The use of psilocybin — the hallucinogenic compound found in “magic mushrooms” — has increased significantly in Denver and throughout the country, driving a spike in calls to national poison control centers, a study found.
Researchers from Denver Health’s Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Safety Center and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus found that the use of psilocybin increased nationwide across all age groups, especially among adolescents and those over 30.
“We found that since 2019, the number of people using psilocybin has gone up sharply,” said Karilynn Rockhill, co-lead author of the study and a researcher at the Colorado School of Public Health, in a news release. “This seems to line up with when some U.S. states began to decriminalize or legalize it.”…