# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/41 "2019-05-08T17:25:35Z")
Kin we have legal LSD, too? Psilocybin always seemed like acid’s weak little sister to me. If I were interested in a another psychedelic experience at 58 years old, I’d rather dose than eat mushrooms. ---
**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, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/42 "2019-05-08T17:30:21Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Kin we have legal LSD, too? > > Psilocybin always seemed like acid’s weak little sister to me. > > If I were interested in a another psychedelic experience at 58 years old, I’d rather dose than eat mushrooms. Eventually, we’ll get there. Read some of the arguments above about unreliable mushroom dosing and the vagaries of biological products and the obvious answer is: Use professionally made acid. ---
**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, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/43 "2019-05-08T17:48:41Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > 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. > > Mephedrone is neither a prodrug of LSD, nor one of its analogs, nor a psychedelic in the first place. Did you see the bolded bit? I have no idea about the specifics of the pharmaceutical quality or dangers of synthetic LSD substitutes. However, the drug labs that are producing legal substitutes under the sham that they are chemical products with a legitimate purpose and “not intended for human consumption” are causing widespread concern. The third link states: “Another worrying development is the emergence of so-called new psychoactive substances - synthetic drugs made in laboratories, designed to mimic the effects of “traditional” substances. By 2015 the EMCDDA was actively monitoring more than 450 substances, with the potential risks varying with each one.” The first link showed a picture of packet of spice labelled as incense with “not intended for human consumption”. Mephedrone was available by mail order because it was “plant food”. So is there reason to be dubious about a synthetic LSD substitute “not intended for human consumption”? History indicates yes, and it’s very likely the mail-order LSD alternatives are raising concerns. ---
**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, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/44 "2019-05-08T20:49:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **MichaelEmouse** : > > I guess growing mushrooms from spores or sending 0.25’’ cardboard squares through the mail must be a lot more difficult than I thought. Sure, you can send spores through the mail. But if you get caught, you can get arrested for it. And if the police arrest a shroom-grower, they can find out where he got his spores from, and arrest that person, too. And if you have spores you want to sell, you have to be circumspect about advertising that, because your buyers might be cops, and likewise if you’re in the market for some, your sellers might be cops. On the other hand, when the Prohibition-era feds busted a moonshiner, if they tracked down his source of corn, they found… someone selling corn. Who was selling it perfectly transparently on the open market, to whoever he wanted to, with no need for secrecy. And even if they went so far as to ban corn (which of course they didn’t), the moonshiners could just switch to potatoes, or wheat, or rice, or anything else. ---
**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, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/45 "2019-05-08T21:24:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sure, you can send spores through the mail. But if you get caught, you can get arrested for it. What?!? If the police catch you doing something criminal, they can arrest you? Like moonshiners during the Prohibition? > [@Chronos](#): > > And if the police arrest a shroom-grower, they can find out where he got his spores from, and arrest that person, too. Police: “Where’d you get the spores and the tabs?” Detainee: “MindMelter69” Police: “Who’s that?! Talk, motherfucker!” Detainee: “I have no idea. That’s the point of using digital currency, the dark web and a Tor browser.” Vendors and producers will go through a Darwinian process, leaving only the most clever and cautious. Trying to stop this is going to be as successful as attempts to stop online file sharing or Amazon. Remembering some of your posts, I think you may benefit from increased cognitive flexibility: [Cognitive flexibility - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_flexibility) I’ve found exercise, meditation and a Tor browser tremendously helpful in increasing mine. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/46 "2019-05-09T00:18:41Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > It looks like voters are saying “not right now”. Denver Post said it passed. Narrowly (by 2000 votes) ---
**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 9, 2019, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/47 "2019-05-09T00:53:51Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Denver Post said it passed. Narrowly (by 2000 votes) 50.56% to 49.44% [Denver decriminalizes 'magic mushrooms' in historic vote](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/08/denver-decriminalizes-magic-mushrooms-historic-vote/1147857001/) I’m pleasantly surprised although I do worry about it possibly going too fast. Society may need to consolidate what it learns through pot legalization before moving on to stuff like mushrooms. That victory could lead to 1) others emulating it too fast 2) too strong a reaction from the usual reactionaries. Mushrooms were likely chosen because, being “natural”, they’re the least scary to most people, “just funny vegetables, right?”