Wake Dose Work Repeat

The Silicon Valley trend for taking tiny doses of psychedelic drugs to improve performance is now spreading to the UK. Fans claim it boosts creativity, mood and focus, but does it really and what are the risks?

- Charlotte Haigh

Gemma, a 33-year-old buyer for a high-street fashion brand in Manchester, has been taking LSD twice a week for six weeks now. ‘I first heard about microdosing psychedelics on Reddit,’ she says. ‘I’ve always been pretty openminded about trying out new things, and the more I read up on the science online, the more attractive it seemed.’ Like many microdosers, Gemma hadn’t actually used the class A psychedelic drug LSD recreationally and has never taken a full dose. But after two weeks of ‘microdosing’ – consuming small amounts (usually one-tenth of the usual dose users take to get high) – she began to see small changes in her outlook and performance. ‘I felt sharper and more creative at work,’ she explains. ‘I seemed to get more done and new ideas came to me more easily.’