Drug Information - Magic Mushrooms Addiction
What are Magic Mushrooms?
There are around twelve different varieties of magic mushrooms that grow wild
throughout the UK in autumn, and they have a powerful hallucinogenic effect
similar to LSD.
The main type of mushroom used is called liberty cap psilocybe. The other more
potent variety is the amanita muscaria this bears close resemblance to deadly
poisonous fungi. Magic mushrooms contain the psychedelic chemical psilocybin.
Magic mushrooms can be eaten raw or they can be cooked or stewed into a tea and
drunk; they can also be dried and then stored.
Appearance and Use
Psilcybin mushrooms are small and tan coloured and bruise blue when they're
touched. Amanita Muscaria are more like the red and white spotted toadstools
you see in fairytale books. After picking, they're both either eaten raw or
dried out and stored. Most people take between 1-5 grams.
Once the trip has started there is no way to control or stop it, and a bad trip
can be unpredictable, with users experiencing feelings of paranoia and being
out of control. Users sometimes experience severe stomach pains, as well as
diarrhoea and sickness. Too often, magic mushrooms can be confused with other
poisonous, sometimes deadly fungi, so if users experience illness, they should
get to hospital as soon as possible with a sample of the fungi. Users do not
become physically addicted and there are no withdrawal symptoms.
The biggest danger with taking any magic mushrooms is making sure you're taking
the right thing. There are hundreds of varieties of out there and some of them
are highly poisonous. And as you'd expect with something that grows naturally,
the strength varies depending on the freshness, the season and regional
variations.
The Effects
Both types of mushroom give you a trip. Trips can be good or bad. A good trip
can be a lot of fun. A bad trip is your worst nightmare come to life. Any sort
of trip can have quite random and sometimes very frightening effects. Trips
feed off a person's imagination. One person can spend six hours in a very happy
place while someone else who's taken the same mushrooms can spend six hours
lost in their own fears and paranoia.
How the trip goes has everything to do with who you are, how you're feeling and
how comfortable you are with the people you are with. The effects for both
mushrooms can take between 30 minutes to two hours to happen. The strongest
part of the trip takes 4-10 hours and the after-effects usually last a further
2-6 hours. The more you take, the longer your trip could last.
-
Both mushrooms can distort colour, sound and objects.
-
Both mushrooms can speed up and slow down time and movement.
-
Both mushrooms can make you feel more emotionally sensitive. Some people feel
more creative and enlightened.
-
Amanita's can give you the sort of out of body experience that makes you feel
like you're dreaming when you're awake.
-
Amanita's can give you synesthesia which allows you to smell words and taste
colours.
-
Bad trips are seriously frightening and unsettling. And you can't tell whether
you're going to have a bad trip or a good trip (although there are things you
can do to try and avoid a bad trip).
-
You're not in complete control of what you're doing. Your perception of your
body and the world around you can be distorted.
-
-
Both mushrooms can make you feel sick, tired and disoriented.
-
Amanita's can make you nervous, twitchy and cold.
-
Amanita's can make make you feel so withdrawn inside your own head that you
can't hold a sensible conversation.
Brief Description:
Magic Mushrooms are mushrooms which grow in the wild that produce similar
effects to LSD when you eat them. There are two main types and they are both
very different.
Street Names:
Liberties, magics, mushies, liberty cap, psilcybe semilanceata, psilcybin,
shrooms, Amani agaric, Fly Agaric
Effects:
Although, magic mushrooms have a similar effect to LSD, the trip is often
milder and shorter. Like LSD, the mushrooms alter the way the mind perceives
things, but experiences vary for each individual and it is common for the user
to experience hallucinations and a feeling of euphoria along with a perception
that objects, colours and sounds are distorting. The physical effects usually
kick in after half an hour, and they include an increase in heart rate, blood
pressure and pupil size, and depending on the amount of mushrooms consumed the
effects can last up to four hours.
What does the law say?
On the 18 July 2005 the Drugs Act 2005 came into force. The new law means that
raw magic mushrooms, as well as those that are dried or prepared, are now
classified as Class A drugs.Possession of magic mushrooms could lead to up to
seven years in jail and an unlimited fine. Supplying someone else with magic
mushrooms could get you life imprisonment and an unlimited fine. It is illegal
to import, export, produce, supply, possess or possess with intent to supply
magic mushrooms, in any form. It is also illegal to supply growing kits. In the
past only dried and prepared magic mushrooms were illegal because they
contained high levels or the Class A chemical psilocybin. Now raw mushrooms
that contain psilocybin are also illegal. This law has come in to halt the sale
of raw magic mushrooms by commercial vendors.Special exceptions will be made
for magic mushrooms growing unattended on private land or for those members of
the public who may have picked magic mushrooms unknowingly. This law does not
apply to fly agaric mushrooms as they do not contain psilocybin.
|