# Legalize Shrooms! **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 7, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623 "2019-05-07T17:07:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/1 "2019-05-07T17:07:39Z")
[Voters in Denver today have the option to decriminalize possession and use of psilocybin mushrooms for people 21 and over](https://apnews.com/8aaa48465b1d42f38014433f61a879df). 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? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/2 "2019-05-07T17:13:02Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/3 "2019-05-07T17:18:41Z")
Dear Denver, You guys are way wacky! I love it. Stay crazy, bobot ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/4 "2019-05-07T17:39:19Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > 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. You’re right; that’s why I said “decriminalize” in the OP. the thread title, however, stems from this bit in the linked article: > [@](#): > > A citizen initiative on the ballot followed the same tack taken by marijuana activists to decriminalize pot possession in 2005 in the city. That move was followed by statewide legalization in 2012. A number of other states then broadly allowed marijuana use and sales by adults. Perhaps you weren’t aware of that happening…? ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/5 "2019-05-07T17:58:05Z")
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 …_ ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/6 "2019-05-07T19:01:15Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/7 "2019-05-07T19:10:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/8 "2019-05-07T19:13:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/9 "2019-05-07T19:45:45Z")
Psychedelics (including MDMA) is the next step after pot. These guys are going to do it: [https://maps.org/](https://maps.org/)[MAPS - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/mapsmdma) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/10 "2019-05-07T19:51:22Z")
Sounds like legalizing marijuana was just a gateway. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/11 "2019-05-07T20:09:48Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/12 "2019-05-07T20:11:34Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Sounds like legalizing marijuana was just a gateway. 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. > [@SmartAleq](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/13 "2019-05-07T20:12:34Z")
> [@RickG](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/14 "2019-05-07T21:31:14Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > Shrooms are not IME an easily-managed buzz like pot or alcohol. They’re an unpredictable ride and are definitely not for amateurs. Yeah, I seem to recall that one of the potemtial side effects of trying to get high on mushrooms is an [agonizing death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_poisoning). > [@](#): > > New species of fungi are continuing to be discovered, with an estimated number of 800 new species registered annually. This, added to the fact that many investigations have recently reclassified some species of mushrooms from edible to poisonous has made older classifications insufficient at describing what now is known about the different species of fungi that are harmful to humans. I don’t think the mushroom’s time has come. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/15 "2019-05-07T21:41:38Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/16 "2019-05-07T22:05:51Z")
They are legal in the Netherlands. Only available at specialized stores, called “smart shops”. AFAIK, there have been no problems. > **[Smart shop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_shop)** > > Psychedelic film > A smart shop (or smartshop) is a retail establishment that specializes in the sale of psychoactive substances, usually including psychedelics, as well as related literature and paraphernalia. The name derives from the name "smart drugs", a class of drugs and food supplements intended to affect cognitive enhancements which are often sold in smart shops. > Some governments do not tolerate smart shops in any form as a part of their crime prevention. For example, the Government of th... ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/17 "2019-05-07T22:20:55Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > 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. I don’t think the board rules allow it. I wish though, that could be fun. > [@Maastricht](#): > > They are legal in the Netherlands. Only available at specialized stores, called “smart shops”. AFAIK, there have been no problems. > > [Smart shop - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_shop) 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'](http://www.simplyamsterdam.nl/French_tourist_in_Amsterdam_commits_suicide_after_using_magic_mushrooms.html) \*\* [Death of Leah Betts - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Betts)[Anna Wood (born 1980) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Wood_(born_1980)) ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/18 "2019-05-07T22:36:57Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > 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. I agree. Probably be better for society in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/19 "2019-05-07T23:01:20Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > What do y’all think? Legalise the lot. Cannabis, LSD, heroin, everything. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/20 "2019-05-08T06:50:13Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > I don’t think the board rules allow it. I wish though, that could be fun. 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_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623.md?page=2)