# 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:** 2
**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 8, 2019, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/21 "2019-05-08T07:49:16Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > 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_. Depends on the game. If it’s a game that revolves around problem solving (Kerbal Space Program, Door Kickers), you can come up with strategies you otherwise wouldn’t have thought of. Overwatch and other fast-paced repetitive games are probably not a good use of it. Atmospheric games, including horror games, can be much better. Playing the very dark and grungy Doom 64 was an experience. Or Hotline Miami. I gotta get back into the two most recent Wolfenstein games. Aliens and Predator were nice to watch as well. I’m not going anywhere near Jacob’s Ladder, though. Outside is nice; It can be combined quite well with exercise. But information technology gives you access to nearly the entirety of human civilization. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/22 "2019-05-08T08:04:44Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > 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_. IDK, I remember spending hours on my computer checking out optical illusions while tripping. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/23 "2019-05-08T09:16:15Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > 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) Yeah, mushroom poisoning is a thing. If one jumps through enough hoops, this could, I suppose, be used as an argument (albeit an extremely crappy one) for outlawing _all_ mushrooms. But I really don’t see how it could be used as an argument for outlawing only the psychoactive ones, while keeping the rest of 'em legal? ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/24 "2019-05-08T10:42:42Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > 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. Cocaine or meth don’t produce an actual physical dependency (as opposed to a tolerance) like alcohol or opiates do, (with the shaking, sweating, puking effects of withdrawl we all know about from movies) yet at least in the case of meth, it is apparently considered to be just about the most “addictive” drug around by many addiction medicine professionals. Of course “Shrooms” don’t have any of these drawbacks, but if you’ve ever really gotten a hearty headful of potent psilocybin, you can attest that it is NOT always a mild, risk-free experience, although quite possibly an extremely enjoyable, perhaps even seemingly enlightening one if the set and setting are muy bueno. ---
**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, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/25 "2019-05-08T10:48:10Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > 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). > > I don’t think the mushroom’s time has come. I mean… we’re pretty secure in our understanding of psylocibin toxicity. It’s really hard to take as many magic mushrooms Obviously, if you try to get high off of _Amanita Phalloides_ things will not end well for you. But if what you’re taking is actually magic mushrooms, you’re about as likely to get mushroom poisoning as you are from cooking a Waldpilzpfanne. Now, granted, there are valid concerns about lookalikes - there are, in fact, mushrooms that like like psylocibins that are poisonous (although we’re not exactly talking about _Amanita Virosa_ here). The best way to assuage those concerns is to regulate, and buy your shrooms from a reliable source. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/26 "2019-05-08T11:00:18Z")
Alcohol isn’t really the proper basis for comparison. Yes, alcohol is destructive, and that’s why we attempted, nearly a century ago, to ban it. And no, it didn’t work. But the reason that it didn’t work is that it’s the most difficult drug on the planet to enforce, because you can make it from pretty much any sort of plant material, without need for any sort of specialized equipment. It’s one thing to block traffic in one specific species, but another to block it in _everything_. ---
**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 8, 2019, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/27 "2019-05-08T11:35:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Alcohol isn’t really the proper basis for comparison. Yes, alcohol is destructive, and that’s why we attempted, nearly a century ago, to ban it. And no, it didn’t work. But the reason that it didn’t work is that it’s the most difficult drug on the planet to enforce, because you can make it from pretty much any sort of plant material, without need for any sort of specialized equipment. It’s one thing to block traffic in one specific species, but another to block it in _everything_. I guess growing mushrooms from spores or sending 0.25’’ cardboard squares through the mail must be a lot more difficult than I thought. I suggest the 2 main reasons we don’t hear anywhere near as much about people using psychedelics as opioids/meth/etc are 1) It tends to cause much less problems which would draw attention 2) A lot of people are understandably scared of trying them. I know I was the first few times. ---
**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 8, 