Apparently not when it comes to peddling “magic mushrooms” for hallucinogenic trip-outs because, in California, it has become a full-blown, LSD-like fad that’s, well, mushrooming.
Despite psilocybin being a Schedule I illegal substance under federal law (the same as heroin and LSD), California is hosting a blatant second coming of the Age of Aquarius, with magic mushroom “journeys” being offered in “mellow” spas to the tune of soft flute and “singing bowl” music, “sound baths,” lots of pillows, incense, yoga and meditation.
Once again, the snake-oil peddlers with their bottles of genuine patented cure-all medicine—which they say will heal anything that ails you—are back pitching their wares: the latest, miracle cure-all, which is of course guaranteed “harmless” and provided for a very low, discount fee.
But these hallucinogenic peddlers are wearing white lab coats rather than top hats, are often sporting fancy academic titles and claim their psilocybin treatments are purely “medicinal” in nature, aimed at helping “patients” deal with addiction, depression, anxiety and a host of other problems.
“We know full well that this goes against what the DEA would classify as legal.”
Dr. Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, for example, said, “People who had not given psychedelics a second thought have gotten interested in it in recent years.”
Like his forebears—LSD pioneers Timothy Leary and Ram Dass—Dr. Grob never met a psychedelic he didn’t like. He has conducted studies on MDMA, ayahuasca and the use of psilocybin in advanced-stage cancer patients.
“Clinical research has demonstrated that psychedelic-generated mystical experience dramatically reduces depression, anxiety and demoralization in end-of-life existential distress and can improve quality of life and a sense of personal meaning,” said Dr. Anthony P. Bossis, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine.
So the fact that so-called experts endorse it makes it okay, right? Must be, since psilocybin, still a federally illegal substance, is publicly and openly being offered in various forms like mushroom tea or sweet fruit-flavored gummies at so-called “therapy centers” throughout California and Oregon with names like “Personalized Wellbeing.”
The trend of out-in-the-open hawking of shrooms has become so acceptable that even roadside convenience stores are peddling many gummies and candies advertised as containing magic mushrooms.
There’s even a California company called Psilouette, whose CEO, Derek Chase, at one time a marketing exec for Johnson & Johnson and L’Oreal, openly offers psilocybin products by mail (thus, apparently, doubling down on violations of federal law).
The company sells “low dose” candies, called “microdoses,” but also sells “macro” doses, for that trippier experience.
Another company called Cubiq does the same. Their website says, “Welcome to the future.”
We can only hope not.
Cubiq’s owner, speaking under a pseudonym, told Los Angeles Magazine, “In California, enforcement is not something happening when it comes to psilocybin products.”
Of course, Chase, Psilouette’s CEO, doesn’t just come right out and say that he’s peddling hallucinogenic drugs; he calls his business a “mission to improve the therapeutic potential of mental health.”
The online platform LA Taco writes that Chase “feels secure that the DEA is not currently hung up on prosecuting plant-based or natural psychedelic offenses, making it a low-risk offense that his two legal teams could turn into a relatively small punishment.”
You’re not meant to wander about the world with your brain spinning in a psychedelic trip.
Chase even says that an arrest would be “fucking great PR, bro. Like, lock me up and get a camera crew in there. I’m ready. I need a little break.”
“Technically, nothing that we’re doing is legal,” Chase told Leafly, a marijuana website. “We know full well that this goes against what the DEA would classify as legal.”
In Colorado and Oregon, psilocybin is already state-legalized and it might even become legal in the future in California.
California’s Democratic Senator Scott Wiener and Republican Assemblywoman Marie Waldron are proposing legislation to make consumption of psilocybin, along with MDMA and mescaline, two other psychedelics, okay to use under the supervision of a licensed therapist.
Zeus Tipado, a PhD candidate in neuropsychopharmacology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said, “There is no convincing evidence that shows microdosing has significant benefits for one’s mental health.
“A 2021 study conducted by Balázs Szigeti at Imperial College London showed that a microdosed amount of LSD or psilocybin is as effective on improving one’s well-being as placebo.”
But a placebo doesn’t cause nausea, vomiting, muscle weakness and lack of coordination, nor does it cause hallucinations, distortion of reality, psychosis and possible death. Sound like a fun drug to you?
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the mushroom peddlers, will still keep pitching it to you like it’s harmless. The NIH, for example, says, “Psilocybin has a low level of toxicity, which means that it has a low potential of causing potentially fatal events like breathing problems or a heart attack.”
But what if you decide to drive at a high rate of speed to embrace that friendly, beautiful semi truck heading toward you while you’re tripping? Suppose you’re on a high rooftop when it occurs to you that you can fly? Or suppose that your mind chooses to go away on vacation, and never comes back?
Not good.
That’s when the magic shroom suddenly morphs into tragic doom. You’re not meant to wander about the world with your brain spinning in a psychedelic trip—it just isn’t safe. In fact, it’s downright idiotic.
The bottom line is: Your brain is not an egg. It should never be fried, nor scrambled. It should be treasured and protected against all the scam artists and shills perfectly happy to pump you full of mind-twisting “wonder drugs” while, all the while, reaching into your wallet.
The question remains: Where is the DEA? Where is the FBI? When is the federal marshal going to ride into California and start slapping the handcuffs on these scofflaws?
Have we given up in the war against drugs? Surrendered?
If so, it’s obvious which side won.
