Explainer: are mushroom gummies part of the ‘healthy high’ industry and how is it regulated?

Uncle Frog’s Musroom Gummies were withdrawn from sale when some cust0mers were hospitalised with hallucinations. Photograph: NSW Food Authority

Mushroom gummies have made headlines this week after one brand was recalled Australia-wide as customers were hospitalised with “disturbing hallucinations”.

Attention soon turned to the question of whether cannabis was present.

While the archived website claimed the gummies were free from cannabinoids, NSW Health said on some product packaging psychoactive cannabinoids were also listed in the contents of the gummies.

Prof Jon Wardle, the director of the national centre for naturopathic medicine at Southern Cross University, said “whether this is wilful adulteration or accidental contamination or substitution we won’t know until the investigation is complete”.

Wardle said although the marketing purported not to be recreational cannabis, he suspects they were intended to be part of the “healthy high” industry.

Why did people get sick?

Prof Oliver Jones, a professor of chemistry at RMIT University, said the ingredients that are listed on the packet – including either fungi cordyceps or lion’s mane – are not associated with the symptoms reported. So experts say another psychoactive substance must have been present which was not listed on the packet.

The package acknowledged the gummies were infused with hemp, which is the same plant as cannabis but is supposed to have none of the psychoactive component of cannabis.

However, Dr Jack Wilson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Matilda centre for research in mental health and substance use at the University of Sydney, said “we are seeing a lot of cases where cannabis products contain parts of the plant that are not included on the label”.

Some products say that they don’t contain the psychoactive part of cannabis, but when they have been testing, noticeable levels have been detected, Wilson said. It is difficult to say what psychoactive ingredient was present in the Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies before any testing is conducted on the batches, he said.

Is this a global phenomenon?

A similar warning was made earlier this month by US authorities investigating reports of severe acute illnesses potentially associated with consuming Diamond ShruumzTM brand chocolate bars, cones and gummies.

After 10 patients in the US were hospitalised, and several required intubation and mechanical ventilation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned products containing psychoactive compounds such as cannabis or mushroom extracts were increasing in availability and often sold as gummy candies, chocolate or other snack foods.

“They might contain undisclosed ingredients, including illicit substances, other adulterants, or potentially harmful contaminants that are not approved for use in food,” the warning stated.

“Mushroom-containing products have been marketed for promoting health or for achieving nonspecific physical or psychoactive effects. Examples of health claims have included improving focus and increasing energy. Advertising for these products has also implied that consumption would lead to feelings of euphoria, hallucinations, or psychedelic effects.”

What is the ‘healthy high’ industry?

Dr Ian Musgrave, a lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, said there are a number of natural substances like herbs and fungi that can produce “highs”, but the “healthy high” industry is “a misnomer, based on the misperception that ‘natural is good’.”

“Many of these ‘herbal highs’ are well known in Indigenous communities and used as sacred substances in traditional rites or as medicines by different cultures. Nonetheless, serious adverse effects can occur after consumption of these ‘herbal highs’,” Musgrave said.

Wilson said there is now a greater understanding of the health benefits of some psychoactive drugs, but they may only be beneficial for some people with certain conditions alongside a range of other treatments such as psychotherapy.

“The [healthy high] industry has capitalised on this by offering unregulated products that promise a range of health benefits. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of these benefits. Unlike TGA-approved medicines, their effects have not been scrutinised by high-quality studies,” Wilson said.

Wardle said much of the industry’s attention is around nootropics, which are said to increase mental alertness and focus, and are increasingly being used in everything from drinks to gummies. The mushrooms listed in Uncle Frogs’ gummies are used as nootropics, often together with psycho-actives like cannabis or psychedelics to enhance the effects of those drugs, he said.

“The ‘natural’ nature and increasing awareness and availability of some psychoactive and psychedelic substances – on top of what they often call ‘legal highs’ – is making this sector a little greyer than it used to be, as we are finding these products being used in combination more and more,” Wardle said.

Jones said the legal high industry tries to reproduce the effects of illegal drugs with compounds that are technically not illegal but cause similar effects.

How is the market regulated?

“Unfortunately, the market is not regulated like the medicines we get from a pharmacy or foods we buy from the grocery store. They are therefore not manufactured to the same standard,” Wilson said.

Jones said “supplements sold on the internet, especially from overseas, may not have been tested to the same level as we might expect. We may not know where they came from, what ingredients they contain, or if they even do what they claim to. ”

Musgrave said because many products like Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies are manufactured overseas means they are not subject to any Australian regulatory authority. Most herbal products don’t require strong evidence of effectiveness to get on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods “but what they do require is good manufacturing processes… to make sure that what you are getting in the bottle is what is on the label”.

Wardle said a lot of the “legal high” substances are in a legal grey zone and unless they are actively prohibited, they are available, Wardle said. “Even when regulations do exist, sometimes companies can be a little loose with their own self-determination. For many foods, like this one for example, pre-approval of products is not needed before going to market.”

“Sometimes companies may present as one thing (e.g. a food product) and downplay and use euphemisms to hide their ingredients,” Wardle said.

Lydia Buchtmann, the communication director of health promotion charity, the Food Safety Information Council, said the two fungi in Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies are unapproved novel foods and cannot be legally sold as food.

How big is the market for these products? 

The healthy high industry appears to be growing, Wilson said. “It is difficult to estimate how big, as it is largely conflated with the health and wellness industry which is worth trillions of dollars worldwide,” he said.

Jones said, according to the Global Wellness Institute, Australia has the tenth largest wellness market in the world with a total spend of US$84bn (AUD$125.9bn).

Wardle also said there hasn’t been much detailed study of the healthy high industry but for context the medical cannabis industry is worth approximately $100m and recreational cannabis around $8bn per year.