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Does Chaga Get You High? Not a Psychedelic, Not a Stimulant
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No. Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) does not get you high. It contains no psilocybin, no psilocin, no caffeine and no other psychoactive compound, so it cannot make you trip, give you a buzz or show up on a drug test.1, 2 The mushrooms that do cause a trip contain psilocin, and any fungus containing it is a Class A drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971; chaga is not one of them.3 What chaga does contain is a very large amount of oxalate, which is why the one safety line this page insists on concerns the kidneys rather than the mind: people with kidney disease or a history of kidney stones should not take chaga without medical advice.4, 5, 6 Nothing about chaga has been tested in a clinical trial in people, for any outcome, so the answers below rest on what it is made of and on what the law says. For the other species, what the trials of mushroom supplements show is in our guide.
Sources checked on 29 October 2026.
Does chaga get you high?
It cannot. Chaga is not a mushroom in the everyday sense: it is a sclerotium, a dense black mass of fungal tissue that grows out through the bark of living birch trees in Russia, northern Europe and Canada, looking like a lump of burnt charcoal with an orange-brown core. Its studied constituents are betulin and betulinic acid, which it takes up from the birch, the melanin pigments that give it its black crust, and polysaccharides including beta-glucans; all of that work is laboratory and animal research.1 None of those compounds acts on the brain's serotonin receptors, which is how a psychedelic works: psilocybin is converted to psilocin, which binds to 5-HT2A receptors, and chaga has nothing that binds there.2 Grated into hot water as a tea, swallowed as a capsule or stirred into a drink as a powder, chaga gives an earthy taste and no change in perception. What chaga is good for goes through what has and has not been studied.
Is chaga a psychedelic mushroom?
No. The psychedelic mushrooms are the psilocin-containing species, and since 2005 UK law has treated any fungus containing psilocin as Class A whether fresh, dried or prepared, so possessing or selling them is a criminal offence.3 Chaga is sold legally in the UK as broken pieces, as a powder and as water or ethanol extracts in food supplements. One regulatory point is worth knowing, because it is sometimes mistaken for a ban: under the novel-food rules Great Britain carried over from EU law, chaga is regarded as a novel food except when used broken or as a water or ethanol extract in food supplements, with herbal-tea use also tolerated, so chaga in ordinary foods such as bread, chocolate or protein powder would need authorisation first. The FSA's GB list of novel-food consultation outcomes names no mushroom other than enriched button mushrooms, so that position is inferred from the Finnish Food Authority's published guidance, which GB tracks.11 It has nothing to do with intoxication; it is about the safety file a new food ingredient needs.
Why do people think chaga gets you high?
Three things feed the idea. The first is the word mushroom, which in Britain carries the memory of the psilocin-containing species. The second is how chaga looks and is sold: a black, cracked lump brewed into a dark tea, often described with words such as "adaptogen" or "functional", which are marketing labels rather than authorised claims and tell you nothing about what it does in the body. The third is the language of "feeling the effects" that surrounds every mushroom supplement, borrowed from forums where lion's mane, chaga and sometimes psilocybin are discussed in the same breath. None of it changes the chemistry. If a chaga product has left you lightheaded or strange, look first at what else is in it, since mushroom coffees and blends often carry caffeine or other botanicals, and at anything else taken that day; chaga on its own has no compound that could be responsible, and a reaction you cannot explain is a reason to stop and ask a pharmacist.
Is chaga a stimulant?
No. Chaga contains no caffeine, and no trial has measured alertness, energy, heart rate or anything else a stimulant would change. The idea that chaga "stimulates" comes from its use as a coffee substitute, and the logic runs the other way: when you swap a morning coffee for chaga tea you have taken caffeine out, not put a stimulant in, which is why some people feel flatter or get a headache in the first few days. If you want to make that swap, cut the coffee gradually rather than all at once. Whether chaga changes energy or alertness has not been tested in people. Chaga is sold as one of the "functional mushrooms", a shop and search label rather than a claim: no mushroom has an authorised health claim on the Great Britain register, so what mushroom supplements can and cannot say on a label is in our guide.12 Can you drink chaga tea every day? covers how much tea people drink and why chaga tea is a drink, not a drug.
Will chaga show up on a drug test?
