Turns out, 'magic' mushrooms are responsible for the lowest percentage of emergency ward visits, followed by cannabis in second place, and LSD and cocaine in joint third place.
At the other end of the chart, methamphetamine, synthetic cannabis, and alcohol carried the most risk of a trip to the local emergency ward, leaving MDMA (ecstasy) and amphetamines in the middle of the drug safety table.
The survey took in responses from 115,523 people across more than 50 countries. Nearly 10,000 participants said they had tried magic mushrooms in the past year, with 0.2 percent of those needing a trip to the hospital after their drug-induced trip.
That was the lowest percentage figure in the survey by some distance, but researchers are keen to point out that no drug use is entirely harmless - and there are plenty of other risks associated with drugs that don't necessarily land you in hospital.
Related Stories
Denver votes to become first U.S. city to decriminalize 'magic mushrooms'
Denver will become the first city in the United States to decriminalize magic mushrooms, based on final unofficial results on Wednesday of a ballot initiative about the hallucinogenic drug.
The initiative called for Colorado's capital to end the imposition of criminal penalties for individuals at least 21 years of age for using or possessing psilocybin, widely known as magic mushrooms.
The Denver Elections Divisions will certify results on May 16, but the final count on its website on Wednesday was 50.56 percent of voters in favor and 49.44 percent against.
If the initiative is approved, psilocybin would still remain illegal under both Colorado and federal law. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration classifies the drug as a Schedule 1 substance, meaning the agency has deemed that it has a high potential for abuse with no accepted medical application.
Also at NYT:
"It's surreal," said Travis Tyler Fluck, a field organizer for the campaign to pass the measure, suggesting that Denver had a sizable population of "psychedelic constituents." "People just don't see it as a threat," he added. "Compared to the 'sinister' LSD, magic mushrooms are tame."
Oof. 🚲 🍄
Previously: Denver, Colorado Will Vote on Psilocybin Decriminalization Initiative on May 7
Related: Study Suggests Psilocybin "Resets" the Brains of Depressed People
Shrooms Safest, Comparatively Speaking
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 07 2019, @04:25PM (21 children)
The safest drugs are those that I understand. I have experience with alcohol, and I always get the results I want by applying that experience. Aspririn, and Tylenol, the same. Caffeine, and tobacco. All of these have known, consistent effects on my body. If I need/want something else, I'll consult with an expert. No 'shrooms off of the street corner, nothing from a dirty assed meth lab or designer drug lab. I'll go to the doctor, and take the drugs he prescribes, that I'm pretty sure have been cooked up in nice, sterile laboratories by people with degrees and years of training.
And, even that isn't guarantee enough sometimes.
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 07 2019, @04:44PM (5 children)
You get your shrooms on a street corner? Fucking city boys. They're free in most any cow pasture if the climate is right.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday January 08 2019, @01:40AM (4 children)
Which is exactly what the boys and I told ourselves one night many years ago, after smoking some of that electric cabbage.
We were clever too, we knew that magic mushrooms grew in a specific part of the country, and so we set off to find some.
Of course, after 4 hours of driving, when we got where we knew the mushrooms grew, we realised that none of us actually knew what they looked like.
Stupid boys.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @01:57AM (3 children)
Ha! That's funny, that is. It's something you just sort of pick up in most of the areas they're prevalent. Usually around the time your oldest buddy can start driving. Unless one of your friends has cattle on their land, in which case it could be significantly earlier.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:31AM (2 children)
I'm a country boy, and most of my mates were dairy farmers, so no shortage of cows, but also no magic mushrooms.
Maybe the winters weren't cold enough or something, because as I said about 4 hours south of us they did grow, quite well in fact.
Not that I ever tried any because it turns out I don't know what they look like. Still, pot grew wild if you knew where to look, and we did know what that looks like.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:01AM
Rainfall I expect. Maybe winters less harsh. They need warmth and humidity like most any fungus. They didn't grow all that great in OK but in LA they're as common as grass.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Tuesday January 08 2019, @11:05AM
You can't really be sure by look. The only way to be sure is a spore print. The spores should look metallic purple. Anything else and you have a high risk of poisoning yourself.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @04:56PM
Shrooms are not a very profitable drug to sell on the street corner. Anybody can grow them with relatively cheap equipment and legally obtainable spores. No complicated chemistry is required.
