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Denver decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms

denverpost.com

91–100 of 151 posts

Re: Denver decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms

#92

Psychedelics have their ups and downs, but perhaps their best quality is their ability to enhance perspective. Being able to understand different points of views probably will change humans. Just recently there was an article on the front or second page of hacker news which claimed caffeine and alcohol are responsible for civilization. ( http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/02/28/alcohol-caf... ) I can't even i…

A theory on psilocybin's role in human evolution:

https://www.inverse.com/article/34186-stoned-ape-hypothesis

It's best to listen to audio of Terence himself laying out the theory, he's a fantastic orator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFC-sVa9AE

Re: Denver decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms

#93
post #89

Psilocybin mushrooms are less legal in The Netherlands than in Denver. All because a French student committed suicide in Amsterdam after eating mushrooms.

Fairly sure there were very regular problems with tourists losing their minds on mushrooms. I remember one story of a guy on mushrooms who eviscerated his dog cause he thought it was the devil.

Holland suffers a lot from what tourists do while profiting from their lax drug laws. Towns like Roosendaal on the border with Belgium were flooded for years with French and Belgians (like me) coming to fill their backpacks with weed and mushrooms. In the 90s you could walk away with however much you could carry from coffee shops like Koyaanisqatsi. Lots of French dealers would go stock up there.

When the shops were closed on Sundays you'd have dealers in the streets.

It was all fun and games at the time but for the average Dutch person living there it wouldn't have been a lot of fun and I understand they cracked down on it for that reason.

Re: Denver decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms

#94
post #89

Psilocybin mushrooms are less legal in The Netherlands than in Denver. All because a French student committed suicide in Amsterdam after eating mushrooms.

Don't forget the French guy that felt he had to cut up his dog to release his spirit. In that same year we also had a Brit mutilating himself and trashing his hotel (after consuming a veritable cocktail of alcohol and drugs including mushrooms, an inconvenient detail left out of most reports at the time) and an Icelandic guy that thought he could fly and jumped off a building, breaking his legs and feet.

Notice the trend here? All tourists, all acting alone. Bad set and setting.

Despite multiple researches showing no evidence of any real negative impact on Dutch society, foreign political pressure eventually got them banned. That most of these cases involved people with serious mental issues who shouldn't have taken any drugs in the first place didn't matter.

Truffles don't have the same effect and they taste awful. Fortunately growkits are still perfectly legal. These are a lot cheaper and they have the added benefit of keeping mushies out of the hands of unstable tourists.

Re: Denver decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms

#96
post #54

The key question I have about decriminalisation of marijuana and things like mushrooms and hopefully MDMA soon, is "will it reduce the number of people who try meth/ice?" My theory is that people become addicted to meth/ice because they want to get high, but "good" drugs like marijuana and MDMA/mushrooms are not legal/available/cheap, so people buy/try meth/ice. Put another way, my theory is that legalisation of "goo…

>people become addicted to meth/ice because they want to get high s/want to get high/are unhappy and... not because they want to get high, but, because meth is addictive, by it's very nature. cannabis and psilocybin are not addictive. to further your point...

> cannabis and psilocybin are not addictive.

Not physically addictive. It's important to realise the difference because you can become mentally/psychological dependent on almost anything, including drugs.

As some anecdotal evidence I have a friend who was addicted to cannabis. It stemmed from his cigarette addiction, which he essentially replaced when he started smoking weed. He smoked weed every day for 4-5 years. Obviously that is not healthy. He's off it now, around a year. Needless to say, getting over a psychological addiction is much easier than a physical one.

Re: Denver decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms

#97

This is atrocious web design. Not only is all of the content covered by an ad and a pop-up but when I tried to scroll I was redirected to opening an email by a still-loading pop-up.

Not that it helps you much, but on mobile it's much better.

Re: Denver decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms

#98
post #3

Interesting, I saw an article claiming it narrowly failed a bit ago and was saddened. I have never tried them personally, but I suspect the threat of being arrested makes it harder to have a good "set and setting". I know that I never enjoyed cannabis until a trip to a place it was legal. Knowing that I was 100% ok to imbibe took away all my worries about detection, people knowing I was high, etc, and let me enjoy th…

Shrooms are very different. Brain chemistry almost impossible to predict ~ you may think you have a good set and setting, and then get permanently damaged. Who knew!

Why are you spreading fake and alarmist information?

Re: Denver decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms

#99
post #20

Absolutely fantastic news! I've had highly therapeutic experiences using psychedelics even just in the company of close friends and a relaxed, accepting atmosphere. There genuinely is medical benefit to these substances when used in a peaceful environment and amongst those you trust, and I can only imagine the benefit that a trained professional can provide: a psychologist could truly be the 21st century's "shaman."…

Absolutely agree.

If you can't find a trained guide, having close trusted friends sit for you can be of tremendous therapeutic and healing value. And, yes, working with a trained guide can be of huge benefit -- they support you in creating a safe and powerful set and setting. The work can definitely be shamanic - one of the things these substances have the potential to do is to teach us how to shamanically journey within ourselves. The safer our psyche feels, the deeper we can go.

I want to mention that there are many professions other than psychologist that are a natural fit for safely guiding people in states of expanded consciousness.

Many people who provide this kind of service are trained and apprenticed specifically in this kind of work after education and work experience in other healing and service oriented fields like therapy, counseling, ministry, medicine, nursing, bodywork, music therapy, etc. And they have lots of personal experience being in expanded states themselves, working with a guide (that's part of the apprenticeship).

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