Ayahuasca is illegal in California because it contains DMT, which is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under both federal law and California Health and Safety Code §11054. There is no statewide exemption. A bill that would have decriminalised it across California reached the governor’s desk in 2023 but was vetoed.
Much of the confusion comes from decisions by several California cities to make enforcement involving entheogenic plants a low priority for police. But deprioritisation is simply a policing directive—it does not make ayahuasca legal, and it has no effect on federal law.
California also has the country’s longest-running psychedelic culture. The scene is large, the marketing is polished, and the gap between what many people assume is legal and what the law actually says is unusually wide.
The wider picture is on ayahuasca and US law and the church exemption. Other states: Florida, New York, Texas.
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What California Law Says
DMT is Schedule I under Health and Safety Code §11054, and nothing has changed that. SB 58, which would have decriminalised possession of several plant-based psychedelics including DMT, psilocybin, psilocyn and non-peyote mescaline, passed the legislature in 2023. Governor Newsom vetoed it in October 2023, saying in his veto message that regulated treatment guidelines and dosing standards needed to come first.
Subsequent efforts have moved toward supervised psilocybin therapy rather than decriminalisation, and none has covered ayahuasca. So the legal position today is unchanged from a decade ago, while the atmosphere has changed a great deal. Those are different things, and retreat marketing in this state relies on people conflating them. The federal picture is on is ayahuasca legal in the US.
What the City Resolutions Do
Oakland, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Berkeley have passed measures directing local police that enforcement against personal use of entheogenic plants is their lowest priority. That is the whole of it. Each is a council resolution or ordinance, and each can be reversed by a later council.
It is worth being precise about who that covers: an individual, holding a personal quantity, in that city. It does not cover sale, it does not cover running ceremonies for payment, it does not bind state prosecutors, and it has no effect on federal authorities. A retreat citing a city resolution as though it were an operating licence has either misunderstood it or is hoping you will.
Note also that Denver, which gets cited in California conversations constantly, passed a psilocybin-mushroom-specific measure that does not touch ayahuasca at all. People reach for it as a precedent and it is not one.
Why the Scene Looks Permissive
California has more ceremonies running than any other state, and better framing around them. The Bay Area carries a large integration-therapy community, much of it genuinely skilled, and most of that community is careful to stay on the side of talking about substances rather than supplying them. That distinction is real, and worth respecting when you meet it.
Los Angeles has a well-established underground with a strong wellness aesthetic, and what looks like a retreat centre can turn out to be a rented house and a mailing list. Southern California also sits close enough to the border that some operations route people to Baja instead, which moves the legal question rather than answering it, and adds an unfamiliar jurisdiction to whatever else you are managing.
So you may well find something genuinely careful among all that. It can also be that you find a beautifully-marketed weekend run by somebody holding a two-week certificate. And by having no licensing standard at all, California makes those two indistinguishable from the outside, which is the actual cost of the position the state is in.
What Californians Ask Us
Californians most often arrive believing the state has decriminalised this, and it has not. The belief usually does a job, which is to grant permission to skip the diligence, and that is the part worth noticing in yourself.
The second most common is about integration therapists. Many Californians already have one, which is genuinely an advantage: it means the after is planned before the ceremony, which is the part most people neglect. Bring that person into the decision. A good integration therapist will ask better questions about a retreat than most participants think to.
The third is about microdosing and whether it counts as a way in. Different question, different risk profile, and it does not prepare you for a ceremony night. We cover the distinction across ayahuasca vs magic mushrooms.
The fourth thing people raise is Oregon, on the assumption that a short flight north solves it. Oregon’s programme is psilocybin-only, delivered in licensed service centres with a trained facilitator, and it does not cover ayahuasca in any form. Colorado’s framework is also built around psilocybin, and although its statute names DMT among substances that could be added later, nothing there covers the brew today. Neither state is an ayahuasca route.
Where Californians Go
Californians who look closely at the local scene usually end up travelling, and the reason is a structural one. Recognition in law is what lets a retreat carry insurance, keep medical staff on site, and call an ambulance without anybody risking prosecution. No amount of local goodwill in Oakland or Santa Cruz produces any of that.
From the West Coast the journey is longer than most Americans face, generally one connection through a Florida or Texas hub. That extra leg is worth planning around rather than rushing, and it can also be a useful buffer, because arriving depleted is its own problem. We run our retreats about fifty-five minutes outside Medellín, and formats and costs are on ayahuasca retreats, with a comparison of centres at best ayahuasca retreats.
If you already work with an integration therapist here, bring them into the decision early. And keep the medical questions ahead of the travel ones: they are on who should not do ayahuasca. All the strength on your path.
FAQs
Is ayahuasca legal in California?
No. DMT is a Schedule I controlled substance federally and under Health and Safety Code §11054 of the California Health and Safety Code. SB 58, which covered DMT among other plant-based psychedelics, passed the legislature in 2023 and was vetoed by Governor Newsom. City deprioritisation measures in Oakland, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Berkeley do not legalise anything and do not bind federal authorities.
What did California SB 58 do?
Nothing, because it was vetoed. SB 58 would have decriminalised personal possession of several plant-based psychedelics including DMT, psilocybin, psilocyn and non-peyote mescaline. It passed the legislature in 2023 and Governor Newsom vetoed it in October 2023, calling for regulated treatment guidelines and dosing standards first. Later efforts have focused on supervised psilocybin therapy and have not covered ayahuasca.
Is ayahuasca decriminalised in Oakland or San Francisco?
Those cities passed measures directing police to treat enforcement against personal use of entheogenic plants as a low priority. That is not decriminalisation in law, it does not cover selling or running ceremonies for payment, and it has no effect on federal enforcement. It is a reversible policing instruction.
Are there ayahuasca retreats in California?
Ceremonies run throughout California, particularly in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, and all of them operate outside the law. There is no licensing standard, so no external check exists on facilitator training, medical cover or medicine sourcing. Some circles are careful and experienced, and California gives you no way to verify that from outside.
How far is Colombia from California?
Medellín is roughly seven to eight hours in the air from Los Angeles or San Francisco, and nine to eleven hours elapsed with the one connection, most commonly through a Florida or Texas hub. No visa is required for US passport holders.
What does a retreat cost from California?
Roughly 450 to 3,000 US dollars for the retreat, based on what we see across the centres we track as of 2026, and from the West Coast the flight is a meaningful part of the total. Colombia and Peru sit at the bottom of the range on local cost base, not on corners cut. The number to interrogate is not the price but what it includes: a real medical intake, more than one sober facilitator, and support after you land. See ayahuasca retreat cost.
Oliver