Start out by taking small doses and you would have no problems with it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @05:03PM
You're right in that buying shrooms from a dealer is a very dumb idea.
Since it's not addictive and you can't have a big consumption (impossible to trip multiple days in a row) it's not very lucrative.
So unless you know a hippie that specializes in the stuff, you're likely to get sold non magic shrooms infused with some addictive and dangerous crap (gotta secure your clients).
If you're lucky the shrooms will be store bought, if not the careless dealer could have used toxic shrooms.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Monday January 07 2019, @06:12PM
It would not take too much experimentation to understand cannabis -- assuming you are buying it in a state that has legalized it and you buy it from legal sources.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Monday January 07 2019, @06:15PM
Shrooms may even beneficial. Listen to this episode of Fresh Air:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/15/611225541/reluctant-psychonaut-michael-pollan-embraces-the-new-science-of-psychedelics [npr.org]
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 5, Informative) by curunir_wolf on Monday January 07 2019, @08:00PM (3 children)
Yea, I hate to tell you this, but the drugs that doctors subscribe kill more people than all the street drugs combined...
I am a crackpot
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday January 07 2019, @08:57PM (2 children)
That's not true, OD deaths from heroin and other street opioids definitely top the list. It's pretty well understood that many of the people who die from those got addicted through being prescribed pharmaceutical opioids, but you're full of shit.
The pharmacologically attributed per anum deaths in the US is about 22k(17k of which was prescription opioids) in 2018, for illegal drugs heroin alone was close to 40k, and other illegal drugs like meth adding 10k. I appreciate where you're coming from because there was absolutely a purposeful attempt by the phara industry to create addicts, but maybe don't go to bat for heroin?
(Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:52PM (1 child)
I don't know where you're getting your statistics, but they seem way off. The total is well over 60,000, according to the CDC [nytimes.com]. And that is ONLY for overdoses. MANY deaths are also caused by adverse drug reactions and allergies, combinations of prescriptions that cause adverse reactions, misprescribed drugs, and drugs filled wrong by pharmacies.
I can't find any more recent by-drug-type statistics (they should be there somewhere on the CDC site, but I can't find the type codes data), but as of 2008, the analysis found that the most commonly abused prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma caused more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. I don't think heroin use has expanded enough to flip that around, but I could be wrong. I would be very surprised to learn that more people are killed by heroin than Fentanyl.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:15PM
Your article is about all overdose deaths including illegal ones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @08:31PM (5 children)
Yes, this. You have a bunch of shrooms growing on a log or whatever. It's not like booze where there's a percentage on it. You have no idea how powerful they are. Also, it's pretty simple to understand being "just a bit drunk". What does "just a bit shroomy" feel like?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Monday January 07 2019, @10:24PM
> What does "just a bit shroomy" feel like?
Do shrooms a few dozen times at increasing dosages, and then you'll know. You understand "just a bit drunk" because you've experienced the spectrum. Experience the spectrum on other drugs and you'll know what various degrees of their influence feel like as well.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @11:39PM (1 child)
https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_info4.shtml [erowid.org]
https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_dose.shtml [erowid.org]
Most people grow them in ideal conditions indoors instead of picking them outside. Almost all of the shrooms people grow are Psilocybe cubensis variants with about 0.6% of psilocybin and psilocin by weight. You can dry them, grind them, and insert the contents into empty gel caps. If you eat them fresh instead, 10 grams fresh = 1 gram dry. You experiment with the dose, but anything under 2 grams dry is closer to "just a bit shroomy". Closer to 5 grams dry and up = you better know what you're doing.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @11:50PM
to me there is a weird uncomfortable region between . 5 and .8g. I find a +3g trip "my mind is melting into the universe and I am a retard " more enjoyable than the introspection from hell I get from low dose
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Tuesday January 08 2019, @11:19AM (1 child)
I grew my own a few years back. (Pretty easy, make rice cakes, inject spore solution, put in a terrarium with perlite soaked in water, leave until the fruit)
I was very excited about my first grow, but misread 5 grams as 5 mushrooms.
What a hell of an experience. Within 20 mins I couldn't see properly. I felt like I was looking at the world through a diamond kaleidoscope.
