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September 11, 2025<\/p>\n
4 min read<\/p>\n
Magic Mushroom Edibles Found to Contain Undisclosed Ingredients\u2014And No Psilocybin<\/p>\n
Researchers tested 12 \u201cmagic mushroom\u201d edibles. None contained psilocybin, but most contained undisclosed ingredients, including synthetic drugs whose safety hasn\u2019t been tested in humans<\/p>\n
By Allison Parshall edited by Dean Visser<\/span><\/p>\n Magic mushrooms (Psilocybe cubensis).<\/p>\n Researchers tested 12 \u201cmagic mushroom\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found no evidence of mushroom compounds of any kind, coming from any species,\u201d says the new study\u2019s co-author Richard van Breemen, a pharmaceutical sciences professor at Oregon State University. The research was published on Thursday in JAMA Network Open.<\/p>\n 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. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hype around these substances, so people are increasingly trying them outside current legal pathways,\u201d says Lori Bruce, a bioethicist at Yale University, who researches psychedelics.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n 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\u2014all possibly associated with such products\u2014had been reported across 34 states. \u201cThe mislabeling highlighted in this [study] causes harms,\u201d Bruce says. \u201cAnd as usage rates increase across the U.S., harms from retail products are also likely to increase.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019re deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cpsilocybin service center.\u201d These centers receive psilocybin from licensed growers, whose products are tested by a licensed laboratory.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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. \u201cA lot of people are very curious about these substances. And if you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n For the new study, the researchers purchased 12 edible products (11 gummies and a chocolate) that were advertised as containing \u201cmagic mushrooms\u201d and were sold at gas stations and convenience stores in Portland. These products are \u201cbeing marketed widely in local convenience stores and on the Internet,\u201d van Breemen says.<\/p>\n The edibles were first tested at a state-licensed facility that normally certifies the quality of the drug for Oregon\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s main psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC). Four of the gummies contained no active ingredients at all.<\/p>\n Two of the gummies did contain psilocin, which also occurs naturally in some mushrooms in small quantities\u2014and 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.<\/p>\n Of greatest concern to the researchers, though, was the identification of synthetic psychedelic, or \u201csyndelic,\u201d compounds in two of the gummies. These drugs, mipracetin and 4-hydroxy-diethyltryptamine, have a chemical structure that is similar to that of psilocybin and psilocin and are psychoactive. Their effects on the body have not been studied in humans. “We don\u2019t know what harm they might cause,\u201d van Breemen says.<\/p>\n Van Breemen was surprised by the extent of the mislabeling. \u201cOver the years, we\u2019ve tested many botanical dietary supplements,\u201d he says. \u201cRarely do you find 12 products, none of which contain what they’re supposed to contain. So the sample number is small, but the number of mislabeled or adulterated products was significant.\u201d<\/p>\n This is an \u201cimportant and timely study,\u201d Bruce says. \u201cPsychedelics show initial promise for intractable mental health disorders, but science is still teasing out who will benefit and who will be harmed from their psychedelics experience.\u201d The Trump administration has indicated an interest in deregulating psychedelics for therapeutic purposes. In this context, Bruce adds, \u201cthe concerns I raise may become more widespread.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" September 11, 2025 4 min read Magic Mushroom Edibles Found to Contain Undisclosed Ingredients\u2014And No Psilocybin Researchers tested 12 \u201cmagic mushroom\u201d edibles. None contained psilocybin, but most contained undisclosed ingredients, including synthetic drugs whose safety hasn\u2019t been tested in humans By Allison Parshall edited by Dean Visser Magic mushrooms (Psilocybe cubensis). Researchers tested 12 \u201cmagic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[12692,9385,512,12693],"class_list":{"0":"post-20642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-edibles","9":"tag-magic","10":"tag-mushroom","11":"tag-psilocybin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
Are Any Commercial Psilocybin Products Legal?<\/h2>\n
Undisclosed and Untested Ingredients<\/h2>\n