Something strange has started happening every time I go out at night, which admittedly is not as often as it was before I had young children. For the past two or so years, whether at a 40th birthday, a gig or a weekend away with friends, someone has turned up proffering magic mushrooms. Almost always, that somebody identifies as female and tends to be a late Millennial or in early middle-age.
And unlike the illegal drugs of my youth – those tiny ziplock bags stashed secretly in undies, the contents consumed in pub toilets or covertly inhaled in back lanes – these mind-altering substances are being consumed out in the open. It helps that ground-up, dried mushrooms are frequently cooked into deluxe chocolate and distributed in microdose-friendly blocks that are nibbled incrementally. Either way, there’s a significant socio-cultural change afoot.
For a drug that was nowhere to be seen in most social settings just five years ago, mushrooms, which contain the naturally occurring compound, psilocybin, are suddenly everywhere. Indeed, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) reports that twice as many people are using illegal mushrooms compared to 2019, while the use of other illegal substances such as ecstasy and non-medical opioids has decreased. So what’s going on: are the Swinging Sixties back, 60 years later? end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bronte, Alexis Hayward* has left her front door open.
She’s brewing herbal tea at th.