I didn't have time to go through the left right brain split phase (Very horrible, your head feels echoey and paranoid through this stage, it's why I don't do shrooms anymore. Very unpleasant)
About half an hour after that, I started to experience true ego death. My inner monologue started to shorten. I could repeat to myself "Remember your on shrooms", but that quickly faded. "Your on shrooms" "shrooms" "shroo" "sh"
Eventually all inner thought was gone, I could not interact with the world. All I could do was curl up in the fetal position on the sofa. All sensation went, I could not see, hear or feel, but also all consciousness went. No fear at all, as there was not a part of me that could feel fear. I no longer existed.
All that was left was brown fractals. That's it. Amazing fractals, but nothing else.
That whole "Feeling one with the universe", That's on low doses. True ego death means.... you don't exist. Your mind is gone, it cannot function, you can only experience. But you have no mind to process the experience. You don't exist anymore. It's very liberating.
The trip lasted about 4 hours. Funny thing about shroom trips, they get stronger and stronger than at the peak... It just ends.
Like the scene in trainspotting where he is overdosing and they inject him with adrenaline or something. WHOOOSH. Your back to reality. It was like surfacing from deep water. All brain function restored. Very very relaxed, probably the most relaxed I have ever been and perfectly sober.
I don't advocate drugs for anyone, however going through true ego death every couple of years seems to be a great reset for me. It seems to be a mix of "oneness" with the universe and at the same time, hallucinogens are horrifically traumatic on the mind. After surviving that rollercoaster, real life seems quaintly charming. All those things you used to worry about? Meaningless in comparison. The stress you were feeling. Ha! How silly it all seems.
So every few years, when I feel life is getting on top of me, drop a really strong hallucinogen (Shrooms or LSD) and have a mental reset. Works for me.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @07:36PM
this is similar to my experience with shrooms in high school . we had picked 82 shrooms and made a tea. it was powerful. afterwards i was quite "zen" about things.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 07 2019, @11:19PM
There have been all manner of Wrongful Death lawsuits, but even so acetominophen is still an OTC drug.
The warning label's text was too small for him or my mother to read. He took several Tylenol each day for at least two years despite that the warning specifically advises not to take it any longer than ten days.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @04:33PM (1 child)
only old authoritarian idiots who support the drug war don't know this sort of thing.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 07 2019, @08:27PM
Old authoritarian idiots who support the drug war stopped listening / paying attention the moment they realized the speaker is supporting the safe use of "ILLEGAL!!!" drugs.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @06:26PM (4 children)
> ...and there are plenty of other risks associated with drugs that don't necessarily land you in hospital.
.....and there are plenty of other risks associated with life that don't necessarily land you in hospital.
ftfy
(Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Monday January 07 2019, @09:01PM (3 children)
"Other problems exist, so please ignore this thing that has very obvious, very large risk dimensions" is never a good argument. It's a pointless, obviously inaccurate false equivalency.
"People can take informed risks if they want to" is a fine moral and subjective position to take, but your argument for the same thing is about 1000x worse because your reasoning sucks.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday January 07 2019, @10:37PM (2 children)
And what exactly are the very obvious, very large risk dimensions of shrooms that you're speaking of?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 07 2019, @11:17PM (1 child)
Let's see if you can figure out what I was referring to with "SCREAMING CHOCOLATE EIGENFUNCTIONS!"
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday January 08 2019, @08:30PM
Don't know about Screaming Chocolate, but do know about eigenfunctions.
You studied functional analysis?
-- hendrik
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 07 2019, @11:16PM (1 child)
This was at UC Santa Cruz when I was 21, in 1985. Shrooms have been growing wild all over the Santa Cruz Mountains since long before the Dawn Of Humanity.
Toward the end of a trip I was overcome with sorrow. I put on a Gregorian Chant album then lay on my bed in the dark.
When the first side of the record finished, I got up, went into the restroom, looked in the mirror then for the very first time in my life, my reflection looked like that of a handsome young man. The sorrow had vanished; for quite a long time after I was free of depression.
I have since concluded that I suffered Body Dysmorphic Disorder since I was 7, as whenever I looked in the mirror I saw horrible ugliness.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @11:58PM
I fought my depression with shroom in high school, it saved my life. a dose every 3 weeks erased my anxiety and depression. it took me 8 months of forced abstinence (I moved) to get bought to a mental health doctor by friends who cared about me