. Robin Carhart-Harris from Imperial College London also chose to do his fMRI studies on mushrooms before LSD because it’s not a scary three letter word. ---
**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 9, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/48 "2019-05-09T02:27:42Z")
Well, yes, sometimes people can avoid being caught by the police. But not always. If it were always, then this new law would be completely pointless. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/49 "2019-05-09T02:55:57Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Remembering some of your posts, I think you may benefit from increased cognitive flexibility: [Cognitive flexibility - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_flexibility) > I’ve found exercise, meditation and a Tor browser tremendously helpful in increasing mine. Think I’ve seen you on SNL! “Guy at the gym you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with.” ---
**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 9, 2019, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/50 "2019-05-09T11:17:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sure, you can send spores through the mail. But if you get caught, you can get arrested for it. Cite? You can legally purchase psilocybin mushroom spores via mail order in all but a few states for educational purposes. You only break the law if you sporulate the spores, which the seller warns you is not their intended purpose. [From here:](https://www.micro-supply.com/) > [@](#): > > Psilocybin spores are legal in all states in the USA except California, Georgia and Idaho. Our psilocybin mushroom spores are sold for microscopic use only. … Please do not inquire about instructions on how to grow magic mushrooms. We do not have nor do we provide that type of information. ---
**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 9, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/51 "2019-05-09T14:03:23Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Think I’ve seen you on SNL! “Guy at the gym you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with.” Point taken. Looking back on it, I should have been less of a smartass. I found Chronos’ arguments seriously lacking and should have used another way of putting that across. ---
**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 9, 2019, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/52 "2019-05-09T16:44:19Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Think I’ve seen you on SNL! “Guy at the gym you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with.” Sorry for ETA again: It occurred to me that you and I hadn’t started a conversation at all in this thread and that if my posting style annoys you, the solution is fairly obvious, there’s even a dedicated button for it. Yet you didn’t do that. Perhaps I’m wrong here, but what that suggests is that you find yourself wanting to read my posts even if you find the tone annoying (which would be fair enough, I let my lower self set my tone). If there are questions you’d like to ask in this thread about mushrooms, their opportunities and risks and are concerned that I’d take the same tone with you, I wouldn’t be mocking if I thought you were making an effort to learn rather than try to hide your head in the sand. Every single person starts out ignorant about any given topic, myself included, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to have contempt for those who want to rise from that starting ignorance (I was that person too), only for those who wish to remain in it. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/53 "2019-05-09T17:10:34Z")
Don’t worry about it. Vinyl Turnip doesn’t do conversation. He just tells jokes. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/54 "2019-05-09T17:23:27Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > If there are questions you’d like to ask in this thread about mushrooms, their opportunities and risks and are concerned that I’d take the same tone with you, I wouldn’t be mocking if I thought you were making an effort to learn rather than try to hide your head in the sand. I don’t; I’m quite familiar with mushrooms and think the Denver decriminalization is a positive step. (I have no idea what I’d be “hiding my head in the sand” about, but nonetheless…) What I find slightly annoying is not your posting style per se, but the embodiment of a certain brand of psychedelic mysticism/evangelism that I’ve been seeing in various forms since the heyday of Usenet, coupled with your scoffing implication that there’s no appreciable risk in using Tor to purchase, say, the tryptamine analog _du jour_ from some factory lab in Guangzhou. Even cloaked in anonymity and cryptocurrency, the shit has to get to you somehow— meaning there is a risk, however minimal you may believe it to be. ---
**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 9, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/55 "2019-05-09T17:26:42Z")
n/m, saw VT’s reply. ---
