Step aside, psilocybin: A new shroom is in town.

According to a new study by researchers at the University of California (UC) San Diego’s Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, the use of Amanita muscaria mushrooms has surged in the U.S. based upon Google searches.

The research indicates Google searches increased by 114 percent from 2022 to 2023, according to a study published June 10 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study was written by lead author Eric Leas, as well as Nora Satybaldiyeva, Wayne Kepner, Kevin H. Yang, Raquel M. Harati, Jamie Corroon, and Matthieu Rouffet, of UC San Diego.

Interest in the mushroom is growing each year. “Interest in psilocybin-containing mushrooms is increasing in the U.S., with 12.3% of U.S. adults reporting use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms in 2022, up significantly from 11.4% in 2021,” the study reads. “This makes psilocybin-containing mushrooms the most commonly used hallucinogenic substance. This growing interest in psilocybin-containing mushrooms has also sparked a new commercial market for other types of mushrooms.”

Like psilocybin mushrooms, which are not closely related, Amanita muscaria mushrooms, or Fly Agaric mushrooms, also have psychotropic effects: weightlessness, visual and auditory hypersensitivity, space distortion, unawareness of time, and hallucinations, however amanitas tend to be slightly more poisonous.

UC San Diego Today reports that the study shows people are taking more amanitas, perhaps without being equipped with the knowledge of doing so. Researchers noted, however, that mushrooms like psilocybin have a place in therapy, but that people should do so safely.

Since amanitas are legal in most states (not you, Louisiana), they’re becoming popular and researchers think it’s due to the rise in popularity of psilocybin.

“There is a lot of interest in the therapeutic potential for psilocybin and for good reason. But at the same time, a growing industry may be trying to capitalize on this interest by marketing other mushrooms. For example, some manufacturers are calling Amanita muscaria products ‘magic mushroom gummies’ and not disclosing what mushroom they contain, or not making it clear Amanita muscaria is a different mushroom than psilocybin and has essentially no clinical evidence supporting its use as a therapy,” said Eric Leas, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor in the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and senior author on the paper.

The psychotropic effects are produced by compounds, mostly muscimol and ibotenic acid, its biosynthetic precursor.

Researchers stressed that amanitas behave totally differently than psilocybin. Amanitas are a depressant, for instance.

“There may be some pharmaceutical potential to Amanita muscaria, but muscimol does not have the same effects on the body as psilocybin, so it probably would not have the same treatment applications if it ever went through drug development. For this reason, it is misleading not to clearly distinguish between muscimol and psilocybin. If someone is consenting to a psychedelic experience, they have a right to know what substance they are taking and receive accurate information about its potential health benefits and health risks.”

For the most part, what researchers are seeing is that safety protocols are mostly being ignored and the only thing you may find is a supplement-like list of ingredients. Researchers were unable to find any evidence that safety measures were taken.

“We have found that many manufacturers use supplement labeling, including ‘Supplement Facts’ panels,” said Leas. “However, there is a process for bringing a supplement to market that involves presenting safety data and filing an application, and we cannot find any evidence that any of these manufacturers have gone through this process, and this makes the current products sold in this manner illegal.”

Active compounds in amanitas are no toy, researchers said, and could affect certain people adversely.

“In my view, if a manufacturer wanted to develop a dietary supplement from Amanita muscaria, the application probably would not be approved because of muscimol and ibotenic acids’ inherent risks,” he added. “But right now it is the ‘Wild West,’ and companies are profiting from delayed enforcement while putting consumers at risk.” 

High Times has reported on the effects and history of amanitas several times before.

Beginning in the December, 1976 issue of High Times, writer Tom Robbins explored amanitas and the books that inform readers about them. Then again in the December, 1979 issue of High Times, writers examined the connections between Santa Claus and a specific kind of psychedelic mushroom known as the fly agaric, aka the toadstool that conquered the universe. In fact, the mythology behind Santa could be related to a shaman in Lapland who ate Amanita muscaria. 

Until more is known about amanitas, researchers urge caution for those exploring its active compounds.

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A new study examined the effects of psilocybin in an animal model for treating anorexia nervosa, showing that the compound improves body weight maintenance in female rats, facilitating what they call cognitive flexibility.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is deadly—having one of the highest mortality rates of any known psychiatric disease. It killed people such as Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters, or a list of famous models who dealt with unrealistic body goals. It affects women more often but also 10-15% of people with AN are male.

The study, called “Psilocybin restrains activity-based anorexia in female rats by enhancing cognitive flexibility: contributions from 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptor mechanisms,”  was led by Dr. Claire Foldi of the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute and published recently in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

People with eating disorders often suffer from symptoms like body dysmorphia and a poor self-image. These rigid thought patterns are difficult to overcome, and conventional medicine may not make much of a difference. Researchers observed a specific mechanism within the brain, allowing psilocybin to make “anorexic thinking” more pliable.

Meanwhile, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, aka antidepressants, are the leading treatment, however they are used off-label and don’t appear to improve clinical symptoms in underweight people with anorexia, Foldi said. “Cognitive inflexibility is a hallmark of the condition often arising before symptoms of anorexia nervosa are obvious, and persisting after weight recovery—making this symptom a primary target for therapeutic intervention,” Foldi told MSN News.

