North Carolina · Schedule I · $5.4M research bill (not enacted)
North Carolina built a $5.4M psilocybin research bill — bipartisan, popular, and not yet law.
North Carolina's psilocybin story is a research bill that keeps almost passing. The Breakthrough Therapies Research and Advisory Act (House Bill 727) proposed a $5.4 million grant program for two competitive studies into psilocybin and MDMA, overseen by a Breakthrough Therapies Research Advisory Board, with FDA breakthrough-therapy designation as the organizing logic. It cleared a House committee with bipartisan support. It did not become law. A 2025 Senate effort revived the idea as a psychedelic-medicine task force. Throughout, North Carolina kept psilocybin Schedule I — the bills funded research, they did not decriminalize.
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What North Carolina proposed
A funded research bill, not yet law
HB 727, the Breakthrough Therapies Research and Advisory Act, proposed real money for psilocybin and MDMA research — split into competitive grants and steered by a new advisory board. It cleared a House committee with bipartisan support but has not been enacted.
The $5.4M proposal, itemized
HB 727 · Breakthrough Therapies Research & Advisory Act
Grant 1
One competitive psilocybin / MDMA research grant via NC DHHS.
Grant 2
A second competitive award under the same program.
Why this shape
A research door, deliberately narrow
North Carolina advocates concluded that full decriminalization or legalization would not pass the Republican-controlled General Assembly. So they chose a narrower proposal with a real chance: fund university research, lean on the FDA's breakthrough-therapy designation, center veterans and trauma survivors, and leave the criminal code untouched. The strategy generated genuine bipartisan support but has not yet produced an enacted law.
- Research, not decrim — the Breakthrough Therapies Act funds studies. It does not legalize or decriminalize psilocybin — sponsors said so explicitly.
- Breakthrough-therapy logic — the bill is built around the FDA designation given to psilocybin and MDMA, letting the program expand to other compounds the FDA later designates.
- Bipartisan but unfinished — the measure cleared a House committee and a later Senate version was filed, but neither has been enacted as of 2026.
Four cities
Where North Carolina research would land
North Carolina's psilocybin activity concentrates in the Research Triangle and Charlotte. Raleigh is the capital where the bills are written. Durham and Chapel Hill anchor the academic-medical institutions — Duke and UNC — that would compete for the research grants. Charlotte is the state's largest city and population center.
Charlotte
Largest city · Queen City
875K. North Carolina's largest city and population center. The constituency a statewide research program would ultimately serve.
Charlotte pageRaleigh
Capital · General Assembly
470K. State capital and seat of the General Assembly, where HB 727 and the 2025 task-force bill were written and debated.
Raleigh pageDurham
Duke · research anchor
285K. Home to Duke University and its medical center — a leading candidate to compete for North Carolina research grants if the bill is enacted.
Durham pageChapel Hill
UNC · trial work
62K. Home to UNC-Chapel Hill, where faculty psychiatrists have pursued FDA approval to run a psilocybin trial — the most concrete research effort in the state.
Chapel Hill pageCommon questions
North Carolina psilocybin FAQ
Q · 01
Is psilocybin legal in North Carolina?
No. Psilocybin is a Schedule I controlled substance in North Carolina. The research bills that have been proposed would fund studies, not decriminalize possession.
Q · 02
What is the Breakthrough Therapies Research and Advisory Act?
It is a proposed bill (House Bill 727) creating a $5.4 million grant program for two competitive research studies into psilocybin and MDMA, overseen by a Breakthrough Therapies Research Advisory Board. It cleared a House committee but was not enacted.
Q · 03
Did the research bill pass?
No. The Breakthrough Therapies Act advanced through a House committee with bipartisan support but was not enacted. A 2025 Senate effort revived the concept as a psychedelic-medicine task force; it also did not become law.
Q · 04
Why focus on veterans?
The bills were framed around FDA breakthrough-therapy designations for psilocybin and MDMA in treating PTSD, which disproportionately affects veterans. The veteran-trauma argument was central to the bipartisan coalition behind the measure.
While the research bills work through Raleigh
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