A movement with shroom to grow
Activists plan ‘Mushroom Day’ in support of psychedelic drugs
The first and, thus far, only time I did magic mushrooms, I did not have any epiphanies about my life, my spiritual existence or the universe as a whole.
I did, however, develop a fascination with the carpet and wallpaper of the Amsterdam café where I was sitting. And eight years later, I can vividly recall the feeling of pure joy that lasted throughout the night, with its soundtrack of early Jimi Hendrix.
Going back to the hippies and Timothy Leary, the stereotypical image of psychedelic drug experiences has tended to be much like mine: lots of sitting around, giggling and staring at inanimate objects.
But over the past five years, psychedelic use has made a resurgence as something more exalted and salutary. Drugs such as psilocybin (the active ingredient in shrooms), MDMA and LSD are finding acceptance as legitimate treatments for ailments both medical and spiritual. A recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggested that despite some side-effects, psychedelics have been effective in treating a variety of mental ailments.
Because of those advances, some activists have decided to try to bring psychedelics into the mainstream. On Sept. 20, cities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Australia will hold the first ever Psilocybin Mushroom Day.
Jose Ruiz is a spokesman for the 920 Coalition, which is organizing Mushroom Day. He says the event was inspired by the annual 4/20 activities, which raise awareness of marijuana’s medicinal benefits and lobby for decriminalization or outright legalization (and also feature a lot of pot smoking, of course).
“A lot of people want to talk about what psychedelics can do,” says Ruiz, a baseball instructor who lives in Monroe, N.Y. “There’s been tons of studies that knock it out of the park in terms of helping with depression, anxiety, addiction and PTSD.”
Psychedelic drugs are at a point very similar to where marijuana was 10 years ago in Canada and the United States. They’re illegal but used for recreational purposes by some (a 2012 study showed that up to 10 per cent of Americans have tried magic mushrooms at some point), and there is a growing consensus that they have medical applications.
It’s fitting that psychedelic drugs are being tested in a psychiatric context, given that this is where they got their start back in the 1940s and ’50s, following the synthesis of LSD by chemist Albert Hofmann.
“Psychiatrists used them to help them understand mental illness,” says Mark Haden, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia and chair of the Canadian branch of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. “But it didn’t help them understand schizophrenia. Then it went into popular culture and became popularized by Timothy Leary, who made an absolutely huge mistake. Specifically, he used the term ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out.’ ”
Haden believes that expression sums up why psychedelics scared mainstream society. Using hallucinogens was all about exploring one’s inner mind, not bringing people together, so it was anti-social in nature. After the drugs’ adoption by a hippie subculture not beloved by those in power, psychedelics soon became taboo, even within the context of legitimate medical research.
“Any time an unwanted group is challenging society and seen as ‘the other,’ their drug use will be criminalized,” says Haden. “Forty-four years later, that backlash doesn’t exist because the messaging is different.”
Indeed, current medical research into psychedelics is all about helping people reintegrate into society — helping addicts battle their demons, allowing those with depression to function or, if you’re Vancouver psychiatrist Ingrid Pacey, helping soldiers deal with the aftermath of being on the front lines. In 2012, Pacey and another physician became the first Canadian researchers to win approval to use MDMA (commonly called ecstasy) in experiments with patients. Pacey, who has spent more than 30 years working with patients who have post-traumatic stress disorder, says that while data is not yet available from her study, “the improvements are remarkable.”
“I think in general, there is an opening (to the use of psychedelics),” she said. “. . . It’s only because of that general opening that this study is happening at this time. But the medical profession is pretty conservative. I think it could take a while (before MDMA is accepted for clinical use).”
While everyday clinical applications aren’t here yet, the use of psychedelics in less formal environments is on the upswing. That includes voyaging to another part of the world before voyaging into your own mind.
“Psychedelic drugs have been used by ab- original communities for centuries,” says Haden. “For example the use of peyote or ayahuasca.”
The latter, a hallucinogenic brew that originated in the Amazon rainforest and is often ingested as part of healing ceremonies led by a shaman, is enjoying a major surge in popularity as a tourist activity. Carlos Tanner is the founder of the Peru-based Ayahuasca Foundation, which aims to educate people about the rituals and offers retreats that revolve around the traditional ayahuasca ceremony.
“There’s been about a 15-per-cent increase (in the number of tourists coming for ayahuasca) every year, which has led to more than a doubling over the last six years,” says Tanner.
Yet Tanner is not among those pushing for legalization of all psychedelics, even the one he specializes in.
“I don’t agree with the legalization of ayahuasca,” he says. “That’s part of the culture here. Even if you ask a taxi driver about ayahuasca, they will say you can’t drink it by yourself; you have to drink it with a shaman who knows what they’re doing . . . If I imagine that someone can go to the store and buy a bottle of ayahuasca and go home and drink it and not understand what they’re doing, it’s very hard for me to imagine there wouldn’t be a lot of casualties and death.”
Most people attending the Sept. 20 events will probably never need to use psychedelics for medicinal reasons, and may not have the money or inclination to seek out shamanistic rituals in South America. But just as the medical world has moved past the taboos of the 1960s and ’70s, those who take part will be trying to see through the myths and find out what these substances really do.
“I think we’ve grown up in a society that’s lied to us,” says Ruiz, 25. “A lot of anti-drug campaigns in classes . . . once you have your first joint, you realize it wasn’t as bad as they say. I think our generation has been a lot more open to trying out different things and questioning what we’ve been told as kids and teenagers.”