Over dinner recently a top agent told us they’d attended a party the evening before hosted by an A-list comedian’s company, and at the entrance were two waiters holding mysterious little spritz bottles.
Turns out, the spritzes weren’t some molecular gastronomical hors d’oeuvres or artisanal Binaca to freshen folks’ breath. They were vehicles for microdosing LSD. One spritz or two?
Hollywood has a long history with acid, which was invented in 1938 by a Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann. Some might point to the famous graveyard tripping scene in the landmark counter-culture film, “Easy Rider,” as the starting point of that relationship. But, in fact, it dates back even further.
At the height of his fame, Cary Grant indulged in over 100 LSD trips for a three-year period in the late 1950s. And before the hippie exploits of Timothy Leary and the publication of Tom Wolfe‘s 1968 acid opus “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” 40,000 patients were reportedly prescribed lysergic acid to treat ailments from schizophrenia and PTSD to alcoholism. (Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson dropped acid for the first time in 1956 under the guidance of doctors at Los Angeles’ Veterans Administration Hospital, and continued the practice till 1959.) The drug was outlawed in 1968 as part of Nixon’s war on drugs.
Hollywood icon Cary Grant was known to indulge in LSD at the height of his fame. Bettmann Archive
Now, before you read any further, we too found it hard to believe that there would be aerated acid deployed at a Hollywood industry party. Well after our Bungalow 8 and Beatrice Inn days when synthetic substances were prized, we’d certainly attended plenty of sophisticated bashes where other guests gobbled more of-the-moment, sustainably sourced varietals — including one gathering in New York where a venerable art collector passed out weed gummies as stars from Paul McCartney to Chris Martin and Dakota Johnson circulated. (We have no idea if they partook! Though Macca made an amusing comment about it as he exited.)
We’d also previously written in Page Six how magic mushrooms became de rigueur at preppy parents’ parties from Brooklyn Heights to Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and how everyone who’s anyone was microdosing them. One top author had told us at a fancy hedge-funder-filled gala in Connecticut that he was microdosing at all times as he popped a gummy at our table.
But LSD? That seemed like the next frontier, even in a city like L.A. where Ketamine-assisted therapy has become almost commonplace.
Cary Grant was not the only Hollywood star known for taking LSD. Corbis via Getty Images
Sources say the stuff is called “Unicorn Spray,” and it goes for $200 a bottle. It’s all the rage with industry insiders and mindful Millennial parents. (Said one partaker at a recent party, “It’s not like,” wild waving hand motion, “it’s like,” one little tiny boom hand motion.)
Said another source, perhaps more eloquently, “It’s a way to microdose LSD. It comes in a spray form, and most people are doing one to two sprays and going about their daily life. It’s a way to move through the day and go about daily tasks like picking up the kids,” said the source. “It’s a kind of a mood vibe thing — it’s not intended to trip balls,” cautioned the source. “Similarly to how microdosing mushrooms became a thing — this is the next level, I suppose, to that. Some people are using it daily, and some in place of a happy hour wine situation.”
As a wellness remedy, “The moms with the hormonal everything are looking to [LSD spray] to level up in a way, mood-wise and improve mood and energy.” Sign us up!
At another recent dinner at a private West Hollywood club, one top industry exec told us that MDMA and psychedelic ‘shroom gummies (together in one pop as a microdose) are a thing, too, and that in-the-know parents in Hancock Park and Larchmont Village are sourcing them locally.
Back in 2021, our always ahead of the curve colleague Peter Kiefer penned a Los Angeles Magazine cover story on why the town was “in the grip of a psychedelics fervor,” with the title, “‘Shrooms! Shamans! Kosher LSD! Why Los Angeles Is Suddenly Tripping Out.”
Explained the piece, “Soccer moms in Malibu now swap notes over microdosing… Shamans are being flown in from Brazil and Peru to conduct ceremonies in Topanga Canyon, some charging thousands of dollars a session,” and, “L.A.-based companies like My Ketamine Home, Field Trip, and Akasa Journeys now provide guided therapy sessions, including ketamine and psilocybin treatments.”
Perhaps proving that all sorts of drugs are making a comeback in Hollywood, another source recently sent Matt Belloni over at Puck an anonymous pic of a side table in an unnamed studio conference room that had three fancy bottles of water on it, plus a little baggie of white powder that someone had left behind.
Not to bring the party down, but there has been a dark side to recreational spa drugs, of course. “Friends” star Matthew Perry died after an allegedly out-of-control ketamine addiction that had him injecting the drug six to eight times a day before his accidental overdose, according to prosecutors who’ve charged a doctor in the case. And there have been ODs of past Hollywood stars and power players from John Belushi to Don Simpson during the industry’s cocaine craze of the ’80s and ’90s.
But that was certainly the era of macrodosing, not taking a ‘lil spritz on your way to Erewhon with the fam.