BALTIMORE — A divisive election. At least two major wars raging in Europe and the Middle East. And the ever-present pitfalls of internal family politics.

Together, they might make for one of the nation’s tensest Thanksgivings yet — or you could consider eating some psychedelic mushrooms to up your overall sense of love and sail right through it, two experts told The Baltimore Sun.

The legality of doing that in Maryland saw a major boost forward this year, when Gov. Wes Moore signed Maryland Senate Bill 1009 into law, enacting the Task Force on Responsible Use of Natural Psychedelic Substances, which will look at how to enact a legal framework for introducing sales of psychedelics into the state.

“The Task Force will study naturally derived substances such as psilocybin, psilocin, dimethyltryptamine, and mescaline and is tasked with making recommendations on use, permitting, education and safety, access to treatment, and regulated support to enable equitable and affordable access to psychedelic substances,” health care provider Healthesystems said.

How Marylanders respond to legalized psychedelics is yet to be determined. But two industry experts told The Sun that in places where mushrooms are legal, they‘re an excellent fit for creating less stressful holidays.

Gary Logan, ATCD, and Robert Grover, MSc., are founders of The Journeymen Collective, an alternative wellness collective that conducts guided retreats for clients during psilocybin trips.

Conducted in the mountains outside of Vancouver, Canada, Logan and Grover say that taking “magic” mushrooms is a logical choice for stressed-out Americans looking for ways to make an already tense Thanksgiving a much calmer, thankful affair.

“It can open up a greater perspective to more easily recognize the blessings we’ve been given,” Logan said. “There is often a new appreciation for personal and professional relationships.”

That America has recently been through what one political analyst told The Sun was a “painful slog of an election season” is in no doubt.

With voters almost as closely divided as they were in 2016, and a Democratic administration flipping back to another Trump administration, political scientists said they are concerned about how civil this year’s national gathering may be.

Flavio Hickel Jr, assistant professor of American Politics at Washington College, told The Sun that while it depends on the individual group’s personal and political dynamics, the stress and worry that permeated much of the election could now condense into one super feud in families that had members who voted each way.

In fact, Hickel said even single-party voting families may find it hard to stay civil on Thanksgiving.

“In general, yes, I expect Thanksgivings to be more tense this year. It was a very contested election,” Hickel said.

“Even in a group where everyone is a Democrat, discussions of why Democrats lost can invoke strong feelings and breed tension, let alone the strong feelings and tensions that could emerge if Democrats and Republicans discuss the election results and future around the dinner table,” he said.

Logan, the psychedelic guide and founder, said that while he wouldn’t advise actually eating mushrooms at the meal, the properties that come along with this type of plant-based substance are ideal for defusing events that might go into confrontational areas.

“While it certainly would be interesting to mix in the mashed potatoes at the Thanksgiving table, we wouldn’t advise that,” Logan said.

Nor should Baltimoreans or Marylanders look to swap the traditional American Thanksgiving drinks table for psilocybin, although it might change their attitude toward drinking later.

“We definitely wouldn’t suggest replacing your alcohol use with psilocybin. We have had people come in and have a guided journey then go home and say they didn’t feel the need to drink anymore,” he said. “I’d also say that the mushroom is a fungi that grows in the forest and we see it as a medicine from nature. We certainly believe it is better for your mind, body and spirit than alcohol.”

He said that for Marylanders, looking into guided experiences might be the first step toward having an even better holiday season in 2025.

“So, if this year you started looking into a guided retreat now, by next time you sat down at the Thanksgiving table you may have an entirely different outlook on the people around it, yourself, and the holiday,” he said.

Matt McDermott, president of Humble & Wallop, a strategy and creative firm in Hampden, told The Sun that in Baltimore, as in anywhere else in the U.S., this is a particularly delicate year for avoiding or confronting politics at gatherings like Thanksgiving.

As these issues have become more personal to people, they are more likely to see a debate centered around them.

“The fear that this administration has a mandate that could lead to the greatest assault on human rights since Jim Crow. Women’s rights,” McDermott said.

“Trans rights. Immigrant rights. We’re not talking about economic policy or defense budgets,” he said. “We’re talking about a right to exist, [like] life, liberty, happiness. As a husband of a strong, successful woman and a father of a trans teen, I couldn’t shrug off a dinner-table hot take that argues against their rights.”

Hickel gave the following tips for Baltimoreans across all political backgrounds for Thanksgiving, regardless of whether legal alcohol or substances are being used.

•One solution is to simply not talk about politics and/or set ground rules that politics shouldn’t be discussed.

•If you feel a sense of resentment at others in the group who are of a different political persuasion than yourself, it may be helpful to remind yourself that at the end of the day they are human beings that you want to spend holidays with.

•Politics doesn’t define them, just as it doesn’t define you. We are more than our politics.

“If political conversations are unavoidable, try to remember that it is unlikely you will be able to convince a partisan opponent through one conversation/argument,” Hickel said “If you aren’t trying to win the argument, then you are less likely to get irritated when you can’t.”

If using all those tips and avoiding a conversation isn’t possible, then perhaps consider just bringing up taking or buying legalized mushrooms as a topic for the whole gathering to consider, Grover suggested.

“Again, I wouldn’t suggest just trying it at your Thanksgiving table but it might make for an interesting conversation to tell your family you were thinking of trying a guided magic mushroom journey,” he said.

“They might not understand it but in reality many of them could probably benefit from it,” Grover said. “And if you put the work into one you could definitely have an entirely different perspective on life and the family in it by the next Thanksgiving dinner.”

And if that still doesn’t work? Well, there’s always a foolproof way to make yourself thankful and welcome at holidays this year.

“Bring pie, but leave the politics at home,” McDermott advises.

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