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Today’s lead story is about how often Americans are consuming psilocybin mushrooms — and today, it seems like more of us are doing so than than ever. You can read our story immediately below!

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Psilocybin is now the country’s most popular Psychedelic according to a new national survey.

More Americans are taking psychedelics, and the most consumed substance, according to data, is psilocybin mushrooms.

An estimated 7.8 million adults used psilocybin in 2025, according to new data from Denver Health’s Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety. That makes psilocybin the most commonly consumed psychedelic in the U.S.

The figures come from the 2025 National Survey Investigating Hallucinogenic Trends, which Denver Health released in September. The survey estimates that 5.3% of American adults 18 or older, roughly 13.9 million people, used at least one of the 13 substances it tracks. Half of psilocybin users say their mental health improved, yet an even larger share of recent users reported side effects.

Psilocybin use reached 2.9% of adults, up from 2.1% in 2024. MDMA followed with an estimated 4.2 million users, trailed by prescription ketamine, or esketamine, at 3.3 million, and LSD at 2.6 million.

Among psilocybin users, 49.9% said their mental health improved afterward. Side effects, however, were even more common. Among people who had used a psychedelic in the previous three months, 72.6% of psilocybin users reported at least one side effect, as did 77.2% of MDMA users, 82.1% of LSD users, and 68.8% of those taking prescription ketamine or esketamine.

Use ran highest among younger adults and men. Geography mattered, too. The Pacific census division, home to California, led the nation at 6.9%, while the East South Central division sat at the bottom with 3.3%.

“Nearly 14 million adults reported using at least one of the substances included in our survey in 2025, with psilocybin being the most commonly reported,” says Kate Reynolds, director of research at Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Safety. “At the same time, a substantial number of people reported benefits and side effects, highlighting the range of experiences people may experience with psychedelic use.”

The Denver Health numbers arrive amid a broader rise in psychedelic consumption in recent years. The University of Michigan’s long-running Monitoring the Future panel study found that hallucinogen use climbed steeply over the five years leading up to 2023, reaching 9% of adults ages 19 to 30 and 4% of adults ages 35 to 50. The federal National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed similar results, finding that hallucinogen use among Americans aged 12 and older rose between 2021 and 2024.

Much of that use, according to the data, comes in small doses. A 2025 RAND Corporation survey of more than 10,000 people estimated that about 10 million American adults microdosed psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA at least once in the past year. RAND also tallied roughly 225 million psilocybin use days among American adults, and about half of them involved microdosing. The same survey put annual psilocybin users at about 11 million. That count runs higher than Denver Health’s estimate of 7.8 million, a reminder that largely illicit use is hard to quantify.

Motives vary as well. Earlier data from the same Denver Health survey, reported by The Colorado Sun, found that 68.2% of psilocybin users nationwide cited fun, enjoyment, or celebration as their most common reason, while 26.8% used it specifically to treat a physical or mental health ailment. About 29% combined psilocybin with alcohol, and nearly 38% paired it with cannabis.

The rise has also registered at poison control centers. University of Virginia researchers found that psilocybin-related calls involving teens between the ages of 13 and 19 more than tripled, from 152 to 464, between 2018 and 2022. Calls involving adults between the ages of 20 and 25 more than doubled during that time.

Attitudes are evolving, however. RAND found that 23% of respondents support legal psilocybin use, a level that mirrors attitudes toward cannabis in the mid-1990s, just before states began allowing medical use. In terms of how psilocybin should be obtained, the study showed that 49% favored supervised use in a medical facility. In Colorado, the state had approved 34 licensed healing centers as of February, where professional facilitators can administer psilocybin to adults 21 and older.

Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Safety researchers urge health care providers to ask patients about psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, and ketamine by name. Lumping them all under the umbrella of “psychedelics,” they argue, can obscure meaningful differences in how each is used and what it does.

The researchers also offer a sober caveat. Improvements reported by participants reflect their own experiences and do not establish psychedelics as effective treatments for mental health conditions. That evidence is being gathered in clinical trials.

“These findings reinforce the need for continued research into the real-world use of psychedelics,” Reynolds says. “As access and public interest grow, communities need evidence that can help distinguish potential therapeutic applications from unintended health effects and identify opportunities to reduce harm.”