I have always been very risk averse (yes, some would say boring) when it comes to drugs, of both the legal and illegal variety.
My Mum showed me the infamous photo of Leah Betts, who took an ectasy pill on her 18th birthday and became seriously ill. Her parents released a photograph of their daughter as she lay in the coma, in the hope it would shock other youngsters into saying no to drugs. Tragically, Leah passed away just days later.
Research shows that this shock treatment is often a very poor parenting tool; one which can actually pique a childs’ interest in the thing you’re trying to dissuade them from. But Leah’s parents actions regarding the photo undoubtedly worked for me, and I think it did for my younger brother too. I remember looking at it (I was fourteen at the time) whilst my Mum implored me to see what could happen to me if Imade the same choice Leah had. She didn’t actually need to implore me; that photo instilled the fear of what drugs could do to me and it has never left.
I watched my boyfriend in my teens regularly take ecstasy. I was always terrified and never once tempted.
I then went through my twenties working in TV and Theatre and was around lots of other drug use; mainly cocaine. And again, it never interested me in the slightest. I had no curiosity about what I might be missing out on; only fear about what could happen to any of my mates who were partaking.
I am 43 and I think probably very much in the minority when I say I’ve never experienced a drug (alcohol excepted), never had any curiosity, no inner struggle, no interest at all… until that is; I heard, in the school playground of all places; about microdosing mushrooms.
I was having a very innocent conversation with a high-earning ‘got her shizz together’ middle-class Mum. Telling her how I was determined to cut back on the wine because I knew I was using it as a bit of a tool to help me wind down during the week when the combo of work/kids/after-school sports clubs was making me feel frantic. I told her that I knew I relied on it and felt nervous about how highly-strung I’d be all week without it. But I’d been educating myself on the links alcohol has to cancer and couldn’t bury my head any longer.
“Have you not thought about mushrooms?” she said.
I stared back blankly wondering if she was suggesting I console myself with a risotto.
“Everyone’s doing it” she said, “it’s called microdosing. I thought it was just a London thing but it’s everywhere now. You don’t feel drunk, or high, not at all. It just takes the edge off; makes you think life is a bit nicer. I had some this morning.”
Me being my usual careful cautious self, I wondered if this was an undercover sting. A cop trying to entrap exhausted working mothers in the school playground into buying drugs so they could lock us up and throw away the key. So I kind of said something along the lines of “wow really… no not my thing, not even in Amsterdam”... and sloped off back to my car.
But as I endured that evening of two kids football sessions, a screaming fight between all three of my boys, and the internet going off meaning the utter tragedy of no Xbox availability for them… all of this without so much as a glass of Pinot Grigiot… I kept coming back to that undercover cops words (it turns out she’s a dentist but let’s not get hung up on the semantics)...
“You don’t feel drunk, or high, not at all. It just takes the edge off; makes you think life is a bit nicer.”
I mean, that was exactly what I wanted; the feeling of calm, of being able to cope with whatever the day threw at me, but without having to pour vodka on my cereal.
But surely all these people partaking in the mushrooms couldn’t all just be feeling they’d taken the edge off? They must be high as kites, hallucinating and paranoid surely? And a danger to their kids, terrible parents… except; the undercover cop didn’t seem like a terrible parent. In fact, she always seemed like a very chilled but also very fun Mum.
I decided to do a quick google search, which hopefully wouldn’t lead me straight into the hands of the law.
It turns out microdosing is indeed a thing. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics suggest a huge rise in the use of mushrooms with a reported 279,000 regular users in the UK; an increase of 68% since 2020. This, despite the fact that it’s still classified as an illegal class A drug, with jail terms for possession of up to seven years.
Anecdotally, lots of what I was reading from user accounts online, was strikingly similar to what I’d been told in the school playground. Less anxious, less stressed, more positive, more connected and present with loved ones and in the workplace.
I’m not going to lie; for the first time in my life I felt a glimmer of interest in drugs. My risk-averse nature kicked in quickly and before you could say ‘Just Say No’ I was googling potential dangers and side-effects. And there are plenty to be found. Warnings of an initial uplift in mood when consuming psylocibin and LSD (the two main types widely consumed), followed by a crashing downturn leading to paranoia, overwhelm and anxiety, which are presumably some of the main reasons people turn to microdosing in the first place.
One mushroom which has seen a huge surge in popularity is Lion’s Mane, with lots of high powered busy individuals using it to increase cognitive function, memory and productivity. A quick trawl on Instagram tells me that it’s also a very trendy one with influencers… in fact, in a trend which is so beyond my mental grasp I can hardly type it out for you… there are some incredibly successful ‘Shroom’ Influencers.
Yep; you understood correctly. Influencers who influence your mushroom choices, rather than your Zara hauls.
And if you believe what you see on social media; the benefits of taking a Lion’s Mane supplement are monumental. As well as making me less anxious and better focussed, there are claims from the shroom influencers that it will boost my immune system and improve my gut and digestive function.
Scientists and medics however are less impressed, and the lack of evidence as to the efficacy of it means there’s simply no evidence base for it.
But you know; there was no evidence base for taking collagen supplements; but I did, and I genuinely thought my skin and hair improved vastly. Maybe it was a placebo effect, maybe a coincidence. Whatever, I felt glowy within a month!
Since Lion’s Mane is legal and available readily to buy (it’s a non-psychedelic mushroom); that makes me slightly less worried about getting turned over by the feds at school pick-up. My risk averse nature is gearing up to buy some and give it a whirl. Don’t worry, I can’t see it being a gateway drug for me onto the hard stuff. I’ve made it to 43 years old without inhaling a cigarette so I think I know what kinda gal I am when it comes to narcotics. Safe as houses.
// Sarah Lawton
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