Researchers used young female rats in the study because they are particularly vulnerable to developing a particular ABA phenotype—a feature that is not fully understood but has been connected to the increased prevalence of AN in young women. 

To test the effects of psilocybin on cognitive flexibility, saline or 5-HTR antagonists were administered 30 minutes prior to either saline or psilocybin treatment, at the completion of a training session. The following day the reward contingencies of the nose-poke ports were reversed, and rats underwent more testing.

“Clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of psilocybin in people with AN have been ongoing since 2019, with the first pilot study recently reporting that it improves eating disorder symptoms in some individuals, but not others. Psilocybin may have transdiagnostic efficacy through several mechanisms relevant to the pathology of AN, including actions on the serotonergic system and cognitive flexibility. However, the details of how such mechanisms are altered by psilocybin in the context of AN remains unknown. 

The ABA paradigm, as they call it, involves unlimited access to a running wheel and time-restricted food access. At seven weeks of age, rats were individually housed in transparent living chambers with a removable food basket and a running wheel. They were given access to the wheel for seven days to determine baseline running wheel activity (RWA). The following day, psilocybin or saline was administered, wheels were locked for five hours and then it was reopened. Running activity was recorded electronically.

“Here, we show that psilocybin improves body weight maintenance in the ABA rat model and enhances cognitive flexibility in a reversal learning task by both reducing perseverative responding and promoting task engagement when reward contingencies are initially reversed. That psilocybin did not elicit changes in motivated responding (PR) or response suppression (extinction) following the same training and drug administration protocol suggests a selective improvement in adaptive cognition in the face of changing rules.”

Other Studies Show Psilocybin May Be Effective for Eating Disorders

Other studies linked psilocybin with eating disorders (EDs) like anorexia. Recently researchers Elena Koning and Elisa Brietzke explored the ways psilocybin can treat ED by its therapeutic benefits—also in combating rigid thought patterns. Koning, who is a doctoral student, recently wrote about her discoveries for PsyPost, explaining the reasoning behind her research.

Koning mentioned that in the age of social media, EDs are becoming increasingly troublesome, and that new approaches to those types of disorders are needed.

An earlier study, “Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy as a Potential Treatment for Eating Disorders: a Narrative Review of Preliminary Evidence,” was published online ahead of print for Trends Psychiatry.

“Eating disorders (ED) are a group of potentially severe mental disorders characterized by abnormal energy balance, cognitive dysfunction and emotional distress,” researchers wrote. “Cognitive inflexibility is a major challenge to successful ED treatment and dysregulated serotonergic function has been implicated in this symptomatic dimension. Moreover, there are few effective treatment options and long-term remission of ED symptoms is difficult to achieve. There is emerging evidence for the use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for a range of mental disorders. Psilocybin is a serotonergic psychedelic which has demonstrated therapeutic benefit to a variety of psychiatric illnesses characterized by rigid thought patterns and treatment resistance.”

The new study show’s psilocybin’s potential in the treatment of anorexia and other EDs.

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Recently, researchers Christopher P. Holstege and Rita Farah unveiled the results of their study on the increase in poison center calls for mushroom consumption. In “Psilocybin Exposures Reported to U.S. Poison Centers: National Trends Over a Decade,” the researchers explored the rising trend of accidental exposure to psilocybin between January 1, 2024-December 31, 2022. Holstege is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics and Farah is a Researcher of Epidemiology, both of which work at the University of Virginia.

Over a 10-year period, there were 4,055 exposure incidents recorded by the National Poison Data System, and 2,667 (65.8%) of those incidents involved adolescents or young adults between 13-25. From this number of people, 1,176 (75.3%) were adolescents, and 797 (72.1%) were young adults. One of researchers’ noteworthy observations was that cases didn’t rise between 2013-2018, but increased after 2019, and tripled in 2022.

Holstege and Farah co-wrote an analysis of their research, which was originally published in The Conversation.

Researchers noted that in May 2019, Denver, Colorado became the first city to decriminalize psilocybin, which was followed shortly after by Oakland, California, in June 2019. This trend continued with various other cities across the U.S., with Santa Cruz, California, in January 2020, Washington D.C. in November 2020, Sommerville, Massachusetts in January 2021, Seattle, Washington in October 2021, and Detroit, Michigan in November 2021. Additionally, Oregon was the first state to decriminalize psilocybin and introduce a legal therapy treatment program in November 2020. This was followed by the state of Colorado in November 2022.

Farah is an epidemiologist, and both of them worked together to identify potential harms. “Part of our job is to track public health risks related to poisons and to create efforts to prevent them,” the researchers wrote. “We are both concerned about the increase in calls to poison control centers related to psilocybin.”

However, the information collected by the National Poison Data System covers calls from across the country, making it impossible to know where exactly the poison calls came from.

The data shows that a majority of the reported calls between both adolescents and young adults resulted in the need for medical attention at a hospital or treatment facility. A majority of these cases included people who were experiencing “hallucinations, delusions, agitation, rapid heart rate, and confusion.”

Holstege and Farah expressed their overall concern for youth based on their observations. “Our findings correspond with a review of more than 30 studies that demonstrates a similar rise in acute cannabis poisoning among children and adolescents beginning after marijuana was legalized in 1996,” the researchers concluded. “We find this particularly alarming, since the states that legalized and cities that decriminalized psilocybin don’t allow anyone under 21 to use it or buy it. This suggests young people are getting it illegally.”

