Magic Mushrooms and the ABC

WATCH THE ABC TV 7:30 SHOW AND READ THE ARTICLE THAT THIS IS BASED ON HERE.

“I was talking to a young man yesterday and my point to him was these (Psilocybe mushrooms) are not risk-free,” Paul Dillon of DARTA

Risk.
Many activities we engage with in life come with an inherent potential of risk. We are familiar with how to mitigate risks, both in our individual lives and as a society.
For risky activities which involve the potential for harm to another, such as driving or working in a highly-qualified job such as medicine, law or flying planes we require people to prove their competency to an extent before they may engage in these activities. Considering these activities have the potential to directly harm another if we are not competent, we lower our individual and societal risks by testing people on their knowledge.

There are many other activities we engage in where the risk is focused on the individual. On ourselves. Many sports, especially contact sports come with an inherent risk of injury. Nearly every child who learned to ride a bike had to have a fall at some point and I presume most of us have a tale of a particularly nasty fall involving a lot of blood and pain.
We learned from that.
In fact, most of the time after we have come out on the other side of a risky activity, we are better off for it and have learned something important.

Our personal risks are mitigated by us. Our knowledge of an activity, prior to engaging in it assist us in properly understanding the sort of risks we are likely to encounter. This is why good quality education is the best thing a society or individual can give to another person in order to assist them in mitigating their own risks in life.

Psilocybe Mushrooms and Risk.
Illicit substances generally get a heavily-weighted-against treatment when it comes to their inherent potential for risks and the legal framework.
Anyone who is familiar with the cannabis debate will be more than aware of this point, especially considering the moves in some states in the U.S. away from prohibition of cannabis.

You may be familiar with the following graph, which compares the risk to society and risk to individual of a variety of legal and illegal drugs (UK data):

“Drug harms in the UK: a multi-criteria decision analysis”, by David Nutt, Leslie King and Lawrence Phillips, on behalf of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. The Lancet.

Find mushrooms on that list.
Right at the bottom, right?

Why on Earth then does every conversation about “magic mushrooms” that flows through the media have to focus on the potential for harm? Can you imagine if the same proportion of time was given to outlining the risks of playing AFL? There’d be no time to care about the players or the game… unless of course it was focusing on the potential for a groin injury that lands you in hospital.

I’m sure there are those scoffing right now. Playing a sport has clear benefits to the individual and society! While drugs like these mushrooms are bad and not good for you and make you crazy and stuff.

• “Drugs derived from magic mushrooms could help treat people with severe depression. Scientists believe the chemical psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, can turn down parts of the brain that are overactive in severely depressive patients. The drug appears to stop patients dwelling on themselves and their own perceived inadequacies.” – The Guardian: Magic mushrooms’ psychedelic ingredient could help treat people with severe depression

• “Carhart-Harris says he was inspired to experiment with psilocybin by , a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Last year Griffiths that when he tested high doses of psilocybin in 18 volunteers, 72 percent reported profoundly spiritual experiences, as well as improvements in mood and attitude that lasted more than a year.” – NPR – Your Brain on Psilocybin

• “A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called “magic mushrooms,” was enough to bring about a measureable personality change lasting at least a year… which includes traits related to imagination, aesthetics, feelings, abstract ideas and general broad-mindedness. Changes in these traits, measured on a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, were larger in magnitude than changes typically observed in healthy adults over decades of life experiences, the scientists say.” – Hopkins Medicine: Single Dose of Hallucinogen May Create Lasting Personality Change

• ““This opens a door to the scientific study of mystical experiences,” Griffiths said. In future work, he hopes to investigate how the psilocybin experience may differ in people with different personality types, religious backgrounds, and genetics.”” – Wired: Open Your Mind to the New Psychedelic Science

That’s just a quick handful of some of the more recent research in to the potential benefits of psychedelic substances, including the ‘magic mushroom’.
There are many other subjective effects that people who consume these mushrooms revere.  Perhaps it is the mystical experience that many say they encounter, or the connection to others and the Earth that is often reported.  Perhaps it’s the ability to think about things in a quite novel abstract way or the general playful, open mood one might feel after a nice hot cup of mushroom tea.

THE ABC.

Check out this story from ABC1, Thursday 16th May 2013.
Magic mushrooms promise a long trip… to prison

Let’s play fact pick-apart first.

• According to one Australian drug survey, the number of people using hallucinogens doubled between 2007 and 2010.
  The survey cited here is the 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey report which does in fact show a doubling of usage! From 0.6% in 2007 to a whopping 1.4% of respondents in 2010 reported use of ‘hallucinogens’, a cover-all category typical of these sorts of studies which refers to a wide variety of psychedelic substances.

