Magic mushrooms are the new booze - with health-conscious people in their 30s ditching alcohol in favour of micro dosing psychedelics, it has been claimed.<br /><br />Jack Hunt, 36, who runs an events company, was addicted to alcohol and cocaine for almost a decade.<br /><br />And after a heavy summer of overindulgence in Ibiza he kicked his habit, and swapped booze for magic mushrooms - and hasn't got drunk since.<br /><br />Now he says many of his friends do the same, ditching nights at the pub in favour of taking a dose of the recreational drug out in nature.<br /><br />And the big blow out nights out have been replaced with ceremonies which Jack runs six times a year in rural locations for up to 250 people.<br /><br />He said for him and his friends, it has "given them back control".<br /><br />Last year the largest clinical trial of its kind found that two doses of psilocybin pills helped people with alcohol use disorder reduce drinking for at least eight months.<br /><br />Advice website Frank warns side effects include nausea, vomiting, and distortion of sound and vision while eating a poisonous mushroom by mistake is also a big risk.<br /><br />The drug is an illegal class A controlled substance in the UK.<br /><br />Jack, from Kingston upon Thames: “My relationship with alcohol and drugs escalated badly, and probably piqued when I went to Ibiza in party season. <br /><br />“But since discovering magic mushrooms - it has given me back control. <br /><br />“I can enjoy a single drink whereas before I’d be on a mission to get totally out of it. <br /><br />“In the UK everyone just drinks to oblivion. <br /><br />“That isn’t a part of me anymore. I’ve freed myself from it.<br /><br />"Mushrooms really are the new booze - they change your perspective for the better without making reliant on them."<br /><br />Jack said he spent an entire summer drinking and doing drugs in Ibiza around a decade ago before deciding enough was enough and that he needed to fundamentally change his life. <br /><br />“Once I came home I started reading up about psychedelics and my spiritual journey started,” he said. <br /><br />Jack decided to "take the plunge" and began microdosing – taking very small amounts of the drug for a prolonged but mild effect. <br /><br />Every few months, Jack takes a ceremonial dose of magic mushrooms, which he says acts as a "reset" on his brain.<br /><br />Jack runs nature retreats with his company The Utopia Frequency, “mini festivals” where people go for therapeutic ceremonies as well as mediation sessions with DJs and music also on show. <br /><br />He says they aim is to "create a space where people can release their childhood trauma and step into their true self."
