If you live in the United States and are considering a psilocybin retreat, the first question is not which one. It is where it would be legal for you at all. This page gives you the answer as it stands in late 2026, without hype in either direction.
Psilocybin is illegal under US federal law everywhere in the country. Two states, Oregon and Colorado, run their own regulated programs for supervised psilocybin sessions, and New Mexico is building a medical program that is expected to open by the end of 2026. Those programs operate in conflict with federal law. Outside them, nothing offered inside the US is legal, whatever a website says about decriminalization. The two countries where a full retreat program is legal at the national level, and where Beckley works, are Jamaica and the Netherlands.
Psilocybin is a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act. Possessing, producing or supplying it is a federal offence in all fifty states, including the states that have set up their own programs. The businesses licensed by Oregon and Colorado are, at the same time, operating outside federal law. That is the same position state-licensed cannabis businesses have been in for more than a decade, and so far federal enforcement has not been directed at the state psilocybin programs. We are not saying that to alarm anyone. We say it because the people who come to us tend to want the full picture before they decide, and the full picture is that the state programs rest on a conflict that has not been resolved.
Oregon voters passed Measure 109 in 2020 and supervised psilocybin sessions at state-licensed service centers have been available since 2023. Adults 21 and over can take part without a diagnosis. Sessions happen at a licensed center with a state-licensed facilitator, using tested product from a licensed producer. A single session, usually with a preparation meeting and a follow-up, costs in the region of $850 to $3,000 at most centers, and a few centers offer multi-day formats at higher prices. The program has had a hard 2026: several service centers have closed and the state has proposed doubling licence fees to keep the program funded, so check that a center is currently licensed on the Oregon Health Authority site before you book.
Colorado voters passed Proposition 122 in 2022. Licensed healing centers began operating in 2025, with the first regulated session in June of that year, and by early 2026 the state counted more than thirty licensed centers, most of them small. Adults 21 and over can take part, again without a diagnosis. Colorado also removed state penalties for adults growing or sharing psilocybin for personal use, which is a separate thing from the licensed program and does not make a commercial retreat legal. Our Colorado guide goes into the detail.
New Mexico passed the Medical Psilocybin Act in 2025. It is a medical program for people with specified conditions, run through the state health department, and the state is aiming to have it running by December 2026. It is not a retreat program and it is not open to the general public.
Denver, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Detroit, Washington DC and a growing list of cities have made enforcement of psilocybin possession a low priority for local police. That is all decriminalization does. It does not license anyone, it does not make supply legal, and it does not change state or federal law. A retreat advertised in a decriminalized city, or anywhere in the US outside the Oregon and Colorado programs, is operating outside the law at every level. California has debated decriminalization several times, most recently a bill vetoed in 2023, and has no legal program. What that means for Californians is covered separately.
What it gives you is real: a legal footing under state law, a facilitator the state has trained and licensed, product that has been tested, and, if you live in the West, something close to home.
What it does not give you is federal legality, and in most cases it does not give you a retreat. The typical Oregon or Colorado offering is a single supervised session at a service center, with a preparation meeting before and one or two integration calls after. Multi-day, small-group formats exist but are the minority. Screening standards vary from center to center. And the arithmetic is worth doing: two sessions at a mid-priced center, plus travel and lodging, lands close to the cost of a full five-night program abroad that includes both sessions, the venue, the food, four weeks of preparation and six weeks of integration.
Psilocybin mushrooms have never been scheduled in Jamaica, so growing, possessing and taking them is legal there, and the country has hosted retreat programs openly for more than a decade. In the Netherlands psilocybin truffles, the underground part of the same organism, are legal to buy and use, and Dutch retreat centers have operated on that basis for years. These are the two countries Beckley works in, and the only two.
For someone in the US, Jamaica is the practical choice for most. Beckley's Jamaica program runs at Good Hope, a 2,000-acre estate in Trelawny, 45 minutes from Montego Bay airport, which has nonstop flights from New York, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. The Netherlands is around eight hours from the East Coast; Beckley runs there at De Hoorneboeg and The Place To Be, both under an hour from Amsterdam Schiphol. How to choose between the two is its own page.
Two rules that do not bend. Nothing crosses a border in either direction. And a legal retreat abroad changes nothing about the law at home: what you did in Jamaica was legal in Jamaica, and that is where it stays.
Four weeks of preparation, online and at your own pace, one to two hours a week. Four or five nights on retreat with a group of up to 18, and two guided psilocybin sessions on separate days, each followed by a day to make sense of it. Then six weeks of integration, again online and at your own pace, one to two hours a week, with weekly group calls and optional 1:1 coaching. In each session every guest receives a custom amount within a predefined range, around what you would see in a clinical trial in the US. This is not medical treatment.
Every applicant has a suitability call with our team. It is not optional: it is where we go through your history together, answer your questions and make sure the program is a fit, for you and for the group you will sit with. Some medications, including SSRIs and SNRIs, may mean the program is not the right fit, or not yet; apply anyway and tell us. Our teams include practitioners with backgrounds as psychotherapists, psychologists and physicians. On retreat they are not acting in their licensed capacity, because Beckley does not provide medical treatment, but that training is in the room with you. Programs run from $4,250 to $12,500 per guest depending on country, length and room, with a 50 percent deposit, monthly instalments and financial aid for guests with need. What the price covers and what happens day by day are set out in full elsewhere. More than 1,200 guests have come through the program since 2021.
Whoever you talk to, in the US or abroad, ask the same six questions: How do you screen, and what would make you say no? What is the ratio of facilitators to guests in a session? Who is in the room, and what is their background? What happens if it gets hard? What exactly does the price include? And what is the legal basis for what you offer? A good answer to the last one is short and specific. A long one is a warning.
Who the program is not right for is worth reading before you apply anywhere. If you are in the UK rather than the US, the UK version of this guide covers the law at home and the Netherlands option.
Yes. The law that applies is the law of the country you are in. Psilocybin mushrooms are legal in Jamaica and psilocybin truffles are legal in the Netherlands, and there is no US federal law against travelling to take part in something that is legal where it happens. What you cannot do is carry any of it back. Nothing crosses a border.
No. Psilocybin is a Schedule I substance under US federal law and importing it is a federal offence. Every reputable retreat abroad will tell you the same thing, and at Beckley nothing leaves the retreat.
No. Beckley Retreats operates only where psilocybin is legal at the national level, which today means Jamaica and the Netherlands. We do not run programs in Oregon or Colorado, because those programs sit in conflict with federal law, and we will not run one in the US until that changes.
Montego Bay has nonstop flights from most large US airports. It is around an hour and a half from Miami, three and a half to four hours from New York, and three hours from Atlanta or Charlotte. Good Hope is a 45-minute private transfer from the airport, included in the program.
Oregon's program does not require a diagnosis or create a medical record, and client information is protected under state rules. We are not able to advise on employment, security clearance or professional licensing questions, which depend on your own circumstances. If those apply to you, it is worth asking the question before you book anything, in the US or abroad.
Before you apply
Beckley runs legal, guided psilocybin retreats in Jamaica and the Netherlands: four weeks of preparation, two guided sessions on retreat, six weeks of integration, online and at your own pace, one to two hours a week. Plain answers to the questions people ask first:
What a psilocybin retreat costs · What happens, day by day · Jamaica or the Netherlands · Who should not attend · Apply