Why Former NFL All-Pros Are Turning to Psychedelics

Research into whether drugs like ayahuasca can mitigate the effects of traumatic brain injury is in its infancy. Pro athletes like the Buffalo Bills' Jordan Poyer are forging ahead anyway. Roam the wide-open halls and cavernous showrooms of the Colorado Convention Center during Psychedelic Science, the world's largest psychedelics conference, and you'll see exhibitors hawking everything from mushroom jewelry, to chewable gummies containing extracts of the psychoactive succulent plant kanna, to broad flat-brim baseball caps emblazoned with "MDMA" and "IBOGA." Booths publicize organizations such as the Ketamine Taskforce and the Psychedelic Parenthood Community, and even, a live-action feature film looking to attract investors. It's a motley, multifarious symposium where indigenous-plant-medicine healers mingle with lanyard-clad pharma-bros, legendary underground LSD chemists, and workaday stoners tottering around in massive red and white toadstool hats that make them look like that cute little mushroom guy from . And yet, oddest among such oddities may be the sight of enormously burly NFL tough guys talking candidly about their feelings.