2019, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/28 "2019-05-08T11:49:38Z")
ETA (sorry, 5 minutes were up): Psychedelics are kinda effectively legal in Canada and yet, you don’t hear much about that, do you? You see, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Schedule III, Section 5, forbids LSD and any salt thereof. It does not, however, forbid prodrugs (which the body turns into LSD) or analogs (like ETH-LAD). What clever cunts have figured out is that, if you sell those under the fig-leaf of “chemical research samples, not for human consumption”, you can sell them openly on the grey market. I won’t mention more details as that might run afoul of board rules but the point is that anyone with a bit of coin can order them and the Queen’s own mail service will deliver them to your door. Yet, do we hear a flood of horror stories coming from Canada? Is anyone freaking out about this? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/29 "2019-05-08T11:50:11Z")
> [@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. This! I have grown/eaten psylocibes, but always thought of it as a “rough” high. One of my nephews told me that he prefers micro dosing, which I’d never heard of. Very cool concept. ---
**Author:** ![Wrenching\_Spanners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecb155/32.png) [@Wrenching\_Spanners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenching_Spanners)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/30 "2019-05-08T12:33:57Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > ETA (sorry, 5 minutes were up): Psychedelics are kinda effectively legal in Canada and yet, you don’t hear much about that, do you? > > You see, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Schedule III, Section 5, forbids LSD and any salt thereof. It does not, however, forbid prodrugs (which the body turns into LSD) or analogs (like ETH-LAD). > > What clever cunts have figured out is that, if you sell those under the fig-leaf of **“chemical research samples, not for human consumption”** , you can sell them openly on the grey market. I won’t mention more details as that might run afoul of board rules but the point is that anyone with a bit of coin can order them and the Queen’s own mail service will deliver them to your door. Yet, do we hear a flood of horror stories coming from Canada? Is anyone freaking out about this? Specific to the bolded part, they’re freaking out about it in the UK. > **[What is ‘spice’? Five children seriously ill after smoking e-cigs laced with...](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/what-is-spice-a3923646.html)** > > Five teenagers have been hospitalised, with one reportedly put into an induced coma Several years ago, it was mephedrone, aka plant food, that was the synthetic of choice. That was certainly dangerous. > **[Mephedrone | United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephedrone#United_Kingdom)** > > In 2010, unconfirmed reports speculated about the role mephedrone has played in the deaths of several young people in the UK. By July 2010, mephedrone had been alleged to be involved in 52 fatalities in the UK, but detected in only 38 of these cases. Of the nine that coroners had finished investigating, two were caused directly by mephedrone. The first death reported to be caused by mephedrone use was that of 46-year-old, John Sterling Smith, who had underlying health problems and repeate I can’t remember what the latest synthetic mind-altering drug is, but in general, synthetics are a big concern to the people that pay attention to them. They’ve started allowing testing at music festivals where users can have samples of their drugs tested so they’re sure of what they’re taking. > **[The drugs being used at UK festivals](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44482290)** > > Knowing more about what drugs people are using is crucial to protect them from harm. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/31 "2019-05-08T12:37:45Z")
Sure, great. Do it! I wish chemists would make LSD again, instead of cough syrup ingredients on a blotter. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/32 "2019-05-08T12:59:36Z")
> [@Wrenching\_Spanners](#): > > Specific to the bolded part, they’re freaking out about it in the UK. > [What is the drug ‘spice’? Five children seriously ill after using toxic e-cigs | Evening Standard](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/what-is-spice-calls-for-zombie-drug-to-be-made-class-a-a3923646.html) Did you post the wrong link? Neither LSD, nor any of its prodrugs, nor any of its analogs, is even mentioned in that article. Neither is psilocybin or any other psychedelic. > [@Wrenching\_Spanners](#): > > Several years ago, it was mephedrone, aka plant food, that was the synthetic of choice. That was certainly dangerous. > [Mephedrone - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephedrone#United_Kingdom) Mephedrone is neither a prodrug of LSD, nor one of its analogs, nor a psychedelic in the first place. > [@MortSahlFan](#): > > I wish chemists would make LSD again, instead of cough syrup ingredients on a blotter. :rolleyes: There are plenty of chemists out there making genuine LSD. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/33 "2019-05-08T13:23:44Z")