No. A standard urine drug screen is a set of immunoassays, each tuned to a drug class: amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepines, methadone and sometimes a few more, with a confirmatory laboratory test for anything that flags.7 Chaga contains none of those drugs and nothing close enough in structure to cross-react with the antibodies, and no supplement mushroom is on any panel. The UK roadside drug test checks saliva for cannabis and cocaine, and the blood or urine test that follows an arrest looks for a fixed list of controlled and prescription drugs; chaga is on neither.8 Cross-reactions on screens do happen, but with medicines such as some decongestants and antidepressants, and the one food with a real record of false positives is poppy seed, which can register as opiates; no mushroom has any such precedent.7 If you are tested for work or a court, you can declare chaga as a food supplement, and the same is true of lion's mane, reishi and cordyceps, which contain no controlled substance either.
Does chaga have side effects?
Chaga is extremely high in oxalate (one analysed powder held 14.2 g per 100 g), and three published cases of kidney failure, all needing dialysis, followed daily chaga powder, 3 to 15 g a day, taken for three months to five years.4, 5, 6 People with kidney disease or a history of kidney stones should not take chaga without medical advice;10 Can chaga be harmful? sets out the kidney cases, who should avoid chaga and how much is safe, and a suspected reaction can be reported to your local authority's trading standards or environmental health team, which works with the Food Standards Agency.9
Are lion's mane, reishi and shiitake psychedelic?
No. The question travels from one supplement mushroom to the next, so the answers sit together. Lion's mane and reishi are covered in does lion's mane get you high?, which also explains why lion's mane is legal to buy in the UK although the wild fungus is protected, and shiitake, a cooking mushroom, in is shiitake a psychedelic?. None of the species sold as a supplement in the UK contains psilocin.
What we don't know
No trial has given chaga to people, so nothing about how it feels, whether it changes alertness, mood or sleep, or how often side effects occur has been measured; the chemistry rules out a high, but the absence of trials means the absence of any felt effect is also unmeasured.1 No published analysis gives the oxalate content of a brewed cup or an extract, so the gap between a label serving and the amounts in the three kidney cases cannot be calculated.5 No drug-screen cross-reactivity study has included chaga; the "no" above rests on what the screens detect and what chaga contains.7
Frequently asked questions
Does chaga make you trip?
No. A trip needs psilocin or another compound that acts on the brain's serotonin receptors, and chaga contains none.1, 2 Nor can it make you feel high; if a chaga product leaves you lightheaded, the section above explains what to check.
How long does it take to feel the effects of chaga?
No trial has measured any felt effect of chaga at any dose, so there is no timeline to give; what you notice first is the taste of the tea.
Is chaga good for anxiety?
It has not been tested in people for anxiety, stress or mood, and it has no compound known to act on the nervous system; "adaptogen" is a marketing word, not an authorised claim.
Is chaga legal in the UK?
Yes, as broken pieces, powder, tea and water or ethanol extracts in food supplements; use in ordinary foods would need novel-food authorisation first (GB position inferred from EU guidance).
Does chaga contain caffeine?
No. It is a fungus, not a coffee or tea plant, and a chaga drink made without added coffee is caffeine-free.
Sources
- Szychowski KA, et al. Inonotus obliquus: from folk medicine to clinical use. Narrative review of laboratory and animal work; no conflicts declared. Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, 2021. PubMed 34195023.
- Nichols DE. Psychedelics. Pharmacology review; publicly funded. Pharmacological Reviews, 2016. PubMed 26841800.
- Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, Schedule 2 (Class A: psilocin, and any fungus containing psilocin or an ester of psilocin). legislation.gov.uk.
- Kikuchi Y, et al. Chaga mushroom-induced oxalate nephropathy. Case report, 1 patient. Clinical Nephrology, 2014. PubMed 23149251.
- Lee S, et al. End stage renal disease after long-term ingestion of chaga mushroom. Case report and literature review, 1 patient; no conflicts declared. Journal of Korean Medical Science, 2020. PubMed 32419395.
- Kwon O, et al. Chaga mushroom-induced oxalate nephropathy manifesting as nephrotic syndrome. Case report, 1 patient; no conflicts declared. Medicine, 2022. PubMed 35451393.
- Moeller KE, et al. Clinical interpretation of urine drug tests. Narrative review. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2017. PubMed 28325505.
- GOV.UK. Drugs and driving: the law. Fetched 29 October 2026. gov.uk.
- Food Standards Agency. How to report a food safety or hygiene issue for members of the public. gov.uk.
- NHS. Kidney stones. Reviewed 17 September 2026. nhs.uk.
- Food Standards Agency. Outcomes on novel food consultations (GB). Updated 26 June 2026. gov.uk.
- Department of Health and Social Care. Great Britain nutrition and health claims (NHC) register. Updated 19 May 2026. gov.uk.
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This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have kidney disease or have had kidney stones, ask your GP before taking chaga in any form; if a supplement makes you feel unwell, stop and speak to a pharmacist or your GP.
