Well… there’s a difference, here.
Been doing some reading since the last time I checked on this thread. Some toxins also have druglike effects, it seems. Cartoonist Jim Valentino has written about his experience with the drug Belladonna, in particular – a powerful alkaloid that can produce hallucinogenic effects.
The trouble is, it’s toxic as hell. And it can have some pretty far reaching effects. Valentino reports that it took the better part of a WEEK for him to “come down,” completely, and that he tended to flip out, afterwards, whenever he tried to drop acid. He also reports that a few of the effects STILL haven’t faded away… so one could say, truthfully, that this stuff DOES have “long term effects on the body and mind.” And, from what he said it did to HIM, one could say that it certainly might well make the difference between sanity and cloud-cuckoo-land to someone who didn’t have too firm a grip to begin with.
Then again, we’re talking about belladonna, here… not psilocybin mushrooms. I have heard similar scary things about fly agaric mushrooms, but since I have neither a cite nor personal experience there, I will not offer any opinion. It is, certainly, vitally important to know what kind of mushrooms you’re eating, though, since at least one variety that grows here in the States is fairly lethal.
But I’ve never heard of anyone who went fruity-gumballs as a result of eating magic mushrooms. I suspect that if there was any statistical probability, to speak of, of going nuts as a result of using most ordinary psychedelics, most of southern California would have gone insane at some point between 1967 and now.
Hm.
Then again, considering their current political situation, perhaps I spoke too soon…