Need for a Public Health Response to the Unregulated Sales of Amanita muscaria Mushrooms

Abstract

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 2021.1 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. Some of these mushrooms have potent pharmacological properties including Amanita muscaria mushrooms (Figure 1), which contain the compounds muscimol and its biosynthetic precursor, ibotenic acid.