It’s just a survey, not a clinical trial, but new evidence suggests that people with alcohol use disorders who use psychedelics like psilocybin (found in ‘magic’ mushrooms) and LSD often find their drinking behavior changes as a result.

Here’s the TL;DR:

It helps people reduce drinking. The people who responded to the survey and originally met the criteria for AUD reduced their average drinks per week from 25 to 4.
It doesn’t take much. They’re talking about just ONE psychedelic experience having this impact, not repeated use of the substances. That’s incredible! But it’s consistent with other accounts of the mind-changing nature of psychedelic drugs.
It’s not clear why it works. The article linked above speculates this could be down to people having a “spiritual experience” when they’re high on these drugs that changes how they view their drinking. While that could be, we think it’s more likely that LSD and other drugs like it help people with depression become happier. After all, problem drinking is often a symptom of a different underlying problem.
The effect is lasting. The survey mostly caught up with people who used psychedelics more than a year ago. That means the reduced drinking behavior lasted that long!

Unfortunately, if you’re in the United States, you’re shit outta luck if you want to give this a try outside of Denver. But efforts are underway to legalize psychedelics in Oakland, California, and hopefully more will follow. We’re excited to see how this trend evolves. In the meantime, you could always take a memorable trip to Brazil, Jamaica, Portugal, Peru or the UK, where there are more open laws.