A study recently published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal shows that there has also been an increase in law enforcement seizures of psilocybin over the past few years as well. “We found that the number of shroom seizures and the total weight of shrooms seized annually increased through 2022, and the greatest weight of shrooms seized was in the West,” said study co-author Joseph J. Palamar told High Times. Out of 4,526 seizure reports between 2017-2022, the numbers increased from 402 in 2017, to 1,396 in 2022.

While it’s clear that illegal mushroom cultivation and sales needs to be reduced in order to reduce access for adolescents and young adults, the legal psilocybin industry is struggling. Oregon’s psilocybin therapy treatment service program just passed its one-year mark, but has encountered challenges such as limited customers, partially due to high prices and advertising restrictions. Less than a year into its business, one psilocybin treatment center called The Journey has already closed up shop.

Across the U.S., researchers continue to study psilocybin to determine its effectiveness as a treatment for many medical conditions. One study that was published in Clinical Case Reports earlier in June showed that both psilocybin and MDMA can be beneficial in treating symptoms of long-COVID, also called longhauler’s. Sufferers of this condition usually experience anxiety, depression, headaches, and struggles with cognition.

Also in June, University of California, Berkeley announced that it will be embarking on a study to observe how psilocybin affects human perception. It’s the first psilocybin study that UC Berkeley is conducting using human subjects. “We have this incredible opportunity to characterize the psychedelic experience in real time—while it’s happening—using modern neuroimaging methods,” said UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics director, Michael Silver. “Understanding the actions of psychedelics at a neuroscientific level will generate insights into how they’re working as medicines and will hopefully help us develop more effective treatments for mental health disorders. It will also shed light on some of the fundamental mysteries of the human brain, mind and consciousness and how they relate to each other.”

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University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) will observe human subjects in a study to determine if psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms.The study marks UC Berkeley’s first study involving human subjects with a Schedule I substance—drugs with no currently accepted medical value. 

The study will examine how psilocybin changes the way our brain interprets information that we see and pushes us out of our normal state of mind. The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) is launching a new study designed to reveal the mechanisms behind how psychedelics shape human perception. 

In the experiment, healthy human participants will ingest psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic mushrooms. All the while, researchers will observe how their brains light up. Each participant will then perform simple perceptual tasks while their visual cortex is monitored using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). 

“We have this incredible opportunity to characterize the psychedelic experience in real time—while it’s happening—using modern neuroimaging methods,” Michael Silver, director of the BCSP and the study’s leader, told Berkeley News. “Understanding the actions of psychedelics at a neuroscientific level will generate insights into how they’re working as medicines and will hopefully help us develop more effective treatments for mental health disorders. It will also shed light on some of the fundamental mysteries of the human brain, mind and consciousness and how they relate to each other.”

Before this study, UC Berkeley researchers had to rely on animal subjects, typically mouse models, in order to study psilocybin as a Schedule I substance. Going beyond that usually requires DEA approvals.

For the BCSP, they had to work for years to acquire federal, state, and campus-level regulatory approvals in order to use psilocybin, and they must follow stringent rules for handling of it.

How Psilocybin Shapes the Way We Perceive Visual Information

Silver explained to Berkeley News in detail what excites him about the way psilocybin changes the way we see and process visual information.

Silver explained that our retina pick up about as much info and/or resolution as a 2007 camera—but our brains fill in the blanks, providing rich detail. “The way that we perceive the world is very unlike a video camera,” Silver said. “While a camera just passively records whatever comes through the lens, our brain takes that sensory information from the eyes and combines it with previous experiences to generate our conscious experience of the world. We make implicit assumptions—for example, that objects that are in one place tend to stay in one place, or that objects that are moving tend to continue moving along that trajectory—to help construct our perceptions.”

“Our area of interest is the visual system in the brain,” Silver told CBS News. “Psychedelics are a wonderful tool for understanding this.”

UC Berkeley’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics is underway and staff are recruiting volunteers, center director and UC Berkeley professor Michael Silver said.

“My love is science, not the administrative part of it,” Silver said. “I understand the importance of that, but the reason I am personally motivated to do this is to learn about the brain and to learn about the visual system and how we create conscious experience.”

“Visual priors” help define how our brain interprets information we see. In the new experiment supported by the BCSP, researchers will observe how psilocybin impacts visual perception and how these perceptions are generated in the brain. They plan to test a hypothesis known as REBUS, or relaxed beliefs under psychedelics, which proposes that psychedelics work by “relaxing” assumptions, so that our perceptions are shaped less by visual priors and more by raw sensory information. 

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is gaining traction because of the ability of psychedelics to push people out of mental patterns.

“If you think about the disorders where we have the best evidence that psychedelics can be a useful therapy, including PTSD, depression, anxiety and various substance use disorders, they often involve a maladaptive prior or belief, such as a negative self-image,” Silver said. “The REBUS theory proposes that psychedelic-assisted therapy works by reducing the influence of these priors, followed by construction of healthier priors through psychotherapy.”

The team hopes that the information they glean will help to better understand how our minds perceive information and how psilocybin impacts those abilities.

