Not long ago, the idea of magic mushrooms as medicine seemed laughable. Today, psychedelics are riding a cultural and scientific wave, much like cannabis did years before. Research at top universities, growing clinical trials and personal stories of healing have fueled what many now call a “psychedelic renaissance.”
Public perception has shifted at lightning speed. Stigma gave way to curiosity, taboo to tool, fear to fascination. A decade ago, cannabis had its own version of this moment. Once demonized, it’s now a normalized part of wellness culture. Psychedelics are following a similar trajectory, gaining legitimacy through science, changing laws and cultural momentum.
In Oregon, the first licensed service centers opened in 2023 where adults can legally access guided psilocybin sessions. Colorado followed, decriminalizing personal use and creating a regulated model for “natural medicine.” More states are lining up, and cities such as Oakland and Denver continue to drive decriminalization. Globally, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and Jamaica are shaping markets through research, retreats and religious or therapeutic exemptions.
The lesson is clear: As cannabis proved, laws can shift when culture leads. Now psychedelics are positioned not as competitors to cannabis but rather complementary forces within a growing global wellness economy.
Cannabis created the blueprint. Grassroots advocacy, patient-driven medical research, innovative retail models and cultural normalization all paved the way for a once-taboo plant to go mainstream. Some of the pioneers who helped cannabis take root now channel that hard-won knowledge into psychedelics.
Field Trip Health, for example, operates ketamine-assisted therapy clinics across North America, and is preparing for psilocybin once legal. Their model borrows directly from dispensaries (safe, welcoming spaces where people can access medicine under professional guidance).
Big-name cannabis veterans including Bruce Linton, former CEO of Canopy Growth, invests in psychedelic firms—he serves as chairman of the advisory board for Netherlands-based Red Light Holland and sat on the board of New York-based MindMed until 2021. For executives who have already scaled cannabis companies, psychedelics represent the next frontier, with cannabis as proof of concept.
This cross-pollination accelerates growth. Cannabis brands bring regulatory know-how, cultivation expertise and consumer trust. Psychedelic startups, in turn, expand the palette of plant-based healing and connect with new audiences. It’s not competition—it’s cross-training.
What makes this renaissance so exciting is that psychedelic brands are building with cannabis lessons in mind—prioritizing authenticity, community and consumer education. From grassroots innovators to clinical labs, these companies echo cannabis’s core ethos of authenticity, safety and accessibility.
Take Lady Hyphae, a Denver-based grow-kit company founded by Danielle Adams, who cut her teeth in cannabis cultivation before turning to mushrooms. “Cannabis taught us that people want access, not gatekeeping,” Adams says. “Workshops and kits aren’t just about mushrooms; they’re about empowerment, community and reclaiming healing on our own terms.” Her woman-forward branding and emphasis on education mirror the early days of legacy cannabis collectives, where growers passed down knowledge long before dispensaries existed.
Thinking Caps, a California-based wellness brand blending functional and entheogenic mushrooms (using the whole fruiting body) into bright, fruit-flavored gummies designed for focus, creativity, and cognitive clarity. Founder Lauren Stanko says their products are single sourced for purity and consistency, echoing the evolution of cannabis edibles from their start as underground brownies to their current explosion into the high-end gourmet and luxury wellness worlds. “These aren’t just feel-good party favors; they’re powerful daily allies,” Stanko says. “We offer something familiar and functional that fits naturally into people’s wellness routines, no matter who they are.”
Consumers asking for products that bridge the familiar territory of cannabis with the lesser-known world of psychedelics are gravitating toward brands with fun and colorful, yet sleek and sophisticated design aesthetics that are carried out with intention. This opportunity for brand storytelling around myco-wellness is helping mushrooms integrate into mainstream self-care at a rapid pace in a market seeking transparency, ethics and style.
Highlighting the diversity of this ecosystem is Culture Shrooms, a California dispensary-style café with mushroom-infused cold brew and teas with cannabis lounge vibes.
Substrate manufacturers such as PooGod and Twisted Tree Nursery are redefining soil science for fungi, like hydro stores did for weed. Twisted Tree Nursery’s “DinoSoil” (a mix of tortoise, camel, alpaca and donkey manure) is used to bump fungal yields in the same way other cultivators play with different inputs and mediums.
International players like Valenveras in Spain, together with Magic Myco and Full Canopy Genetics, are pioneering potency testing, applying the cannabis lab-testing playbook of pesticides, solvents and safety standards to psychedelics. On the clinical side, Compass Pathways is in late-stage trials to potentially deliver the first FDA-approved psilocybin therapy.
For everyday users, this convergence means more choice and flexibility. Cannabis is often used as daily medicine for easing stress, anxiety, sleeplessness and pain— without substantially disrupting one’s routines. Psychedelics, on the other hand, are more occasional, yet still profoundly transformative with a single session reportedly being enough to rewire users’ relationship with trauma, depression or spiritual growth.
Complementary when used together, cannabis may integrate insights from a psilocybin journey, grounding the user during aftercare and even easing physical discomforts like nausea. Psychedelics, in turn, can deepen the emotional or spiritual healing cannabis consumers may seek.
Each path is ultimately about empowerment, not dependency.
The product overlaps are comforting, with psychedelics being more approachable for those already comfortable with natural remedies such as microdosing, which resembles low-dose THC or CBD supplements. Infused drinks, gummies and capsules are akin to common cannabis edibles, some even sold in alcohol chains. Even the two industries’ marketing lexicons overlap (“plant medicine,” “wellness journeys,” “mindful healing,” “set-and-setting”). Together, they’re creating a wellness ethos centered on safety and transparency.
The cultural throughline exists beyond products, in the normalization of conversations about mental health and holistic healing, paving the way for more open discussions on psychedelics. Just as the cannabis industry invested in consumer education, psychedelic advocates are pushing hard to emphasize intentional, guided use over recreational misuse to prevent a public relations nightmare and quell public safety concerns.
The future of wellness is holistic, integrative and rooted in nature. Cannabis broke down the door so psychedelics can walk through it.
Canna-consumers can expect more crossover products, shared retail models and collaborative education. A psychedelics line may diversify portfolios of cannabis companies, extend distribution channels and stay competitive in a fast-shifting marketplace. For society, the message is clear: Nature’s medicines, plant or fungus, are powerful allies when used responsibly.
It’s not cannabis versus mushrooms. It’s cannabis and mushrooms, forming a unified frontier of wellness, changing how we heal, connect and how we imagine the future of health.
This story was originally published in issue 52 of the print edition of Cannabis Now.
The post The Psychedelic Renaissance Begins (Again) appeared first on Cannabis Now.
