Voters in Denver today have the option to decriminalize possession and use of psilocybin mushrooms for people 21 and over. I’m not sure this is a good idea, but I’m not convinced them being illegal is a good idea either. What do y’all think?
It doesn’t legalize mushrooms, it just means the police won’t bust you for possessing some. You won’t be able to go into your local cannibis shop and buy any.
Dear Denver,
You guys are way wacky! I love it.
Stay crazy,
bobot
You’re right; that’s why I said “decriminalize” in the OP. the thread title, however, stems from this bit in the linked article:
Perhaps you weren’t aware of that happening…?
In theory, I’m in favor, if only because I believe society will be better off – big-picture, long-term – when we stop trying to police the substances people want to put into their bodies.
In practice, though – hmmm. Shrooms are not IME an easily-managed buzz like pot or alcohol. They’re an unpredictable ride and are definitely not for amateurs. Plus, doesn’t this reinforce the slippery slope argument people continue to make about legalizing weed? See, told you they’d try to legalize harder stuff if you let them make pot legal …
I’m in Boulder, so I can’t vote on this one, but I’d vote yes.
I don’t really see psilocybin as a “harder” drug than weed. My experience with it, which was 35ish years ago in college (the time and place for everything), was that it was very pleasant–mostly I remember the trees on campus being kind of sparkly…and happy to see me :). Weed could be pleasant, but it could also be disorienting and soporific. Neither of them has life-threatening toxicological effects, as far as I know, and certainly none as bad as those of over-consumption of alcohol.
That said, I’d much rather it was fully legalized and had some quality controls applied–the second time I did them in college, they could’ve been shiitake for all the effect they had.
You’re never going to be able to make any good case for keeping any drug illegal while alcohol is not only legal but readily available pretty much everywhere. Alcohol is damaging AF–you can buy enough of it for twenty bucks to kill your stupid ass assuming you don’t have a huge tolerance, and if you do then your liver is probably turned to Swiss cheese anyway. Drunk people are stupid, belligerent, they throw up and try to drive and kill people and get in fights with other people or with inanimate objects if no people will oblige them. There is literally nothing a good dose of psilocybin can do to a person that’s more damaging than a bottle of tequila. Fuckit, legalize the whole shot and just manage outcomes. If you can do it with booze you can do it with any other drug.
When I hear “hard drugs” I think “drugs whose effects are more physiological than psychological.” I.e. drugs where a physical dependency can be built up, to the point where if you don’t have the drugs, you’re a fucking mess, shaking, sweating, puking, etc, and you’ll do any goddamn thing in your power to make it end by getting more of the drug.
No psychedelic drugs create this situation, so no psychedelic drugs deserve to be classified this way.
Psychedelics (including MDMA) is the next step after pot. These guys are going to do it: https://maps.org/ MAPS - YouTube
In 1 or 2 generations, we’re going to have wished we did this earlier. People who go for alcohol more than cannabis and psychedelics are going to be looked at the same way we look at tobacco smokers or benzo-popping soccer moms today. Sure, there’s going to be a fight over it and middle-aged/old white Evangelicals are going to be a bunch of cunts about that too, like usual. But the light will shine out and the darkness will be pushed back.
I must be on acid if I think that, right? Well, not at this precise moment; That was last Saturday for my morning run. But think back to how incredulous people would be in 2000 if you told them that the US would have pot legalization, gay marriage and a black president within a decade and a half. We’re going through a reactionary rough spot right now but it’s the high-water mark of the Degeneracy.
Sounds like legalizing marijuana was just a gateway.
Wait until people find out that microdosing psilocybin and acid works about a million times better than anti-depressants just the same way we’re all finding out that ready access to cannabis interrupts opioid use/abuse/dependency something fierce. The pharma companies won’t like it a bit but fuck those guys, they need to be cranking out better antibiotics anyway.
Somehow, I expected a little less pusillanimousness from an Intergalatic Gladiator.
There are excellent reasons to legalize cannabis which would be good enough on their own. If that ends up being the foot in the door for psychedelics, that’s not a bad thing. Eventually, society might realize that 1) The fact that some people can’t handle a substance doesn’t mean everyone else should be threatened with a criminal record and prison if they do it 2) Some drugs are indeed liable to trap people into a deep, dark pit and that those who fall into it need compassion, not repression.
They’re a major reason I’m not headed into the same life trajectory as an abusive alcoholic as my father and his father and his father and I’m not sure how many generations it goes back but there might have been snakes in Ireland back then.
My experience was similar, but even more varied. A couple of times the trip was every bit as intense as acid (but shorter in duration), and other times I felt virtually nothing. The taste was uniformly nasty.
Standardizing the potency and quality control is a good argument for making it legal, but I think my tripping days are done regardless.
Yeah, I seem to recall that one of the potemtial side effects of trying to get high on mushrooms is an agonizing death.
I don’t think the mushroom’s time has come.
Hey, wasn’t there a thread featuring a guy posting his way through a mushroom trip? I seem to recall it, a wild ride, but I’ll be damned if I know how to start searching for it.
They are legal in the Netherlands. Only available at specialized stores, called “smart shops”. AFAIK, there have been no problems.
I don’t think the board rules allow it. I wish though, that could be fun.
Like MDMA or pot, once in a while, you’ll have some tiny minority of people who can’t handle it or are morons about it. Like a tourist who killed herself*. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but it’s also young women I’ve read about dying from MDMA**.
While that harm is undeniable, it can be reduced through harm reduction and whatever harm does remain will be lesser than the benefits. Just like pot or MDMA.
*French tourist in Amsterdam commits suicide after using 'magic mushrooms'
** Death of Leah Betts - Wikipedia Anna Wood (born 1980) - Wikipedia
I agree. Probably be better for society in the long run.
Legalise the lot. Cannabis, LSD, heroin, everything.
Plus: seems like a waste of a perfectly good trip. Like, c’mon, you can’t find better things to do on shrooms than post on a message board? Reminds me of that time I played overwatch on LSD - fun, but I could have had more fun by just going outside.