“We know a great deal about the different structures and neural types in the visual system, and as a result, we have some understanding of what visual priors and sensory information look like in the brain, and how they interact with each other,” Silver said. “And so, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we can test this theory in a very rigorous way.”

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A psilocybin treatment bill was recently introduced on June 6 by California Sen. Brian W. Jones and Sen. Josh Becker, which if passed would create a pilot program for psilocybin therapy.

Senate Bill 803, also called the Heal Our Heroes Act, was attached as an amendment to an unrelated bill last week. If passed, it would allow San Francisco County, Santa Cruz County, and San Diego County to conduct a pilot program for veterans and first responders to use psilocybin or psilocyn. Those counties would be in charge of approving various facilitators, including “licensed physician or surgeon, clinical psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, licensed professional clinical counselor, or a naturopathic doctor.” The program would last for three years, with data set to be compiled and reported starting after the beginning of the second year.

In a press release that introduces the bill on June 6, Jones stressed the importance of providing the opportunity for veterans to benefit from psilocybin treatments. “As a dedicated advocate for veterans and first responders, I firmly believe it is our duty to support and heal the brave individuals who served our country and communities,” Jones said. “To be clear, I’m not calling for the widespread legalization of psychedelic drugs. Rather, I’m championing a targeted medical treatment aimed specifically at aiding veterans and first responders in their recovery. The Heal Our Heroes Act is a thoughtful and balanced measure designed to rigorously study the effectiveness of these treatments with the hope of providing much-needed relief to those patients who need it most.”  

Becker followed up with high expectations to support veterans and first responders. “SB 803 is an entirely new and innovative effort that is the result of comprehensive discussions on how the state can best support our veterans and first responders with a viable treatment for work-induced post-traumatic stress disorder,” Becker said. “We have a responsibility to do everything possible to provide quality care to these heroes, and I am proud to joint author this bipartisan effort that will have a real impact on the people who serve our state and country.”

The Heal Our Heroes Act is sponsored by two veterans organizations: the Heroic Hearts Project and Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS). A representative from the Heroic Hearts Project, Jason Moore Brown, is also a sponsor of the measure. In a press statement, he explained that he has personally struggled with PTSD and mental health as a decorated combat veteran, and approved of Jones and Becker’s bill. “We have lost over 130,000 Veterans to suicide since the Global War on Terror began in 2001,” Moore said. “I know first hand that psilocybin, when used responsibly and with support, has the potential to save the lives of California’s Veterans. This pilot program is the responsible first step to reducing, and hopefully ending, the Veteran suicide epidemic.”

In fall 2023, the legislature passed Senate Bill 58 (sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Marie Waldron) but was vetoed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Both peer-reviewed science and powerful personal anecdotes lead me to support new opportunities to address mental health through psychedelic medicines like those addressed in this bill,” Newsom said. “Psychedelics have proven to relieve people suffering from certain conditions such as depression, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and other addictive personality traits. This is an exciting frontier and California will be on the front-end of leading it. . . . I urge the legislature to send me legislation next year that includes therapeutic guidelines.”

Recently in May, a different psychedelic bill that also sought to pass treatment centers recently ended its run in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Called the “Regulated Therapeutic Access to Psychedelics Act,” Senate Bill 1012 would have created dedicated psychedelic service centers to allow patients legal access to psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, and MDMA in a regulated setting. SB-1012, also sponsored by Weiner, described the bill as a “direct response to the Governor’s request” in April.

Following the rejection of SB-1012 in May, numerous advocate organizations condemned the decision to terminate the bill. “We are deeply disappointed that the Legislature has missed this opportunity after four years of debate to enact a policy that would create a responsible program and promote the safer use of psychedelics in California and create a model policy for the rest of the country,” said Alliance for Safer Use of Psychedelics (ASUP) campaign director Jared Moffat. “Californians will continue to seek out psychedelics for all sorts of reasons, including to help alleviate mental health challenges like PTSD, depression and anxiety. Many will do so without guided support and use psychedelics on their own, which increases risks. Veterans and others will continue to leave the country or go underground to seek unregulated services that may be unsafe.”

These bills failed to pass, but advocates are pushing for a potential ballot initiative in 2026 that would legalize psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and MDMA. After Weiner’s bill was killed, he told KQED that he will keep trying to push for access to psychedelics. “We are not giving up, whether that means introducing a new bill or ballot measure, this issue is not going away,” he said. “We know these substances are helping people turn their lives around.”

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A 41-year-old woman in a case study reported remarkable improvements of longhauler’s symptoms after taking psilocybin and MDMA-assisted therapy sessions.

A case report, “Long-COVID symptoms improved after MDMA and psilocybin therapy: A case report,” was published May 24 in the journal Clinical Case Reports. The woman in the case study was healthy before contracting COVID-19 in February 2022, and she was vaccinated three times. She reported symptoms of long COVID or longhauler’s: severe anxiety, depression, debilitating headaches, and cognitive difficulties.

The woman tried many methods to get relief from the disease: fasting, massage therapy, acupuncture, and meditation. The woman resorted to psilocybin and bought golden teacher shroom spores online and consumed significant improvement of the symptoms in subsequent tripping sessions.

