According to the United Nations 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, Psilocybin is a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse and serves no legitimate medical purpose. However, claiming that that psilocybin serves no legitimate medical purpose seems to be inaccurate and untrue.
Before its prohibition under Richard Nixon’s leadership, psilocybin was outlawed and all research at the time was halted and deemed illegal. In their rush to silence hippies who were saying ‘make love not war’, and to address the scourge of class A narcotics such as methamphetamine, crack cocaine & heroin, important facts and findings were almost lost. It’s non-addictive and brings about important changes to the brain of the users.
Psilocybin occurs naturally in some kinds of mushroom. Best known for its psychedelic effects, recent studies suggest it could help people with alcohol dependence, depression, end-of-life anxiety, PTSD or trauma and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic substance people ingest from certain types of mushrooms that grow in regions of Europe, South America, Mexico, and the United States.
The mushrooms containing psilocybin are known as magic mushrooms. Individuals use psilocybin as a recreational drug. It provides feelings of euphoria and sensory distortion that are common to hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD.
Researchers at John’s Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research published a landmark study in 2006 on the safety and positive effects of psilocybin. And the FDA has also ruled that it is non-toxic
In October 2020, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin. This allows for a 2-year period to consider regulatory and prescribing requirements.
Although medical bodies do not consider psilocybin to be an addictive substance, users can experience disturbing hallucinations, anxiety, and panic from using the drug unless the journey is closely supervised by an experienced professional.
Psilocybin is a hallucinogen that works by activating serotonin receptors, most often in the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain affects mood, cognition, and perception.
Hallucinogens work in other regions of the brain that regulate arousal and panic responses. Psilocybin does not always cause active visual or auditory hallucinations. Instead, it distorts how some people that use the drug perceive objects and people already in their environment.
The quantity of the drug, past experiences, and expectations of how the experience will take shape can all impact the effects of psilocybin.
After the gut ingests and absorbs psilocybin, the body converts it to psilocyn. The hallucinogenic effects of psilocybin usually occur within 30 minutes of ingestion and last between 4 and 6 hours.
In some individuals, the changes in sensory perception and thought patterns can last for several days.
Mushrooms containing psilocybin are small and usually brown or tan. In the wild, people often mistake mushrooms containing psilocybin for any number of other mushrooms that are poisonous.
People usually consume psilocybin as a brewed tea or prepare it with a food item to mask its bitter taste. Manufacturers also crush dried mushrooms into a powder and prepare them in capsule form. Some people who consume these mushrooms cover them with chocolate.
The potency of a mushroom depends on:
- the species
- origin
- growing conditions
- harvest period
- whether a person eats them fresh or dried
The amount of active ingredients in dried mushrooms is about 10 times higher than the amount found in their fresh counterparts.
Extent of use
In the U.S., the National Survey on Drug Use and Health suggested that between 2009 and 2015, around 8.5% of people reported using psilocybin at some point in their life.
The ritual use of psilocybin for mystical or spiritual purposes dates back to pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies and continues to this day. Psilocybin is often used recreationally at dance clubs or by select groups of people seeking a transcendent spiritual experience.
In medical settings, doctors have tested psilocybin for use in treating cluster headaches, end stage cancer anxiety, depression, and other anxiety disorders.
But some scientists have questioned its effectiveness and safety as a therapeutic measure. But then again, what do scientists know about therapy and how can they make these claims with little research available.
What is Microdosing?
Microdosing, or micro-dosing, is a technique for studying the behaviour of drugs in humans through the administration of doses so low they are unlikely to produce whole-body effects, but high enough to allow the cellular response to be studied. Wikipedia
People who microdose aren’t trying to get high. There’s no real consensus on how large a dose is a microdose, but people usually report taking around a twentieth to a tenth of a ‘full’ or recreational dose of LSD – or other psychedelic drugs such as magic mushrooms or truffles, which contain the psychedelic compound psilocybin.
Taken in such small amounts, these drugs don’t have the trippy visual and audio effects you might normally associate with psychedelics. But some people claim they have more subtle, even sub-perceptual, benefits.
While microdosing is often associated with Silicon Valley productivity-hacker types, many in the microdosing community reject this image and say that it’s about more than getting ahead in the workplace.
And some people microdose in an attempt to self-medicate health conditions such as depression, ADHD, or chronic pain (which, by the way, we don’t recommend). A few studies so far have found suggestions that microdosing could enhance creativity or improve mood, but these largely rely on people reporting their own subjective findings – which can be quite inaccurate – and don’t have a placebo control.
How does microdosing feel?
About an hour or two after ingesting the microdose, people notice an increase in focus and energy. Many users find that it helps with weaning off — and staying off — anti-depressants drugs and alcohol. It can help lessen the side effects of withdrawal and even mitigate depression. Many speak to the drug’s ability to increase empathy, too.
Street names for psilocybin
Drug dealers rarely sell psilocybin under its real name. Instead, the drug may be sold as:
- Magic mushrooms
- Shrooms
- Boomers
- Zoomers
- Mushies
- Simple Simon
- Little smoke
- Sacred mushrooms
- Purple passion
- Mushroom soup
- Cubes
More information…
For more information on using psilocybin mushrooms safely and how to microdose, please contact Warren Whitfield on 0725225325
