Sara: Parts of drug use that were problematic, and part of what was attractive to me about taking drugs, was that it helped me for brief periods of time (if you think 11 hours on acid is brief). For me, LSD helped me disengage from the stuff causing me so much pain and stress and agony—stuff around my body and sexuality, depression—it was really a disaster and those times, especially in the early parts of using LSD, were joyful to me. I was able to disconnect from what felt like a cage—my body was this cage I was stuck inside of—and LSD allowed me to re-engage with the childlike part of myself that had been comfortable in the world. I want to be mindful. I’m not saying I think we should give LSD to 15-years-olds, but I also don’t think it has to be a scary, negative, toxic thing. That wasn’t the experience for me. I was far more disturbed revisiting my relationship to alcohol in high school. The things that happened to my friends and I around alcohol were terrifying, but hanging out with Tegan on acid and listening to music was not.

Sara: If we spent more time decriminalizing and thinking about how medicinally drugs could work in society, I think we’d all be healthier. And I refuse to demonize smoking pot when we have cultures like sports culture, military culture and drinking culture that I think are far more toxic, yet accepted and tolerated in our society.

Tegan: A thousand percent—and psychedelic medicine should be legal.

Sara: One of the most significant things I read while working on the memoir is How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. Anyone struggling to understand why the medicinal use of psychedelic substances is important, and how long psychedelics have been used therapeutically, should check out this book.

Sara: The last time I took mushrooms I was at Tegan’s house, recently, last summer? Has it already been a year? That’s shocking to me. I’m newly very interested in mushrooms.

Tegan: That question was asked to me!

Sara: I just know you don’t have a good trip story.

Tegan: I smoked weed on my fortieth birthday. It was the first time I smoked weed in a decade. I bought some and I was like, this will be so fun! We were writing a graphic novel for tweens, but then I spent the whole time feeling paranoid, like: what’s wrong with me? Why did I do this? I don’t think I’m much of a weed smoker, but the last time I actually tripped was 2009.

Sara: I started doing drugs before Tegan and I peer pressured her. Positive peer pressure is a thing and she needs to be peer pressured to do drugs. If you’re someone who feels in control of your body and your mind there’s sometimes a fear of anything that will alter that.

Sara: I was an aggressive drug user in high school and then as an adult I spent years being terrified to try them again. What if I returned to that place? Did I even know how to use drugs anymore? I’m happy to report that mushrooms, for me, have always been a positive experience and as an adult I have an absolute blast—and I’m not microdosing either. I’m taking a shitload of mushrooms and it feels fun and joyful and I laugh my ass off. And in the last couple of years, I feel a surge of creativity in the days following a trip. Something happens and I’m more open in my work, which is why I’m not tripping all the time—I don’t want to wreck that.

Sara: Sometimes I smoke it and love it, sometimes I smoke or—take edibles. I literally had to wake my partner up after taking edibles a couple of years ago and said, ‘I’m halfway high to where I know I’m going so no matter what happens, don’t let me call 911.’

Tegan: These are the stories she tells and then she’s like, ‘I don’t know why Tegan doesn’t do it anymore.’