Magic mushrooms may help you quit the smokes

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-03-11 02:00

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US scientists say psilocybin, the active component of magic mushrooms, may be more effective than nicotine patches for smokers trying to quit. The team enrolled 82 smokers hoping to give up the habit, and asked them to complete several cognitive behavioural therapy sessions, after which they were split into two groups at random. The first group, of 40 people, was given nicotine patches, while the other 42 took part in a psilocybin therapy session. After six months, 62 people were still following the program. Testing them for smoking, the researchers found 17 people in the psilocybin group (40.5%) had consistently stayed off the smokes, while only four people on nicotine patches (10.0%) had. Looking at abstaining from smoking for just the last seven days before the test, they found 22 participants receiving psilocybin (52.4%) had stayed clean for a week, compared to just 10 participants using the nicotine patch (25.0%). Although this was a small study, the results suggest psilocybin therapy could be a useful tool in the fight against smoking.