“The patient’s first dosing session was on May 5, 2022, where she consumed 1 g of dried whole golden teacher psilocybin cubensis mushrooms from an online store,” the report reads. “The patient subjectively reported a 20% improvement in her depression, fatigue, joint pains, and headache for seven days. However, she also reported chills and shivering with a sensation of being cold while ‘coming up.’”

About a month later, she ingested 125 mg of MDMA, followed by two separate doses of psilocybin. After this session, she said her symptoms improved significantly—80% percent overall—and that she was able to resume her PhD studies.

“The patient’s second dosing session was 24 days later on May 29th where she consumed a single dose of MDMA 125 mg, 1 h later 2 g of whole dried golden teacher psilocybin cubensis mushrooms prepared in a tea, and 1 hour later a second dose of 2 grams of whole dried golden teacher psilocybin cubensis mushrooms prepared in a tea.”

Another month later she ate more shrooms and she saw huge improvements again.

“Six weeks later (on July 16th), her head pressure returned at approximately 30% of its previous severity,” the report reads. “After another 2 g dose of psilocybin cubensis mushrooms, her symptoms abated to 90% relief of symptoms. She was able to work part-time thereafter and return full-time in September.”

“After several months of improvement, the patient reported experiencing an early November relapse of her post-COVID-19 symptoms in the setting of a non-COVID-19 flu-like illness. Her headache returned, although it was less severe and not as frequent as before. The patient decided to try another dosing session with psychedelics on November 24th. This time, 2 g of dried golden teacher psilocybin cubensis mushrooms led to a remission of her symptoms. The patient subjectively reported complete resolution of her symptoms. The patient was again able to return to work 3 days later and continue with her PhD studies.”

Research on larger groups of people is needed in order to determine why psychedelics seem to improve long-COVID symptoms.

Science Reports noted that researchers at Columbia University have launched a small pilot trial to explore whether single-dose hallucinogenic treatments can really relieve long COVID symptoms.

Other Studies Show Potential for Cannabis in COVID Treatment

Beyond psychedelics, cannabis—itself a minor psychedelic—has also been linked to COVID improvements. Cannabis consumers with COVID-19 experienced “better outcomes and mortality” compared to similar patients who did not use cannabis, in a recent study.

The study, entitled “Exploring the Relationship Between Marijuana Smoking and Covid-19,” was announced at a meeting for the American College of Chest Physicians, which was held in Honolulu, Hawaii on Oct. 11. It was also published in the October issue of CHEST Journal.

Researchers noted that they analyzed data from the National Inpatient Sample, which is the largest publicly available collection of inpatient healthcare data—recording about seven million hospital visits per year. Researchers studied 322,214 patients over 18 years of age, with only 2,603 stating that they were cannabis consumers.

Each cannabis-consuming patient was matched 1:1 with a non-consumer, as well as their “age, race, gender, and 17 other comorbidities including chronic lung disease.” The other comorbidities included obstructive sleep apnea, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, which were more commonly found in non-users.

In these comparisons, cannabis users experienced a lowered rate of specific conditions. “On univariate analysis, marijuana users had significantly lower rates of intubation (6.8% vs 12%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (2.1% vs 6%), acute respiratory failure (25% vs 52.9%) and severe sepsis with multiorgan failure (5.8% vs 12%),” researchers explained. “They also had lower in-hospital cardiac arrest (1.2% vs 2.7%) and mortality (2.9% vs 13.5%).”

“Marijuana smokers had better outcomes and mortality compared to non-users,” researchers concluded. “The beneficial effect of marijuana use may be attributed to its potential to inhibit viral entry into cells and prevent the release of proinflammatory cytokines, thus mitigating cytokine release syndrome.”

The growing amount of evidence shows that psychedelics and cannabis may be the key to solving the riddle of COVID and long-COVID symptoms.

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A new study based on data collected by law enforcement agencies suggests the availability of illicit psilocybin mushrooms in the U.S. has risen significantly compared to prior years. This uptick in psilocybin seizures suggests that the mushrooms are now easier to find on the street.

Researchers at New York University (NYU) uncovered a rapidly growing trend suggesting more Americans have access to psilocybin mushrooms, as the list of potential medical benefits grows. Published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, the study analyzed 4,526 psilocybin seizure reports from 2017 to 2022, and categorized the annual number of confiscations and weight of seized shrooms per state. The study shows that law enforcement seizures of psilocybin mushrooms in the U.S. skyrocketed from 402 seizures in 2017 to 1,396 in 2022. The total weight of psilocybin mushrooms seized also increased by 2,749%, from 226 kilograms (498 pounds) in 2017 to 844 kilograms (1,860 pounds) in 2022.

Drug seizures by law enforcement are also what the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration uses to determine drug availability. The researchers noted that this data does not paint a clear picture of the exact amount of psilocybin in America, given all of the people who elude the police or go undetected.

Confiscations of psilocybin are up in nearly every region of the country that was analyzed. Researchers found “significant increases” of psilocybin seizures in all four regions—the Northeast, West, South, and Midwest regions of the U.S., and shrooms are particularly growing in popularity on the West Coast.

“We found that the number of shroom seizures and the total weight of shrooms seized annually increased through 2022, and the greatest weight of shrooms seized was in the West,” Joseph J. Palamar told High Times in an email.

