Exposure to natural psychoactive substances increase by 75% in nearly 20 years

Exposure to naturally occurring psychoactive substances rose by nearly 75% over an almost 20-year period according to new research. Using data from more than 63,000 calls to U.S. poison control centers between 2000-2017, scientists found incidents of people ingesting or inhaling substances increased from 18 incidents per million people in 2000 to almost 31 incidents per million 17 years later. The rate of exposure to marijuana alone increased by 150% during this time period, the study found, and other calls concerned substances including kratom and anticholinergic plants such as belladonna. The substances most responsible for hospitalizations included kratom, the stimulant khat, as well as hallucinogenic mushrooms. There were 42 deaths: Most of them were due to multiple substances, but marijuana, anticholinergic plants, and kratom were most commonly identified as the first-listed substance in the majority of the deaths.