![]() ![]() Unfortunately, drug policies stem from prejudice and fear, not compassion and reason. In fact, a growing body of evidence suggests that psilocybin and other psychedelics may be effective in treating conditions like depression and anxiety.ĭespite this, most countries have decided to treat psilocybin as a Schedule 1 drug, imposing the harshest possible punishments for its possession and sale. To this day, there is no evidence of harm from the occasional sensible use of the substance, either short-term or long-term. There is no science or reason behind the prohibition of psilocybin. Therefore, similarly to the legal status of the natural psychedelic ayahuasca, the legal status of psilocybin is unclear, even in those countries that are party to the Vienna Convention. However, psilocybin is a naturally occurring substance. The Vienna Convention was designed to target the manufacturing of synthetic psychotropics like LSD and MDMA. Psilocybin falls into an interesting gray area here. Psychotropic Substances Act and the UK’s Misuse of Drugs Act. There are now 183 countries that have subscribed to this convention, which led directly to the creation of draconian laws like the U.S. ![]() It suggested a scheduling system for all participating countries to classify drugs into categories of harmful and controlled substances. The Vienna Convention of 1971 was a UN attempt–spearheaded by the United States–to counter the growing popularity of psychotropic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin. Or–more likely–as a potential scapegoat that could be used to retain the government’s control over anti-war and liberal groups. Like LSD, psilocybin was seen as a hallucinogenic drug that was empowering the counterculture movement of the time. The reasons behind the prohibition of psilocybin-containing fungi date back to the drug war of the ‘60s and ‘70s. But by then, word of the mushrooms’ power had spread, and they had already taken root in the counter-cultural hippie movement. He and his partner Richard Alpert documented how the drug affected consciousness by administering mushrooms to volunteer test subjects and using the mushrooms themselves.Įventually, their unorthodox approach to research (and advocacy for recreational magic mushroom use) led to dismissal from Harvard in 1963 and banishment from academia. He ran experiments at Harvard University and started the Harvard Psilocybin Project. Wasson’s article caught the attention of American psychologist Timothy Leary. Wasson brought a mushroom back from his trip and worked with Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who had been the first to discover and ingest LSD in 1943, to isolate its psychedelic compounds. Gordon Wasson first observed and recorded their use in a ritual he witnessed in Mexico, and published a piece about them in Life Magazine. A mycologist (mushroom scientist) named R. The use of psilocybin mushrooms by western cultures did not become common until the 1950s. Many cultures considered them sacred, and surviving indigenous groups in Central America continue to use them. Rock paintings dated 9000-7000 BCE found in the Sahara Desert region even depict mushroom use. Psilocybin mushrooms have a long history of traditional use, beginning with groups of Aboriginal Australians tens of thousands of years ago, and continuing to Mesoamerican cultures whose descendants still use psilocybin to this day. A Brief History of the Legality of Mushrooms Ancient Civilizations ![]()
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