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California Could Legalize Magic Mushrooms in 2018

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Re: California Could Legalize Magic Mushrooms in 2018

#41

Post by Footkerchief »

jlebar wrote: post #17
djsumdog wrote: post #6

You can currently buy psychoactive mushrooms in stores in The Netherlands. Buying mushrooms illegally from a legit dealer in the US means making sure they have several uniform bags of the product. You want to make sure they're grown safely in a lab or farm. There are too many people who will go out and just pick mushrooms, which is incredibly unsafe. Unless you're an actual mycologist, it's difficult to tell what's s…

> Humans used psychoactive substances for centuries, usually under the supervision of a shaman or some type of religious figure to undergo a journey. I don't have a position on legalizing psychoactive mushrooms, but I don't think this is a good argument. For example, humans also used lead to sweeten wine for centuries, but that's not evidence that lead is harmless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_acetate#Sweet…

Just to complete this line of reasoning -- the grandparent comment does not distinguish between good and bad effects of psychedelic mushrooms. It's easy (even reasonable) to skip over that distinction with mushrooms, because their bad effects are few and minor.

Mushrooms and leaded wine both have effects that their users long considered good. The difference between them, for purposes of this argument, is that for leaded wine we've since discovered very bad effects that completely outweigh the good effects, whereas for mushrooms we haven't.

Re: California Could Legalize Magic Mushrooms in 2018

#42

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #32
jlebar wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Humans used psychoactive substances for centuries, usually under the supervision of a shaman or some type of religious figure to undergo a journey. I don't have a position on legalizing psychoactive mushrooms, but I don't think this is a good argument. For example, humans also used lead to sweeten wine for centuries, but that's not evidence that lead is harmless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_acetate#Sweet…

Nobody is running about trying to purchase, at least for their own account, lead sweeteners on the black market. We know the risks, and we don't want it. With psychoactive substances, however, many people who know the risks still want it. It strikes me as absurd that inhibiting them should be a public matter.

[deleted]

Re: California Could Legalize Magic Mushrooms in 2018

#43

Post by metalliqaz »

DanCarvajal wrote: post #34
metalliqaz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought California was lagging behind because their first try included a crazy monopolistic corporate giveaway to a handful of established companies.

Wasn't that Ohio?

Possibly, I don't really follow this stuff.

Re: California Could Legalize Magic Mushrooms in 2018

#44

Post by ravenstine »

School-Cotton wrote: post #39
ravenstine wrote: post #35

After this, I hope that legalizing home distilling is next on the docket. I know it'd still be illegal federally, but you're much less likely to have the ATF bust down your door if the state law enforcement isn't interested in it.

I hope they don't. It's much easier to kill yourself and others by home distilling than by taking shrooms.

Why, because fires? But people who are interested in home distilling are already doing it. I don't believe significantly more people would start distilling at home because it's pretty costly and it's much easier just to buy hard liquor. Admittedly, I don't know the numbers on how many fires are started by distilling every year. Regardless, you can legally distill for fuel purposes, which tells me that the government isn't terribly concerned about potential fires.

If you mean that people are going to go blind, well that doesn't happen unless you adulterate your own moonshine with industrial methanol, which would be idiotic. People don't get methanol poisoning from homemade alcohol; that's very hard to do when ethanol is a methanol antidote.

Re: California Could Legalize Magic Mushrooms in 2018

#45

Post by pmoriarty »

wallace_f wrote: post #22
jpfed wrote: post #5

I think this is going to lead to a lot of unforeseen problems. Brick structures will be much more vulnerable once literally anyone can take one of these and become twice as large. And once you've had a mushroom, if you get the right kind of flower in your system you'd be an unstoppable fire-throwing menace. Then it doesn't matter what kind of gun control is on the books. I just don't know what they're thinking.

>It is distinctly possible that California voters could be the first in the nation to decide Your thinking might be more worldly than you realize. This--Nintendo--was banned in China until 2015. Now take the cultural stigma of psychedelic use and place it on Nintendo. Is it now any less ridiculous that mushrooms are banned here? 'Tyranny over the individual' was never have a legitimate role of government in the first…

"While We're gaining some rights back (LGBT, prohibition), but losing others (privacy, free speech)."

I am hopeful that if the decriminalization and legalization of psychedelics continues, and if they ever become anywhere near as popular as they were in the 60's, they will usher in a renaissance of artistic creativity and positive social and political transformation.

It likely won't be a replay of the 60's, but it could still be very positive, as more people begin to see through the bullshit of the current social and political systems, and start to create positive alternatives.

That said, there could be and probably will be some backlashes and regressions as the media start to swarm like flies over sensational drug-related stories and phenomena, much like they did around psychedelic demagogues like Leary, Kesey and Manson (I hate to use Manson in the same sentence as the rest, but they all had a role in fomenting the anti-drug hysteria of the 60's and 70's).

We've been lucky so far that no such demagogues or scandals have emerged in recent years, but as drugs become more popular and socially accepted, I have no doubt that some psychedelic drug-related scandal or expose is going to outrage the public and there will be calls to make these drugs illegal once again.

Legalization advocates have tried to play it safe by pushing the medicinal benefits of these substances, and by running carefully conducted research studies, but once these drugs become more popular, you know that most people aren't going to be using them wisely or carefully, and some will be using them irresponsibly or even destructively.

Re: California Could Legalize Magic Mushrooms in 2018

#49

Post by elliottkember »

jlgaddis wrote: post #20
komali2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Wisconsin transplant, how are you happy when you must shovel, and shovel, and shovel. If I had stayed for one more winter I would have gone on a shovel-armed homicidal spree.

Here in Indiana, I have a four-wheeler with a plow. I have one for my truck too, for when it gets really bad.

I mean I was pretty happy out here in San Francisco but you might pull me in with this one

Re: California Could Legalize Magic Mushrooms in 2018

#50

Post by wallace_f »

pmoriarty wrote: post #45
wallace_f wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It is distinctly possible that California voters could be the first in the nation to decide Your thinking might be more worldly than you realize. This--Nintendo--was banned in China until 2015. Now take the cultural stigma of psychedelic use and place it on Nintendo. Is it now any less ridiculous that mushrooms are banned here? 'Tyranny over the individual' was never have a legitimate role of government in the first…

"While We're gaining some rights back (LGBT, prohibition), but losing others (privacy, free speech)." I am hopeful that if the decriminalization and legalization of psychedelics continues, and if they ever become anywhere near as popular as they were in the 60's, they will usher in a renaissance of artistic creativity and positive social and political transformation. It likely won't be a replay of the 60's, but it co…

>as more people being to see through the bullshit of the current social and political systems.

Do you think people are closer to being self-centered, profit-driven "rational agents" today than in the 60s?

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