💧 Inside the underground shroom market

Hey! Thanks for tuning back into The Drop In. As political conspiracies swirl on social media, you can rely on this sliver of the internet to deliver fact-checked reporting and gripping narratives—a nice reprieve from our current reality, which feels like an unhinged nitrous oxide fever dream.

Since November 2023, DoubleBlind has been in the trenches of the grey market for mushrooms. Journalist Webb Wright started writing a feature for us that morphed and shapeshifted into a story that would have never come to life without lab testing data (shout out to Hyphae Labs). The lab results have since made us believe that nothing in the underground market is as it seems. Tons of mushroom products being sold across the US—in gas stations, smoke shops, bodegas, and unregulated dispensaries—are actually spiked with another drug entirely. And while this substance does elicit psychedelic effects, it is also a research chemical produced with varying levels of quality.

You’ll have to read Webb’s story below, which will take you on a ride through a raid in New York City, a man who was attacked by a Mona Lisa that crawled out of his TV, and our culture’s weird obsession with Polka Dot bars. Plus, this story was made possible thanks to UC Berkeley and Tim Ferris’s Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship, so you know it’s going to be good. 

In the meantime, sign up for the microdosing workshop happening next Sunday! See you there. 

🫶🫶🫶

Mary Carreón
Senior Editor

Together With…

Looking for a refreshing summer bevvie? 🌞🫐

Delight your mind, body, and taste buds with this Blueberry Lemon Matcha Fizz recipe by our friends at Matcha.com! This fresh, light, and delicious mocktail (or cocktail) is perfect for warm days and easy to make.

Just grab blueberries, freshly squeezed lemon, your favorite high-quality matcha, and dry gin (if you’re getting boozy).

Muddle blueberries with simple syrup, add lemon juice, then top with soda water and a swirl of matcha. It’s that simple!

Ready to try it out? Click here to get your matcha powder for 15% off with code DOUBLEBLIND and bookmark the full recipe here.

Our Latest

Nazi-stamped ecstasy and 2C-B pills are spreading across Europe, coinciding with a rise in far-right youth movements. Researchers and authorities are alarmed by the varied quality of these pills and the troubling political context.

Mexico is grappling with a brand new mushroom legalization bill that would permit psilocybin-assisted therapy and expand scientific research on Indigenous medicine. The bill would also give Indigenous people compensation via “patents” on their traditions. But is this adequate reciprocity?

Next time you find yourself lost in the labyrinthine corridors of a psychedelic trip, start by gazing upon the visuals that surround you. If, however, you want to gaze at other beautiful things to look at, we’ve compiled this list of psychedelic art that has been inspired by (and is particularly great to look at while on) mushrooms.

& More Must-Reads

• Traditional healers are growing old without successors. In Northeast Poland, they're called Whisperers. Will their traditions become a lost art?

• Drugs and the making of the modern mind: Unveiling the 19th-century's forgotten drug-fueled intellectual revolution and its impact on pioneering thinkers.

• In the Arab world, psychedelics are considered “haram,” or forbidden. Haya Al-Hejailan is working to reframe them as medicines.

Trip Tales

Have you had a profound experience with psychedelics before? Share your story with us for a chance to be featured in The Drop In. Submit your entry here.

Join Us

🌿 Unlock the power of microdosing! 

Join us on July 28th for a transformative workshop with Adrian Lozano, plant medicine facilitator and microdose coach. 

Learn to create your own microdose medicine and stack it with supportive plants like cacao and ashwagandha. Adrian will guide you through best practices, safety, and step-by-step microdose creation. 

Enhance your microdose practice for a vibrant, uplifting experience. Register now by signing up for a free 1-month trial to DoubleBlind+.

Learn with Us

🥬 From ancient virility herb to modern painkiller, meet the versatile medicinal plant growing right outside.

🐒 Humans aren’t the only ones who seek out altered states. Some of our planet’s wildlife enjoy expanding their consciousness, too.

🤝 Helping people make sense of their psychedelic experiences is a privilege. We chatted with the experts about how to get involved amid a grey legal landscape.

🍄Tolerance to shrooms develops faster than you think—you might be disappointed if you trip too often.

DoubleBlind Digs

Here are today’s recommendations to help you live more psychedelically… 

1. Trying to get on the good side of a witch? Join the club. Proximity to magic is intoxicating, and it's easy to fall in love with a witch. Whether you seek friendship, love, or wish to apprentice in her magic, we’ve got ten witchy gifts to meet this moment with supernatural attention.

2. Nonprofit mag love! Atmos Volume 09 explores family, biodiversity, wildlife, symbiosis, and conservation—a collection of stories that remind us that we exist in a web of not only relationship, but kinship. It’s beautiful and you can grab your copy here.

3. Not everyone needs a psychedelic integration therapist, but it can be extremely helpful when you’re deciding if you want to trip, what substance you’d like to trip on, setting an intention, and more. We especially recommend this if you have a history of mental health conditions personally or in your family. You can find a therapist here.

4. If you’re looking for something to zap your brain awake in the mornings,  during that afternoon slump, or even before you go out to be social, we highly recommend Super Mush Energy Spray. We love it at DB. It can be great to have a few spritzes before your cup of caffeine or if you’re looking to cut back. Click here to try it.*

*We may make a commission off this link, but we only partner with brands we’ve tried and trust.

From the Magazine

Explore the mystery and magic of Spain’s elusive equinox celebrations centered on whimsical folk costumes

In his documentary work MICROCOSMOS, Galician photographer Roberto De La Torre focuses on the handcrafted masks and whimsical costumes which, for generations, have been used in ritualistic celebrations to honor solstices and equinoxes in remote communities of Zamora, León, and Asturias, as well as Northern Portugal. To communicate with the sacred, De La Torre says that physical transformation is necessary. “In other cultures, the shaman, through some substances, enters into an altered state of consciousness. And [they] also use special clothes and attributes very present in these masks of my documentary work.”

See the full photo essay in DoubleBlind Issue No. 10