Shroomtown's 2024 Psychedelic Predictions

What does the future hold?

2023 was a wild one, blah blah blah. We could go on about all of the trends we saw in 2023, such as the ketamine craze or the numerous clinical trials moving onto new phases, but everyone else has already talked about that.

No, we here at Shroomtown like to do things a bit differently. So, rather than writing an article with analytical market predictions for 2024, ours will talk about what the average, everyday consumer will likely see for the year 2024 and what we think we can expect in the psychedelic space going forward. At the end of the year, we’ll check in with these predictions and see if any of them came true. And if even one of them did, we’ll be opening up a psychedelic and wellness predictions consultations agency immediately.

“Trip for fun” retreats

We’ve talked about this, and so have a few other folks in the psychedelics space: It’s okay to just get high and have fun. Not every psychedelic trip can be or should be for “healing.” But, like, how do you even do that? Don’t worry — soon, there’s gonna be a coach for that. In 2024, we predict the rise of tripping for fun retreats, where you pay the (very fair) price of $4,000 USD per person for a two to three-night stay to trip and relax and explore and have fun. Because, you know, you can’t do it alone, and SOMEONE has to capitalize on this. You deserve some time off. But only in the right *container*

More magic mushroom stores in Canada (and elsewhere)

Canada is widely known for having a pretty decent concentration of psilocybin mushroom shops (Sofie made a full list of them here). We think that 2024 will bring at least a dozen more, and maybe not just in Toronto and Vancouver but in other cities too. Now, we know that somebody in Winnipeg tried to open up a shop back in May 2023, but this was quickly shut down. Despite this, we believe we might see more pop up in the country.

With Denver opening up its first mushroom shop recently, we believe this isn’t the end for mushroom shops in the States either.

Kratom, kanna, kava popularity rising

We’ve got a piece about kratom and kava consumption in the West coming out soonish, but the main takeaway we got from 2023 is that people are looking for psychoactive & psychedelic options and sensations, and they don’t want alcohol. Studies and polls show that younger people are drinking less and less, and the rise of psychedelics as the new social drug and substance shows that there’s a wide market for different things, especially legal ones.

While kratom isn’t fully allowed everywhere, plants like kava and kanna are, and we’re already seeing brands try to establish themselves as THE ones in the space. KA! Emphathogenics makes kanna chews and a tincture and clearly has a massive marketing budget to promote the product (disclosure: we’ve received some of their products for free and wrote a review here. Another one about the tincture will be coming), and while in Miami for the Wonderland Conference, we came across a kava/kratom canned drink from New Brew, a company inserting itself as a sponsor in many cool psychedelic scene parties. We think there’s bound to be more of that, and we think they’ll come in at higher price points and attract a 25+ crowd.

Cannabis/psychedelics industry crossover

On that note, we think that the cannabis and psychedelics industries are going to come a little closer, and we’re already seeing it with the reMind psychedelics forum at the world’s biggest cannabis conference in Las Vegas, MJBizCon.

While some folks working in either space will likely remain purists, we predict a lot more crossover between the two emerging industries, especially in America, where both spaces are in weird legal purgatories depending on the state.

What shape will this take? We’re not entirely sure. Perhaps more cannabis-meets-psychedelics conferences. Perhaps shops selling both. Perhaps products blending psilocybin microdoses with CBD (already seen in some capsules).

The mainstream (re)discovery of DMT

Shrooms are old news. Refinery29 and Vogue are already on them. Joe Rogan talked about DMT and we think that 2024 is going to be the year that everyone and their grandma finds out about it and the vapes start being sold as impulse buy items at the cash check out in Canada’s mushroom stores and “microdosing” DMT starts becoming a bigger topic.

Can you do it? Can you, really?

Maybe the price point will go down and everybody will be hitting the DMT vape like it’s CBD or THC. What’s another three-letter acronym to add to the list? Same thing, right?

Beverage boom

Cannabis industry experts already predict the beverage side of the business to be booming in 2024, and we think we’re going to see a rise in psychedelic and pseudo-psychedelic drinks too. Similar to what we said above about kava, kanna, and kratom, we think there’s going to be a bigger market for functional mushroom drinks and even psilocybin microdose beverages if and when people can get their hands on them. The Canadian underground magic mushroom world already has a few of these on the market — we’ve tried Magic Social Club’s soda — but we think these are going to become more mainstream and also cheaper.

Edibles gone wild

We’re already seeing this, but the psilocybin edible market has gone crazy. Mushroom chocolate, mushroom gummies, mushroom honey, mushroom cookies, it just never ends. While some of these edibles are welcome and convenient, some are too much. Just because you CAN put mushrooms in a particular food item doesn’t mean you should.

Sidenote: Beware of psilocybin products that claim to use real psilocybin mushrooms when, in fact, they use 4-AcO-DMT instead.

The rise of the MDMA “flip”

Hippie-flipping is when you mix psilocybin and MDMA, while candy-flipping is mixing LSD and MDMA. Mix all three and you get the elusive Jedi flip. There aren’t new ideas or terms, but we believe the popularity of using these substances together is rising. Whether in intentional medicine work or at your local rave, MDMA can add an extra bit of pizzazz to your everyday psychedelic experience, a little razzle-dazzle. We also think we might see stores and brands selling their own pre-packaged flips as opposed to all the ingredients together.

New states to adopt psychedelic legislation

Currently, in the United States, the only states that have some sort of legislation in place state-wide are Oregon and Colorado. With the 2024 election cycle coming up, we predict that more states will follow suit by either decriminalizing or legalizing psychedelics in some capacity, and we’re here for it. Let the people trip!!! And while we’re at it, let the Canadians have their shops!

Shroomtown to become media behemoth

Okay, maybe not actually, but we can dream, can’t we?

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Sofie Mikhaylova is a psychedelics, pop culture, and travel writer, among other things. Her writing has appeared in Vice, leafie, Psychedelic Spotlight, The Washington Post, Fodor's Travel, Double Dot Magazine, and more. Find her on Instagram, her newsletter Sofieland, her podcast Sofieland, and her website.

Cam Leids is an entrepreneur and a psychonaut through and through. He’s the host of The TripSitting Podcast and the founder of Conscious Retreats, a company that helps people find the best retreat center for their psychedelic journeys. He loves all things psychedelics-related, from the mental health and spiritual aspects to the downright crazy and nonsensical trips. Check him out on Instagram or subscribe to his Trippy Tuesday newsletter.