> [@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 just ate 3 mushrooms](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=38764) (I miss that guy) ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/34 "2019-05-08T13:30:38Z")
> [@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. There are a couple Facebook groups on microdosing where people are really positive about their experiences. ---
**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 8, 2019, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/35 "2019-05-08T13:32:12Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > [I just ate 3 mushrooms](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=38764) > > (I miss that guy) Hey, thanks! I knew I wasn’t hallucinating! ---
**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 8, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/36 "2019-05-08T14:46:25Z")
It looks like voters are saying “not right now”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/37 "2019-05-08T14:48:37Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > It looks like voters are saying “not right now”. But I can’t believe how close it was! My nephew voted in favor and is a little sad today. ---
**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 8, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/38 "2019-05-08T16:08:01Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > It looks like voters are saying “not right now”. That’s ok. Trying so soon after pot legalization was probably a bit too eager. Do you remember the first time you tried to lift weights or jog or meditate or learn a skill? You didn’t quite get there, did you? But that was your stepping stone. You must know more about this than I: How did the first ballot initiatives go for pot? How long did it take from the first failed initiative to State-wise legalization? It’s going to go ever faster for mushrooms and then onward and upwards, ever higher. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/39 "2019-05-08T16:16:34Z")
Any time you’re dealing with a plant (as opposed to a tested extract or a synthetic) dosage is going to vary; because plants of the same species will produce different amounts of different compounds due to a whole lot of varying things about their environment – temperature, amount of sun, exact soil components, presence of specific other plants, presence of insects, just to start with; as well as due to not only species but exact variety; as well as age at harvest; as well as storage conditions and length of time between harvest and the time you eat the plant. Having said that: I think trying to ban plants is silly and ineffective. Sometimes it’s the reverse of effective, as if a psychoactive plant is banned this may create or encourage a market for synthetic substitutes. While it’s a whole lot easier to control the dose of active ingredient(s) in a synthetic, a) if the synthetic’s illegal there’s no way at all to know either what you’re getting or how much you’re taking b) synthetics on the market are likely not to be the same as the plant, even if legal, both because it may well be cheaper to use different compounds and because the effects of taking the plant are unlikely to be due entirely to any one compound within it, and we often don’t understand the interactions of such compounds well enough to reproduce them accurately. So, very longwindedly, a) yes I think psychoactive mushrooms should be legal and b) I think they should be used with caution, part of the caution being awareness that you don’t know how strong the effects from any specific mushroom are going to be. ---
**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 8, 2019, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/40 "2019-05-08T16:31:09Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > This! I have grown/eaten psylocibes, but always thought of it as a “rough” high. One of my nephews told me that he prefers micro dosing, which I’d never heard of. Very cool concept. > [@Maastricht](#): > > There are a couple Facebook groups on microdosing where people are really positive about their experiences. My daughter has been microdosing psilocybin with her therapist’s knowledge to treat her depression/bipolar symptoms and is having great success with it. She takes a teensy dose every three days and says it’s working better than the lithium she took for five years without the dampening effects and destruction of creativity and libido. Now I’ll grant you she’s an experienced psychonaut with quite a few full fledged trips under her belt but she says the effects of the microdose are almost imperceptible aside from a general lightening of her mood and a generally more positive outlook on life. I’m thinking of giving it a try myself, since I’m also pretty experienced with psychedelics and I’m interested in seeing how microdosing does for anxiety/depression and CPTSD. There’ve also been some interesting studies that correlate psychedelic usage with a resistance to addiction of multiple substances–there’s quite a bit of data to indicate that psychedelics can interrupt addiction and help to prevent future dependencies, so much so that there’s a group of therapists in Oregon trying to get legalization of shrooms for therapy on the ballot. Considering the severity of the opioid addiction crisis I think it’s a good experiment to try. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623.md?page=3)