Palamar, a co-author of the study, is an associate professor at the Department of Population Health at NYU’s Langone Health in Manhattan. He explained that law enforcement data helps to explain how prevalent psilocybin is, but does not show the entire picture. It was impossible for the researchers, for instance, to determine if the shrooms were wet or dry, as police typically don’t make the distinction.

“We don’t treat drug seizures as an indicator of use but rather more of an indicator of availability,” Palamar said. “This might seem a bit counterintuitive at first because seizures literally remove drugs from the market, but we believe seizures only represent a small sample of drugs available. We believe the increase in shroom seizures indicates an increase in availability.  Seizures are far from being a perfect indicator of availability but it’s still an important focus.”

Self-reported data on psychedelic use is very limited, but earlier research indicates that psilocybin is the most consumed plant-based psychedelic in the U.S. (This of course excludes cannabis, which some consider to be a mild psychedelic.)

The prevalence of psilocybin use probably comes in waves, he said, with waves taking place in the 1960s and so on. This time around, psilocybin research is focusing on its potential medical benefits more than its harms, representing a sea change in the way psychedelic mushrooms are perceived.

Starting with Denver, Colorado in 2019, numerous cities and the District of Columbia decriminalized psilocybin. At the state level, Oregon voters decriminalized psilocybin in 2020, followed by the entire state of Colorado two years later.

Ketamine is another psychedelic that has recently risen in popularity in therapeutic settings, Palomar said. While it was restricted to Schedule III in 1999, a nasal spray was approved by the FDA in 2019, and now clinics in many states provide it.

“All drug trends seem to come in waves, and it’s unknown whether this recent increase is being driven by positive media coverage of psilocybin research, but I strongly believe it’s a factor,” he said. “I anticipate a similar situation with respect to ketamine.”

“Recent increases in use of hallucinogens, more broadly, may be associated with increased coverage of their perceived therapeutic benefits, based on a recent increase in clinical trials testing psilocybin, specifically, in treating psychiatric conditions,” researchers wrote. “Major trials suggest psilocybin’s efficacy in treating conditions such as major depressive disorder in particular, but also in treating conditions such as anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorder.”

The researchers in this study said that recreational users frequently take too much, causing dysphoria. Generally speaking, 3.5 grams of psilocybin is considered a large dose, and 5 or more grams is considered a heroic dose. Powerful, profound, and confusing effects can arise even when people consume even just a few grams. However researchers like Matthew W. Johnson, a professor of Psychedelics and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins, suggested that heroic doses are needed for certain conditions.

This article was originally published in the May 2024 issue of High Times Magazine.

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A newly published study from researchers at New York University found that individuals dealing with a stutter derived some benefit from substances such as psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in “magic mushrooms,” and LSD.

“Given the positive effects of psychedelics on conditions like anxiety and PTSD, which share symptoms with stuttering, we think that investigating the potential impact of psychedelics on stuttering can be a fruitful area of research,” said Eric S. Jackson, an associate professor of communicative sciences and disorders at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and the lead author of the study. 

The research, published this month in the Journal of Fluency Disorders, is the “first study to explore self-reported experiences of self-identified stutterers using classic psychedelics.”

“Stuttering poses challenges to social, occupational, and educational aspects of life. Traditional behavioral therapies can be helpful but effects are often limited. Pharmaceutical treatments have been explored, but there are no FDA-approved treatments for stuttering. Interest has grown in the potential use of classic psychedelics, including psilocybin and LSD, which have shown effectiveness in treating disorders with similar symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, PTSD). The potential effects of psychedelics on stuttering have not been explored,” Jackson and his team wrote in the study’s abstract.

Stuttering is “typically characterized by its symptoms—intermittent disruptions in speech,” they added. 

“Stuttering, or the possibility of stuttering, also triggers anxiety, fear, and shame which significantly impact quality of life. Negative reactions of listeners, such as teasing or mocking exacerbate these feelings, complicating the individual’s ability to cope with and move forward in speech when stuttering occurs. The speech of stutterers is amenable to change in therapy, but such change is often not durable with relics of tension, struggle, and avoidance re-emerging,” the researchers said. “To achieve lasting changes, stutterers may benefit from redefining their relationship with stuttering, exploring concepts like openness and self-acceptance. There is a pressing need for innovative approaches that support overall well-being, reduce negative thoughts and emotions, and enhance ease of communication for stutterers.”

They “conducted a preliminary investigation of self-identified stutterers who report their experiences taking classic psychedelics on the online messaging forum, Reddit,” before performing a qualitative analysis on “114 publicly available posts, extracting meaningful units and assigning descriptor codes inductively.”

The researchers said that their search of Reddit “yielded 167 posts, with 14 excluded for lacking firsthand accounts (e.g., describing others’ experiences) and 39 for not discussing classic psychedelics (rather, they discussed ketamine or MDMA). 

“The final sample comprised 114 posts from 104 Reddit distinct users, including multiple contributions from some users. Due to 12 users deleting their usernames, the exact number of unique users was estimated to be at least 92. Results reflective of individual percentages were based on 104,” they explained.

“We then deductively organized responses into an established framework of psychedelics which includes behavioral, emotional, cognitive, beliefbased, and social effects. These effects were subsequently grouped under organizing themes (positive, negative, neutral),” they wrote.

