Service's guideline on the Opium Act defines up to 5 grams of fresh mushrooms or 0.5 grams of dried mushrooms as a user quantity, and in principle does not prosecute possession up to those amounts (OM, Aanwijzing Opiumwet).
Magic truffles are treated differently. Truffles are sclerotia, not mushrooms, so they fall outside the Opium Act and are sold openly in smartshops; the Supreme Court confirmed this in April 2026 (Hoge Raad, ECLI:NL:HR:2026:450). The status of dried truffles has not been settled in law; the Jellinek classes them as List I. Driving under the influence of any substance that impairs driving is prohibited under article 8 of the Road Traffic Act.
United Kingdom
Section 21 of the Drugs Act 2005 added "fungus (of any kind) which contains psilocin or an ester of psilocin" to Class A of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (legislation.gov.uk). It took effect on 18 July 2005. The Home Office's explanatory memorandum states that it is an offence to import, export, produce, supply or possess magic mushrooms "whatever form they are in, whether prepared or fresh" (explanatory memorandum).
We found no statute or Home Office guidance that addresses spores or colonised grow kits directly. What is clear is that a kit which produces mushrooms produces a Class A drug, and producing one is an offence.
Germany
Psilocin and psilocybin are listed in Annex I of the Narcotics Act (BtMG), the category of substances that cannot be traded or prescribed (BtMG Annex I). The same annex covers fungi and their parts that contain these substances, and "biological materials suitable for reproducing or obtaining" them, when misuse for intoxication is intended. Section 2 of the act defines that category to include fungi (BtMG §2). Spores and mycelium sold to grow magic mushrooms fall under that wording.
Czechia
A reform of the Czech Criminal Code took effect on 1 January 2026. Growing, harvesting or processing a fungus that contains a narcotic or psychotropic substance for personal use, in more than a small quantity, is a crime punishable by up to one year in prison. Smaller amounts for personal use are an offence outside criminal law (Act 270/2025 Coll.). We did not find where the threshold for a small quantity of mushrooms is set.
United States
Psilocybin and psilocyn are Schedule I hallucinogens under federal law (21 CFR 1308.11). Spores contain no psilocybin; a laboratory study of P. cubensis found no tryptamines in its spores (Gotvaldová et al., 2021). In a letter of January 2024, the Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed that spores which do not contain psilocybin or psilocin are not controlled under federal law, and that the material becomes controlled once it contains them, for example after germination. A colonised grow kit is past that point.
State law varies. California's Health and Safety Code, section 11390, makes it an offence to cultivate spores or mycelium capable of producing such mushrooms with the intent to produce psilocybin or psilocyn, and section 11391 covers selling or transporting them for that purpose. Several states and cities have changed their own rules on mushrooms in recent years; those changes do not alter federal law.
Everywhere else
The Trimbos Institute notes that magic mushrooms are illegal in almost all other countries. Shops in the Netherlands ship kits abroad, but the law that applies is the law of the country where the kit is delivered and grown. Check it before you order, including the rules on importing.
If you go ahead where it is legal or tolerated, the grow guide and the harvest page cover the practical side.