**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 9, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/56 "2019-05-09T17:39:10Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > but the embodiment of a certain brand of psychedelic mysticism/evangelism that I’ve been seeing in various forms since the heyday of Usenet Do I get a pass if I say that I was high when I posted that? > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > coupled with your scoffing implication that there’s no appreciable risk in using Tor to purchase, say, the tryptamine analog _du jour_ from some factory lab in Guangzhou. Even cloaked in anonymity and cryptocurrency, the shit has to get to you somehow— meaning there is a risk, however minimal you may believe it to be. There is a risk. My disagreement is with Chronos’ contention that: > [@Chronos](#): > > Alcohol isn’t really the proper basis for comparison. > [@Chronos](#): > > we attempted, nearly a century ago, to ban it. And no, it didn’t work. because > [@Chronos](#): > > the reason that it didn’t work is that it’s the most difficult drug on the planet to enforce I don’t think his distinction that shrooms are different from alcohol in terms of prohibition enforcement effectiveness stands up to examination. Or, maybe, law enforcement is actually having an easy time suppressing the trade in psychedelics and I’m the one who needs to be informed of just how effective they are. It seems counterintuitive to me but that might just be my ignorance and misled intuition. ---
**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 9, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/57 "2019-05-09T19:05:21Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > a certain brand of psychedelic mysticism/evangelism that I’ve been seeing in various forms since the heyday of Usenet I can see how that would be frustrating and eye-rolling. What I’ve found frustrating is people saying: “Alcoholic prohibition was a bad idea, sure. But for pot/psychedelics, it’s different this time”. I think we’re finding out that pot prohibition was about as ill-advised as alcohol prohibition. I suggest that 1-2 decades from now, most of the population will come around to the idea that psychedelic prohibition was as ill-advised as alcohol/pot prohibition. Maybe I’ll turn out to be wrong but I doubt it. I find it especially frustrating when people expound that view because I think that extending prohibition to pot/psychedelics but not alcohol results in steering people towards alcohol and I’m acquainted with how alcoholics can affect others. It makes me think of all those people who are going to be affected by alcohol abuse, directly or indirectly, who don’t have to be but will be because of ill-advised prohibition policies based on fear and ignorance. I don’t know about you but I find that rather more frustrating than mysticism/evangelism on an Internet forum. I found this amusing: [Denver Becomes 1st U.S. City To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms - Album on Imgur](https://imgur.com/gallery/G9ZrAtS) ---
**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 9, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/58 "2019-05-09T22:16:18Z")
Well, yes, of course it’s easier to get away with black-market alcohol than black-market other drugs, and I’m baffled that this is even contentious. I can buy the raw materials to make alcohol at any market in the country, and it’ll go completely unnoticed, because everyone buys those raw materials, all the time. I could walk right up to a policeman and say “Pardon me, officer, where’s the nearest grocery store? I need to buy some potatoes”. But if I go around looking for the raw materials to produce psychedelic mushrooms, I’m likely to attract attention. Maybe there are ways to do it without attracting attention, and maybe there are even ways to do it that are legal, but it requires a level of care that isn’t even necessary for alcohol. ---
**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 9, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/59 "2019-05-09T22:32:00Z")
Growing psilocybin mushrooms requires sterile jars and a substrate–arcane and difficult to find items like straw and wood chips and manure and coffee grounds and brown rice. My goodness, that’s sure gonna get you some raised eyebrows at the grocery or nursery supply store! You only have to buy spores once and after that the fungi just keep growing all on their own as you snip off the fruiting bodies. And shrooms don’t explode the jars like alcohol does if you don’t comprehend the concept of the fermentation lock. Not to mention that putting together a still to make actual alcohol rather than piss poor beer or wine is definitely not for the cack handed. Nope, sorry dawg, growing shrooms for home consumption requires basically nothing more than a little space and some rudimentary gardening and cooking skills. ---
**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 9, 2019, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623/60 "2019-05-09T22:40:14Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Growing psilocybin mushrooms requires sterile jars and a substrate–arcane and difficult to find items like straw and wood chips and manure and coffee grounds and brown rice. My goodness, that’s sure gonna get you some raised eyebrows at the grocery or nursery supply store! You only have to buy spores once and after that the fungi just keep growing all on their own as you snip off the fruiting bodies. And shrooms don’t explode the jars like alcohol does if you don’t comprehend the concept of the fermentation lock. Not to mention that putting together a still to make actual alcohol rather than piss poor beer or wine is definitely not for the cack handed. Nope, sorry dawg, growing shrooms for home consumption requires basically nothing more than a little space and some rudimentary gardening and cooking skills. They’ve got kits now that you can buy and all you have to do is add water and let it sit for 20 or so days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legalize-shrooms/833623.md?page=4)