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Researchers tested 12 “magic mushroom” edible products sold in Portland, Ore., and found no trace of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound that gives magic mushrooms their name. Instead, seven of the products contained at least one undisclosed active ingredient. Such ingredients included cannabis extract and synthetic psychedelics whose effects and safety have not been formally documented or studied.
“We found no evidence of mushroom compounds of any kind, coming from any species,” says the new study’s co-author Richard van Breemen, a pharmaceutical sciences professor at Oregon State University. The research was published on Thursday in JAMA Network Open.
Psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs have received a lot of attention in recent years as potential treatments for mental health conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. “There’s a lot of hype around these substances, so people are increasingly trying them outside current legal pathways,” says Lori Bruce, a bioethicist at Yale University, who researches psychedelics.
In June 2024 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the agency was investigating reports of severe illness after people consumed certain purported psilocybin edibles. By last October, 73 hospitalizations and three deaths—all possibly associated with such products—had been reported across 34 states. “The mislabeling highlighted in this [study] causes harms,” Bruce says. “And as usage rates increase across the U.S., harms from retail products are also likely to increase.”
Are Any Commercial Psilocybin Products Legal?
Psilocybin comes from several mushroom species, including some in the genus Psilocybe. When consumed, the body breaks down the compound into psilocin, an alkaloid that can cause startling visual hallucinations and psychological effects, often including intense introspection. The U.S. federal government classifies both psilocybin and psilocin as Schedule I drugs, meaning they’re deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use.
But a handful of states have recently legalized the manufacture, sale, possession and use of psilocybin under certain conditions. Both medical and recreational use are legal in Colorado, and New Mexico passed a law this year that legalizes certain medical uses. In Oregon, the regulations are stricter: the drug must be taken in the company of a licensed facilitator at a specific “psilocybin service center.” These centers receive psilocybin from licensed growers, whose products are tested by a licensed laboratory.
Oregon does not allow the sale or use of psilocybin products outside of these centers; it is otherwise a criminal offense to buy, sell or possess the drug in the state. But the legal channels are prohibitively expensive to many: the average trip costs somewhere between $750 and $1,200.
This dynamic may be leading more people to try purported psilocybin products that are untested and prohibited but nonetheless sold at some retail stores, says legal researcher Mason Marks, a law professor at Florida State University who focused on psychedelics. “A lot of people are very curious about these substances. And if you’re in a state, like Oregon, that does not decriminalize them, people might go to these shops and buy these products that are either blatantly illegal or kind of in this gray area.”
Undisclosed and Untested Ingredients
For the new study, the researchers purchased 12 edible products (11 gummies and a chocolate) that were advertised as containing “magic mushrooms” and were sold at gas stations and convenience stores in Portland. These products are “being marketed widely in local convenience stores and on the Internet,” van Breemen says.
The edibles were first tested at a state-licensed facility that normally certifies the quality of the drug for Oregon’s psilocybin service centers. None of the products contained any psilocybin at all. To determine what they actually did contain, van Breemen and his colleagues turned to more advanced mass spectrometry techniques.
Seven products contained undisclosed active ingredients such as caffeine, kava extract (a legal herbal supplement with antianxiety and hallucinogenic effects), and cannabis extract (including the plant’s main psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC). Four of the gummies contained no active ingredients at all.
Two of the gummies did contain psilocin, which also occurs naturally in some mushrooms in small quantities—and which is easier to synthesize in a laboratory than psilocybin. If the psilocin in the edibles came from natural sources, the researchers would expect to also detect other, related compounds from mushrooms. Such compounds turned out to be absent, leading van Breemen and his colleagues to conclude that the psilocin was likely synthetic.
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Magic mushrooms (Psilocybe cubensis). Yarphoto/Getty Images
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