A Denver food and cannabis investigator became suspicious of PolkaDot-branded chocolate bars sitting next to convenience store energy shots and nicotine pouches in January 2026.
Months earlier, California public health officials warned about PolkaDot-branded chocolate bars. California authorities destroyed more than US$3 million of the chocolate after laboratory testing revealed added synthetic psychoactive drugs. The agency warned of severe illness, hospitalization or worse – particularly in children who could mistake the bars for ordinary candy.
Unfortunately, the California case was a beacon of a more widespread problem. In Denver, investigators from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment and Denver Licensing and Consumer Protection the Denver Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection warned consumers and removed these products from three retailers. They then partnered with the Denver Police Department to destroy similar products from six additional retailers.
I’m a natural products pharmacologist and professor based in Colorado who has studied the emergence of known and novel psychoactive substances in consumer products. I did some investigating to find out how these products landed on shelves, and how dietary supplement loopholes allowed them to initially evade detection by licensing authorities.
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False labels fool retailers and mislead consumers
The PolkaDot-branded chocolate bars were marketed as “mushroom blends” and said to include lion’s mane, reishi, turkey tail and cordyceps — all non-hallucinogenic varieties. But laboratory tests showed otherwise. The bars contained psychoactive drugs: psilocybin and psilocin, the principal psychedelics found in Psilocybe mushrooms, as well as other chemical relatives called synthetic tryptamines.
“We didn’t want any one retailer to feel singled out,” said Jessica Davis, Denver health department’s food and cannabis investigator, in an interview. “We simply asked if they were carrying any mushroom blends. Most didn’t know they contained hallucinogenic mushroom compounds.”
This isn’t the first time psilocybin-laced products have been found in Denver. In the summer 2025, tobacco licensing authorities warned consumers about the same issue in West Coast Gold Caps chocolate bars. And in late 2024, Colorado was one of 34 states where the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported hospitalizations and suspected deaths associated with Diamond Shruumz chocolate bars and gummies.
What PolkaDot is – and isn’t
PolkaDot products look like everyday treats: 2-ounce chocolate bars in multiple flavors, gummies and even liquid “shots” or seltzers. They’re advertised as containing a blend of non-hallucinogenic mushrooms. These products are often sold in natural foods stores as nutritional supplements, even though there is little clinical evidence for their health benefits.
But according to public advisories, PolkaDot bars in Denver contained chemicals prohibited in retail food products.
PolkaDot brand materials, including the paper wrapping of the chocolates – but not the chocolates themselves – are widely available online. That means there isn’t a single regulated manufacturer of the chocolate. Instead, multiple unconnected players can purchase packaging kits and fill them with whatever compounds they choose. As a result, the composition of the same PolkaDot-labeled product can vary considerably across the U.S.
Davis, the food safety investigator, said gas station retailers frequently produced apparently factual invoices from wholesalers, but the paperwork rarely verified what was actually found inside the bars.
“Wholesalers weren’t doing their due diligence,” she said. “Some said they found these at trade shows and were told they were legal.”
No, Colorado didn’t legalize retail sales of psilocybin
Much of the confusion among wholesalers and consumers stems from Colorado’s 2022 Natural Medicine Act. Voters approved Proposition 122, leading to the state’s decriminalization of personal possession, cultivation and sharing of certain natural psychedelic substances. So, while people are free to grow, share and use “magic mushrooms,” it is unlawful to sell them.
Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Colorado is also building a system for licensed facilitators to offer supervised use of hallucinogenic mushrooms for a variety of mental health issues, but the law did not authorize over-the-counter retail sales at gas stations, smoke shops or corner stores.
“People assume that because Colorado decriminalized natural medicines, anything ‘mushroom’ is fair game to buy. It isn’t. Retail sales are prohibited,” Davis said.
So-called natural or herbal medicine products, such as chamomile for relaxation and echinacea for colds, are regulated in the U.S. as foods – not drugs – under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. Retailers are free to sell products as long as the label does not make false or misleading medical claims or contain unapproved or illicit drugs. The Food and Drug Administration issues a formal warning letter to prohibit sales when products are misbranded, spiked with unapproved drugs or when adverse reactions appear in consumers.
Psilocybin and some semi-synthetic tryptamines are prohibited under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, governed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. But some of the synthetic tryptamines found in the PolkaDot-branded bars are not explicitly named in this most restrictive classification, although the main building block of these chemicals, diethyltryptamine, or DET, is.
Some of the slightly modified psychoactives found in PolkaDot products are presumed by the DEA and other authorities to circumvent the law.
Small gas station convenience stores buy products from dozens of regional wholesalers. PolkaDot chocolates and other products can slip into local gas stations and evade detection. By contrast, GNC, a national health and nutrition company, manufactures many of its own products and receives others from a select few wholesalers. These retailers tend to know better what’s in the products they carry.
“If you keep [these products] under the FDA’s radar – in small gas stations rather than doing a mass distribution at GNC – you avoid detection until something really bad happens,” Harvard physician Dr. Pieter Cohen told STAT News.
By avoiding federal detection, the detection of problematic products is left to local and regional public health officials or food inspectors and tobacco licensing authorities. If they discover these products, they can revoke food or tobacco licenses, which can cause extensive financial losses, due in part to the low profit margins of gasoline sales alone.
Education first, but enforcement is real
The Denver health department’s messaging has emphasized consumer education and retailer outreach. Advisories urge residents to avoid purchasing PolkaDot products and to report sightings to 311 or via the city’s consumer protection portal so inspectors can track their spread. The department has also underscored that businesses selling unlawful products face fines, license suspension or revocation, and potential criminal penalties.
According to Davis, the Denver food and cannabis investigator, the city’s licensing team has begun coaching retailers on basic due diligence: Does the price point make sense for a legitimate product? Can the wholesaler connect the retailer to the manufacturer? Can the manufacturer provide clear, complete ingredient disclosures and testing documentation? If clerks or suppliers can’t answer conclusively, that’s a red flag.
The practical reality is that routine sweeps won’t catch every mislabeled mushroom product. Denver needs the public to report what they see.
“If you’re seeking natural medicine, we want you to do it safely,” Davis said. “Cultivate it yourself within the law, obtain it from someone you trust or work with a licensed facilitator. Don’t buy mystery bars at a gas station.”
