MICRODOSING: THE NEXT FRONTIER OF FOCUS

Looking to psychedelics for some nextlevel focus is a growing trend among distracted young professionals. In Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area tech community, many have experimented with, and praised, microdosing, which is defined as taking very small amounts (about 10 percent of a clinical dose) of drugs such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms), LSD or mescaline on a regular-ish schedule with the aim of increasing focus, performance and creativity in the workplace. The resulting dose is “subhallucinogenic”—not enough to make you think you’re flossing with rubber unicorns but enough to sharpen certain neurological functions, including an increase in focus, mood and creativity, according to a global study conducted on the topic last year. While it sounds promising, there have been no controlled studies on the subject yet. “It’s crucial to mention that nobody knows if microdosing does anything at all,” says the survey’s co-author Thomas Anderson, research director of the Psychedelic Studies Research Program at the University of Toronto. “If microdosing does have a beneficial effect on focus, it is hard to say why that would be. It may do nothing for focus or even make it worse if the drug makes you you’re performing better. Even if it does enhance focus, it would be surprising if the effects were as strong as a shot of espresso or a cup of green tea. There may be effects and there may be none; we’ll have to do the research to find out.”