As 'magic mushrooms' got more attention, drug busts of the psychedelic drug went up
Busts of psilocybin mushrooms went way up from 2017 to 2022, a new study finds, even as the psychedelic drug's potential benefits have been explored by scientists.
In recent years, there's been growing interest in psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in "magic mushrooms" or "shrooms" as a potentially beneficial therapy for mental health conditions. At the same time, drug busts of mushrooms went way up between 2017 and 2022, and the amount of the psychedelic substance seized by law enforcement more than tripled, according to a new study.
"What I think the results indicate is that shroom availability has likely been increasing,", an epidemiologist at NYU Langone Health and the main author of the new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
