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Psilocybin mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms, are the most-used psychedelic drug in the United States. That's according to a new RAND study, which included a national survey on the use of such substances.
About 12 percent of respondents said they used psilocybin at some point over their lives, and 3.1 percent reported they used it over the past year. With an estimated 8 million American adults using psilocybin in 2023, its popularity has outpaced that of other psychedelic drugs such as MDMA, commonly called ecstasy.
Federal law prohibits the supply and possession of psychedelics—outside of approved clinical research and some religious exemptions. However, some state and local governments are loosening their policies. Some jurisdictions have even legalized certain psychedelic substances for adults to use for any reason.
“The current situation with psychedelics reminds me of where we were with cannabis policy 12 years ago,” said RAND’s Beau Kilmer, lead author of the study. “Now is the time for federal policymakers to decide if they want to shape these policy changes or stay on the sidelines.”
Kilmer and coauthors note that there are many policy options between prohibition and legalizing production and sales by for-profit companies. They also caution that, if efforts to expand the non-clinical supply of psychedelics do not go well, then it could have a chilling effect on future research and potential therapeutic uses, such as in the treatment of mental health conditions.
Their report also contains several other insights—frequency of use for psychedelics relative to cannabis, and the importance of including Indigenous communities in the conversation, for example—that will be of interest to policymakers.
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