A majority of the users –– 74 percent –– ”reported positive overall short-term effects particularly related to behavioral and emotional change (e.g., reduced stuttering and anxiety), but negative (9.6%), mixed (positive and negative; 4.8%), and neutral overall experiences (11.6%) were also reported.” 

“The results support the possibility that psychedelics my impact stuttering, but caution must be applied in their interpretation given the entirely uncontrolled research setting and potential adverse health effects of psychedelics as reported elsewhere. While these results do not encourage the use of psychedelics by stutterers, they suggest that future work could examine the impact of psychedelics on stuttering under supervised and in clinically controlled settings,” the researchers wrote. 

They explained that the “results from a qualitative analysis of self-identified stutterers’ experiences of classic psychedelics, providing an initial investigation of the potential impact of psychedelics on stuttering from the perspective of stutterers.” 

The most reported effect among Reddit users, the researchers said, “was reduced stuttering, with half of users reporting a reduction in their stuttering.” 

“Users also reported reduced effort, ‘improved’ speech, and increased speech control while on psychedelics or shortly thereafter,” the researchers said. 

“People who stutter are in need of more effective treatments to manage intermittent disruptions in speech communication and also provide relief from distress that accompanies their social experiences, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation,” they wrote in their conclusion. “To date, there are no FDA-approved pharmacotherapies to treat stuttering. Our study suggests that some users on the internet forum Reddit who self-identify as people who stutter have reported beneficial short-term outcomes.”

Jackson said that the “results support the possibility that psychedelics may impact stuttering, but caution must be applied in their interpretation given the entirely uncontrolled research setting and potential adverse health effects of psychedelics as reported elsewhere.” 

“While these results do not encourage the use of psychedelics by stutterers, they suggest that future work could examine the impact of psychedelics on stuttering in randomized controlled clinical trials,” Jackson said. 

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New York legislation Assembly Bill 10375 was recently introduced by Assembly Health Committee Chair Amy Paulin and aims to legalize psilocybin service centers.

If passed, the A10375 would amend public law “in relation to promoting the health and well-being of the citizens of the state of New York by establishing a comprehensive framework supporting public health and safety through regulated adult use, support services, and cultivation of psilocybin-containing fungi,” the bill stated.

It would also require that the Department of Health (DoH) take charge of regulations, which involves cultivator licenses and approving psilocybin service center facilities. It would also create a “Regulated Psilocybin Advisory Board” made up of 13 members to study federal laws and policies regarding psilocybin, and offer advice and recommendations to the DoH. The purposes of the board would be to “develop a long-term strategic plan for ensuring that psilocybin services in the state will become and remain a safe, accessible and affordable therapeutic option, including in therapeutic and medical treatments, for all persons eighteen years of age and older for whom psilocybin services may be appropriate.”

Psilocybin business expenses would be tax deductible, and proceeds and fees would go back into the program to fund “administration and other costs relating to programs pursuant to this title, including but not limited to public education and risks of using psilocybin.”

Currently there are 58 conditions that would qualify for a patient to utilize the services of a psilocybin center, which ranges from glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, migraines, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disorders, treatment resistant depression, and so much more. Additionally, patients with other conditions not included in the initial list can also be considered for psilocybin therapy if it “has been identified in a study published in a medical or scientific journal.” In order for a patient to receive a permit for psilocybin therapy, they must first receive a health screening and complete a permit course.

The bill wouldn’t legalize psilocybin, and consumption, cultivation, and sales would be prohibited. Violators would be hit with a $250 fine and a maximum of 15 days imprisonment.

As of May 21, the bill has been sent to the Assembly Health Committee, of which Paulin is the chair.

Other legislation involving psilocybin has led to promising progress. In February 2023, Assemblymember Pat Burke introduced Assembly Bill 03581, which would establish a psilocybin assisted therapy grant program and allow patients to engage in such treatments either in a licensed treatment center, or at home if the patient cannot travel. “This country is facing a mental health crisis,” Burke wrote on X last year. “I am looking at all options to alleviate the pain so many are feeling. Breakthrough medicines like psilocybin are showing tremendous benefit. I carry the bill to legalize psilocybin therapy. Let’s get it done!”

In February 2024, Burke introduced Assembly Bill 08349 which would create a psilocybin  therapy pilot program for 10,000 veterans and first responders. “We’re in a mental health crisis, and so we need every tool that’s available to us,” Burke said.

Meanwhile, the state’s legal cannabis industry continues to develop. In mid-April, the New York Cannabis Control Board approved 101 adult-use cannabis licenses. “With the Cannabis Control Board’s issuance of 101 adult-use cannabis licenses, New York’s legal cannabis industry continues to make significant progress with over 400 licenses issued in 2024,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “Strengthening New York’s equitable cannabis industry and ensuring the hard-working small business owners operating in the legal market have the licenses to open are the best way to protect the integrity of sales in New York.”

As of late April, the state celebrated the opening of its 100th dispensary, called Big Gas, which opened through the help of the New York State Cannabis Investment Fund. “New York State continues to make progress on standing up a safe and legal cannabis industry for business owners, farmers and residents across the state,” said Hochul about the news. “Today marks a historic milestone in establishing a thriving and equitable industry in our state with the 100th brick-and-mortar store opening.”

