It's legal in the US. Grayanotoxin — the compound that makes mad honey what it is — isn't listed under the Controlled Substances Act. It's not scheduled anywhere at the federal level.

What you're seeing online is mostly media coverage that conflates "this compound can cause serious effects at high doses" with "this is an illegal substance." Those are completely different things. Acetaminophen can cause liver failure at high doses — it's not illegal.

The "dangerous psychedelic honey" framing comes from a handful of viral case reports about accidental overconsumption. Those were legitimate medical events, but media picked them up and ran with the "forbidden honey" angle because it makes better content. It has nothing to do with the legal status of the product.

Worth being precise about this: grayanotoxin is a naturally occurring diterpenoid found in plants of the Ericaceae family (rhododendrons, azaleas, etc.). It's not a novel psychoactive substance, it's not an analogue of a controlled substance, and it doesn't appear on any controlled substances list I'm aware of in the US, EU, UK, Canada, or Australia. It's sold as a food product — which is what it is. The regulatory concern, where it exists, is about food labeling and import documentation, not drug law.

From the production side: in Nepal this is an agricultural product with a long trade history. Exporting it requires standard food product documentation, nothing special. The honey itself isn't flagged at any point in the export process. It leaves Nepal as honey, because that is what it is. The "illegal" framing is almost entirely a creation of Western media coverage and sellers who use the forbidden angle as marketing. Neither serves the actual community.