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Just over a year ago, my firm merged with a firm in Los Angeles. Since then, I've had a chance to meet a number of our new lawyers and to a person, they have been fantastic. But I don't feel I know them well enough to ask them the question that is really on my mind – are you “Cali-sober”?

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For those new to the phrase, a person is “Cali-sober” if they largely eschew alcohol in favor of things like cannabis, mushrooms, LSD, and ketamine. Like so many US trends, “Cali-sober” started in Southern California and is beginning to move across the country. Some of its proponents say they made the switch from alcohol to psychedelics in response to the Surgeon General's advisory in January linking alcohol consumption to a number of preventable cancers. It is also an offshoot of the “sober-curious” movement that I've posted about before, where people are drinking less without going cold turkey, also primarily for health reasons.

I'm not sure the Surgeon General had this in mind when he put out his advisory. Many of these drugs have not been studied extensively by scientists and it is well known that psychedelics can be abused or lead to unpredictable and harmful outcomes when used recreationally. It will be interesting to see how significant the “Cali-sober” culture becomes. And if you are already “Cali-sober,” reach out to me. I have so many questions.

The term “California sober” describes a way of life where alcohol is largely off the table, but psychedelics are a big part of the social world ... this very Los Angeles lifestyle is catching on, thanks in part to January’s surgeon general advisory about alcohol being a leading preventable cause of cancer.

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Are you “Cali-sober”?

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