• Mr Dillon warns teenagers that such mind-bending drugs can damage developing brains and even cause psychosis.
  This is one of those typical things people think they have to say when talking about illicit substances. Although there is no scientific evidence to back up this fact, it is wheeled out for every illicit substance regardless. Just in cast, y’know?
  The developing mind is probably best not messed with though. And psychedelic mushrooms are not recreational play-things.
  Unfortunately, prohibition makes it difficult to talk sensibly about the potential risks of mushrooms and how best to mitigate them. Because according to our current drug policy, you are not considered responsible enough to mitigate your own risks when it comes to illicit substances. Even though many, such as mushrooms, are far less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. And even though for most things in this world we allow adults to choose to take a minor risk if they perceive their personal benefits as out-weighing that.

• “If you know what you’re doing then some people will just do that, which sometimes the mushrooms will have maggots in them, so they get a little bit of maggot as well.”
  I probably should have known that this quote would be the one used out of a 30+ minute interview, considering the camera crew seemed disappointed at my lack of cliche hippy stuff in my house…
  Maggots seem to love mushrooms. All kinds of mushrooms. If the mushrooms are fresh there won’t likely be any maggots, or they’ll be too undeveloped to notice. If you leave them around for a while, they will rot and be eaten by maggots. Eat fresh, dry them or… y’know… extra protein 😉

• The prosecution uncovered by 7.30 may be a sign police are cracking down.
  The most concerning part in this story. I doubt that police are going to waste their resources coming after the psilocybin consuming community. Because they are found by most consumers, they don’t enter the black market very often. People often seem happy to share their mushrooms with friends and strangers and there are vibrant online communities helping new comers find their way and arming them with the best knowledge they can get while these things remain prohibited.
  My friend Greg Kasarik has tripped on mushrooms in the Bourke Street Mall and tripped on LSD at Victoria’s Parliament House. Twice. He informed police, politicians and the media each time and each time received very little attention. He has presented himself at a police station to admit his use of an illicit substance and has been largely ignored.
  Greg has a specific aim in mind and clearly reveres the mystical experience side of the magic mushroom experience:
  “This letter specifically requested regulated access for a limited number of Transcendent Compounds for religious purposes and was written in light of section 14 the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006, which specifically grants all Victorians freedom of religious practice. Section 7 of that Act requires that the Government does not unduly encroach on the rights of individuals to freely practice their religion.” – Greg Kasarik.com

Penalties.
The totally irrational, inconsistent, illogical and unjust side of this.
Under the Victorian Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 just 100 grams is considered a commercial quantity of psilocybin and psilocin. You can pretty well guarantee that while they SAY ‘… of pure drug’, what that actually means is 100 grams of actual mushroom, not active ingredient. Unless I’m reading this wrong… it appears that a traffickable quantity of psilocybin or psilocin is considered 100 milligrams, which you’ll notice is less than a commercial quantity.
These amounts aren’t based on anything in particular and are merely arbitrary amounts to prosecute people with.
ALL drugs under Victoria’s Schedule 11 (loosely based around the Commonwealth’s Schedule 9 – Australian drug laws are complicated!) are considered, ‘Drugs of dependence’ regardless of an individual substance’s propensity to lead to dependence in consumers.

• (Trafficking in…) 100 grams of psilocybin / psilocin makes one liable for a level 2 imprisonment – 25 years maximum.

Use also brings penalties including hefty fines and jail times.

Seem reasonable to you?

Conclusion.

This is merely one facet of a largely problem: The obsolete ‘war on drugs’. This is a far wider issue with many different aspects to investigate.
The legality of many substances is arbitrary and inconsistent, largely driven by ideology rather than sense. That ideology roots itself in myths and propaganda that surround these substances, which illuminates itself in the public narrative.

There are no other comparable activities that I can think of with similar levels of relatively low potential for risk, but incredibly high legislative penalties.

And hardly ever do we hear the potential benefits – the ENTIRE REASON THOUSANDS OF AUSTRALIANS CONSUME THESE MUSHROOMS EACH YEAR and we barely hear a peep of it, unless the psychedelic experience is the butt of some joke or part of some cliche. Increasing scientific investigation into psilocybin and other psychedelic substances are showing huge potential for the benefit of many humans.

And what of cognitive liberty? If we don’t have fundamental control and autonomy over our own minds and experience of our own consciousness… if governments want to make certain personal experiences illegal… where can it end?

In Lak’ech Ala K’in