Legal Magic Mushrooms : An Emerging Industry Comes Out of the Dark

It all began with a grassroots movement in Colorado and now over 100 Cities across the U.S. are in the process of decriminalizing Psilocybin Mushrooms for therapeutic use. As people look for a way to naturally heal, decriminalization of Almost all Entheogenic substances, including Psychedelic “Magic Mushrooms” seen resurgence in university labs and underground psychonaut gatherings across America, Europe, Canada, and Mexico.

Psilocybin is a psychedelic drug produced naturally by psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as "magic mushrooms". Serotonin is an important chemical and neurotransmitter in the human body. It is believed to help regulate mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function. Psilocybin floods the serotonin receptors in the brain giving the user intense feelings of euphoria and amazing visuals of colors and geometric patterns. In the United States, it is federally classified as a Schedule I controlled substance that has "no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." The drug was banned by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. In February 2019, Troy Farah of Wired reported on two grassroots movements in Oregon and in Colorado, that were pushing for the decriminalization of psilocybin. Advocates for decriminalizing psilocybin have formed their movement based on the rapid legalization of  a schedule 1 drug in the United States, medical cannabis. Decriminalization efforts have not included synthetic psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and MDMA. A 2018 effort to decriminalize psilocybin in California failed to garner enough signatures. The movement to decriminalize psilocybin in the United States began in early 2019, with Denver, Colorado, becoming the first city to decriminalize psilocybin in May. The cities of Oakland and Santa Cruz, California, followed suit and decriminalized psilocybin in June 2019 and in May of 2020. Supporters of the movement have cited emerging research that indicate potential medical use for the drug. The use, sale, and possession of psilocybin in the United States, despite state laws, is illegal under federal law. In February 2019, Iowa state lawmaker Jeff Shipley introduced two bills that would legalize medical psilocybin and remove the drug from the state's list of controlled substances. In June 2019, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed legislation that would remove restrictions placed on researching the medical use of psilocybin and By November 2019, nearly 100 U.S. cities were reportedly considering measures to decriminalize psilocybin. On May 26, 2020, an initiative in Oregon to legalize medical psilocybin qualified to appear on the ballot in November. Another initiative in Oregon would decriminalize all drug possession and expand treatment services that will be paid for using legal Cannabis Taxes. In May 2020, New York Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal introduced a decriminalization bill, citing ongoing medical research and successful efforts in Denver, Oakland, and Santa Cruz. If the Denver ballot measure passes, adults 21 and older who are caught with psilocybin mushrooms, or even growing them for personal use, would become the "lowest law enforcement priority" for local police. Plus, the city and county of Denver would be barred from spending any money to prosecute psilocybin cases.

A Vermont state lawmaker, along with three other co-sponsors, introduced a bill in January, to decriminalize Entheogens including psilocybin, peyote, ayahuasca, and kratom. In February 2020, the Board of Elections in Washington, D.C., decided to allow a vote on decriminalization in November of that year if organizers could collect enough signatures in time. In August of 2020, after supporters gathered more than 25,000 signatures amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the D.C. Board of Elections said the initiative to decriminalize psychedelic plants, including psilocybin mushrooms, will appear on this November’s ballot.  Johns Hopkins psilocybin research project has begun extensive research and clinical trials using Psilocybin Mushrooms. Researchers found that 80% of healthy volunteers that returned a month after having one or two doses of psilocybin reported that the experience of taking the drug was in their top five meaningful experiences they’d ever had! Around 90% reported increased positive mood and greater life satisfaction. A small number of studies have been conducted trialing psilocybin on patients with treatment-resistant Major Depression, End of Life Anxiety, and Addiction. A person may be defined as having treatment-resistant depression if their symptoms of major-depressive disorder do not subside with attempted treatment from two different classes of antidepressants. In a small-scale study, patients with severe treatment-resistant major depression received two doses of psilocybin, seven days apart. Patients felt acute psychedelic effects between 30 and 60 minutes after dosing, with effects subsiding to negligible levels after six hours. Further studies of psilocybin have shown that for those with anxiety and patients with life-threatening cancer, the drug produced immediate, substantial and sustained improvements in anxiety and depression. Dr Robin Carhart-Harris is leading one of the first trials to test how therapy using psilocybin mushrooms compares to leading antidepressants. This is one of many studies planned at the new Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London. In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of those with depression, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been shown to be hyperactive, and effective treatment of depression has shown to normalize this. In 2017, Carhart-Harris found that psilocybin consistently deactivated the mPFC. The default mode network (DMN) is a loose connection of brain regions that communicate together when performing everyday tasks. Hyperactivity in certain areas of the DMN has been correlated with excessive rumination in those with severe depression.As a child there is greater connectivity in the brain, somewhat explaining the emotional sensitivity and hyper-imagination associated with children. Similar effects are associated with psychedelics, psilocybin has been proposed to reduce the activity in the DMN, supposedly turning the DMN off and then back on again. fMRIs also show looser connections between brain networks after taking psilocybin, it’s suggested that these networks then reintegrate and regenerate. This so-called ‘resetting’ of the brain may explain how psychedelics can help overcome dysfunctional pathways and subsequently help patients break compulsive negative thought patterns and behaviors. For all the promise of psilocybin for mental health treatment, very little is known about its exact therapeutic mechanisms. Carhart-Harris believes that psychedelic therapy will be licensed sometime within the next ten years, but there is still a long way to go. This presents its own issues, if psilocybin is found to be more effective than current antidepressant medication such as SSRIs, big pharmaceutical companies are likely to become involved just as big corporations took over the Cannabis industry.

There is still a need for much more research to know exactly how psilocybin works as a therapeutic treatment. Vote to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic and recreational consumption.