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 …
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Author: Benjamin M. Adams / High Times
