At some point or another, it is very likely that you have come across references to “Magic Mushrooms” in your lifetime. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve likely encountered at least one of these:
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Super Mario Brothers (1985)
But how much do we really know about them? In our younger years, our parents gave never- ending lectures about the dangers of weed, cocaine, heroine, and even meth, but how often did your parents sit you down to have a serious talk about the effects of psilocybin? I doubt most parents even know the technical term for “shrooms”.
After watching a short video by AsapScience, called Your Brain on Shrooms, I realized that I was extremely uninformed about this drug. Are psilocybin mushrooms truly as bad for you as we were led to believe? How do they compare to other major drugs?
Firstly and most surprisingly, psilocybin is not addictive. In fact, the body quickly builds up a tolerance for this drug, so it deters Unlike many serious drugs, this hallucinogen has very few long term effects. The only noted effects are possible emotional damage left over from a terrifying hallucination.
Luckily these bad hallucinations do not often occur. Studies found that psilocybin hallucinations can be “similar to spontaneously occurring mystical experiences” as log as they occur in an environment comfortable for the user. Many even claimed it to be a beautiful and spiritual experience.
Is it ethical to continue doing experiments with these mushrooms? If it doesn’t have any proven benefits, is it worth committing test subjects to possibly horrific trips?
I think it is definitely worth more research and studies. There was a very long period of time where society believed that marijuana and MCMD (molly/ecstasy) had no beneficial value to human health, but research is disproving these beliefs every day. Marijuana is now legal in multiple different states in the United States and can have benefits for epilepsy, eating disorders and insomnia. Molly is often associated as only a party drug but recent studies have shown that it can have immense benefits for individuals struggling with PTSD and possibly even depression. I believe that society has a negative view on a lot of drugs because they are misused and in an excessive amount. Through studies and research, we can fully identify how we can utilize natural pharmaceuticals like marijuana and prescribe them as needed with directions on the process and effective amount needed. Anything can be dangerous when used in the wrong way and at high amounts. But we don’t ban Tylenol or cough syrup.