Magic mushrooms are close to being decriminalized
“When the grass starts wiggling, you’ll know.” Those words were spoken to me by a friend of mine in college, who for the sake of decorum, will remain nameless (along with everyone else). It was spring 1995, and I was weeks away from graduating college. It was a gorgeous spring day, and it was more or less reunion weekend on campus.
And for the first time ever, I ate mushrooms. Literally. Never had a mushroom - magic or otherwise - in my life. I was opposed to them - the normal kinds - because my dad had an aversion to them, and who doesn’t want to be like their dad? But by this time of my life, I was ready. I mean, I was already a professional pot smoker and a very talented drinker. I had never tried LSD, although it was readily available. I didn’t like the idea of chemicals or something. But on this day, when the ‘shrooms came to town, I decided to give it … well, to give it the old college try.
***** News hook: The New Jersey state legislature passed three bills the other day. One was the marijuana industry bill, the second was decriminalizing marijuana, and the third decriminalizes the possession of psilocybin, a.k.a. what makes magic mushrooms “magic.” Once Gov. Phil Murphy signs these bills, possessing mushrooms will be a disorderly persons offense. (As for the marijuana, well … come back tomorrow for Part II of the “Drugs I’ve Done That Are Now Pretty Much Legal” series.)
*****
I was instructed by my friend to head to the bathroom and simply hawk down my allotment of mushrooms. So I did. They were disgusting, and I suppose I was in the bathroom in case I hurled, which probably almost happened. They tasted like misery warmed over.
From there, the lot of us - there were probably 10 or so who were in on the deal - sat around in the grass and waited. After about a half-hour, some of us started saying things like, “I’m feeling it.”
I felt nothing. It seemed like a giant waste of time. I said so to one of my friends.
“When the grass starts wiggling, you’ll know.”
About 10 minutes later, so help me God, the grass started dancing, the sky turned a shade of blue I did not know existed and I felt a lot of love for the people surrounding me.
The next bunch of hours? Whoa.
Had so much fun, we did it again the following weekend.
*****
OK. So the details of it all? They would be very, very boring to detail. Suffice it to say nature took on whole new levels, the idea of a superior being seemed very real, and I had an honest-to-goodness out-of-body experience.
Today, some 25 later, some of us who did this together got married to each other. Some of us went on to big careers. Some of us have passed away. But all of us got to share something together none of us will ever forget.
I haven’t tried mushrooms since then, and I’m not entirely sure I want - or need - to.
But I will say this: I kind of think everyone should try them once. Or twice.
***** There is a ton of research - and not paid for by High Times - that shows psilocybin is a massive cure for depression. A Johns Hopkins study showed that two doses - combined with psychotherapy - cured major depression.
And I’m confident the “psychotherapy” angle is just someone there to help guide you through the whole thing, which lasts … well, gosh, not really sure how long it lasted. Time melted away.
Here’s the thing: It’s been 25 years, and I still can recall what I felt, what I saw, how it made me see things differently.
Again, to be clear: It would be boring and next to impossible to put it all into words. It unlocks something in your brain. Maybe it’s primitive, maybe it’s an advancement, who knows. It’s not a state of being I would want to constantly be in - it would not be possible to, you know, live in a society - but taking a peek behind that curtain? Yeah. It was something.
Oregon is the only other state that has decriminalized it, and they’ve also made it legal for therapeutic reasons. I’m confident other states were slowly follow - just like marijuana legalization. And I’d be willing to bet even odds in 20 years it will be an accepted, and maybe even standard, form of care for depression.
In the meantime … yeah. It was quite an experience.