The topic of psilocybin continues to influence more illuminating research studies.  One such study which was published this month in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs showed evidence that it won’t change a person’s belief as an atheist, agnostic, or believer in God. “These findings suggest that concerns that psychedelics could change metaphysical beliefs or result in ‘conversions’ across religious affiliations may be overestimated,” wrote researchers of their findings. They added that “concerns related to changes in non-naturalistic beliefs or religious affiliation may be exaggerated.”

Other recent studies include a dive into psilocybin as a meditation enhancement, show evidence that psilocybin isn’t associated with paranoia risk, and proves that natural psilocybin has more therapeutic benefits in comparison to synthesized psilocybin.

Another psilocybin treatment center recently opened up in Oregon, called Ashland Healing Center, which is also the first black-owned treatment center. Additionally, the Oregon Health Authority approved another psilocybin license to Kaya Holdings Inc., for a business called The Sacred Mushroom, which plans to open sometime in June.

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A woman and minority-owned psilocybin treatment center in Oregon, the first of its kind, will soon open doors. It was co-founded by a mother and daughter team, Denise Taylor, a registered nurse (RN), and Laurie Thompson, an experienced meditator.

Ashland Healing Center will provide relief to patrons for mental health conditions, PTSD, anxiety, depression, addiction, and end-of-life concerns, according to a May 21 announcement. During the journey each client is supported by a licensed Psilocybin Facilitator, and the focus is on psilocybin for personal transformation. 

With the guidance of an experienced Psilocybin Facilitator, patrons are able to avoid unpleasant effects of the mushroom and its derivatives.

“We partner with healthcare professionals to get the best results for our mutual clients and patients. Our services are of special interest to medical professionals, therapists, counselors, integrative health care practitioners, and anyone interested in improving mental health. We offer complimentary consultations to those interested in our services. We are also the only black-owned legal Psilocybin service center and are committed to improving mental health outcomes for the black community,” said Taylor.

Taylor’s expertise as an RN helps the team to make better choices about potential interactions and safety issues. Psilocybin sessions go as follows, in four steps:

1. Consultation
2. Intake and Preparation (set and setting)
3. Administration
4. Integration

The Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board approved a limited number of recommendations. But Ashland Healing Center co-founders say that studies from John Hopkins, UC Davis, Yale, and NYU have demonstrated a broader span of potential for psilocybin-assisted therapy.

“Psilocybin provides both medical and metaphysical/spiritual benefits,” said Thompson. “The results our clients experience are incredible. I’ve witnessed depression becoming love, relief from migraine headaches, spiritual experiences, release of intergenerational trauma, and physical healing. We are honored to offer these services and have served clients from across the nation. Ashland, Oregon, is accessible via the Rogue Valley International Medford Airport (code MFR).”

As the direction of psilocybin sessions heavily relies on an individuals’ set and setting, much of the experience is self-directed.

“Psilocybin treatment is not therapy,” the website states. “It is self-directed. Although success is often received with just one treatment, your intent and desire to change are of paramount importance. A willingness to begin working on that change before the experience and to continue after are key to your continued success. Safety and comfort are also important. We want you to work with a facilitator you trust in a safe place. As facilitators we will work with you to build trust.”

In November 2020, Oregon voters  approved Measure 110, and the state officially became the first e to decriminalize hard drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine, and also legalized the use of psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic use. By December 2022, the state was training facilitators to care for participants experiencing their psilocybin journey. It took until May 2023 to approve the first license, which belonged to EPIC Healing Eugene.

A consult, which is free, typically lasts one hour.

Beginning with Denver, Colorado, the first city to decriminalize psilocybin in 2019, other cities followed including Oakland and Santa Cruz, California; Washington, D.C.; Somerville, Cambridge and Northampton, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; and Detroit, Michigan. Oregon and Colorado moved to decriminalize psilocybin at the state level as well.

Psilocybin’s Potential in Therapeutic Medicine

Psilocybin is being explored for its role in helping people with eating disorders (ED), treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and even stress due to childhood trauma.

Psilocybin’s effects on ED, for instance, have been explored since the 1950s, and studies are zeroing in its ability to help us overcome treatment-resistant conditions like body dysmorphia, anorexia, or bulimia.

Researchers Elena Koning and Elisa Brietzke are exploring the ways psilocybin can treat ED by its therapeutic benefits in combating rigid thought patterns. Koning, who is a doctoral student, recently wrote about her discoveries for PsyPost, explaining the reasoning behind her research.

Koning mentioned that in the age of social media, EDs are becoming increasingly troublesome, and that new approaches to those types of disorders are needed.

A recent study, “Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy as a Potential Treatment for Eating Disorders: a Narrative Review of Preliminary Evidence,” was published online ahead of print for Trends Psychiatry.

Another recent study, published recently in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, took a closer look at adverse childhood experiences as an “elevated risk for psychological distress,” specifically looking at how psilocybin may abate these effects. It was authored by researchers at Simon Fraser University, Athabasca University, University of British Columbia and University of Michigan.

Researchers found that the use of psilocybin can help to ease psychological distress in people who had adverse experiences as children, indicating that psilocybin appeared to hold “particularly strong benefits to those with more severe childhood adversity.”

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