TRENDS

How magic mushrooms became the middle‑class drug of choice

Think microdosing is just for the Silicon Valley elite? A new tribe of middle‑class rule‑breakers are tripping from the living room with illegal mushrooms. Kate Spicer reports from psychedelic suburbia

The Sunday Times

A week or so into lockdown, Rob* was starting to feel challenged by “let’s be honest, how boring parenting can be”. The married father of three was isolating at home, where he and his wife were plate-spinning like many working parents: home-schooling interrupted by Zoom calls. “By about week three we were really due a big, let’s say, ‘unwind’,” he says. But rather than bulk-ordering bottles of wine, “I immediately sourced some expensive magic mushrooms from this guy in Notting Hill.”

The couple had tripped together before, usually one Saturday night a month after the children were in bed. “But now that’s changed.” Once a week, “we take lighter doses but throughout the day. I’ll make a mushroom tea with maybe one or two grams