Psychedelic Therapy & Law Update – November 2025

Colorado Regulator Releases updated NMHA Screening Forms

Colorado’s primary NMHA regulator, DORA, recently released new and updated model forms for work in the regulated area. These forms include 12 recommended forms to comply with the rules along with guidance documents and checklists for using the forms. All of the updated state forms can be found here. While these are state recommended forms, they are not comprehensive and McAllister Law has identified several other potential forms or agreements that might be advisable, including (a) a liability waiver form for the inherent risks of psilocybin (no such waiver exists in the state forms); (b) participant release forms at the end of sessions to confirm they are sober to leave the premise; (c) agreements between clinical facilitators and out of state clients that any preparation or integration sessions are not intended to be the unauthorized practice of therapy in the client’s home state; and (d) medical consultation agreements with doctors or psychiatrists consulting on high risk patients to clarify liability between the parties.

Psychedelic Church Deep Dive Webinar Tuesday, December 9, 2025 (Recordings available)

On Tuesday, December 9th, 2025, at 530-730pm mountain time, Sean will be hosting a two hour live webinar with Q&A on the law of psychedelic churches in the United States. As you may know, Sean was one of the lawyers for two of the five federally recognized psychedelic spiritual practices in the United States and has represented over a hundred spiritual communities in the past decade. This webinar is an absolute must for those seeking legal protections around their work with psychedelics. The webinar costs $150 and recordings can be obtained also to watch at a later date. This is a big discount from the normal initial consultation cost with Sean of $400. In addition, webinar participants will be eligible for a significant discount on a package of operational forms essential to psychedelic spiritual practices, including an outline of key elements of doctrine, liability waiver forms, diversion prevention plans, emergency response plans, membership forms and more. You can register by paying $150 and noting in the reference line that the payment is for the church webinar here. Email Sean with any questions to sean@mcallisterlawoffice.com.

California passes law that could accelerate access to psychedelics once FDA approved in that state

In October, Governor Newsome in California signed into law AB 1103, which allows Schedule 1 and 2 drugs to be approved without having to wait for a meeting of the full state advisory panel. This panel does not exist in most other states. Under the bill, researchers who can show that their FDA-approved study is already compliant with California law will be eligible to have their proposal approved by a smaller group of panel members within a matter of days. While this doesn’t directly allow new routes of access to psychedelics, it will speed up the approval process of these drugs once FDA approved. Sean is licensed to practice law in California and available to consult on the legality of psychedelics in California.

Possible NMHA Relationships where Contracts are a good idea – relationships with advertisers, including possible Business Associate Agreement required

In the early days of the regulated NMHA space, it appears that many arrangements are being carried out based on a hand shake agreement, with no contract. McAllister Law thinks the following topics deserve some consideration of whether a contract should be drafted: (a) purchasing or selling regulated natural medicine from a cultivator or manufacturer – a contract would set out issues like refund/return policies and allocate liability between the parties (for example with the cultivator taking liability for any product defects, but the healing center taking liability for any claims by participants at healing centers); (b) agreements with advertisers where they get a percentage of fees to bring you clients (remembering the NMHA rules say all owners must be disclosed and one definition of owner is someone who takes a percentage of revenue, so it is imperative to structure these relationships to avoid a claim of undisclosed ownership); (c) confidentiality agreements with any third party vendors who are going to be using or managing patient data; and (d) for licensed therapists or doctors, it might be necessary to execute a business associate agreement with third party vendors managing their patient information to ensure compliance with HIPAA. McAllister Law is drafting and designing contracts for all of these situations. If you want more information on these contracts, please contact Sean McAllister at sean@mcallisterlawoffice.com.