Jochen Gartz - Magic Mushrooms Around the ... - preterhuman.net

Mega Mushroom Festival
While there is talk about "hippies" in the
report from Manchester, a 1980 newspaper article
from Wales describes a "new kind of gypsy",
whose exploits included a mushroom celebration
near Cardiff with 100 participants. The occasion
was the discovery of yet another bumper crop of
Psilocybe semilanceata in that area. Nineteen of
the revelers felt so seriously ill they had to seek
medical treatment.
It appears that in the early days of
mushroom usage in Great Britain, massive
amounts of Psilocybe mushrooms were consumed
on several occasions, which caused a higher
number of panic reactions than elsewhere in the
world.
However, it is clear from articles published
in medical journals that these cases were merely
"the tip of the iceberg", that is, they were a small
group of users whose reactions to the acute stages
of mushroom intoxication attracted attention
because they included clinically relevant
symptoms such as states of pathological depression
with no recognition of surroundings.
In an attempt to describe patterns of usage
of the Psilocybe species in the Tayside area near
Dundee, Scotland, N.R. Peden and his
collaborators found that the typical user was much
younger there than in Manchester or Wales. The
authors examined 27 patients, whose ages ranged
from 12 to 24 years. I have previously cited
accounts about accidental intoxications indicating
that children can have abnormal reactions to
psilocybin, such as cramps or loss of
consciousness. Teenage use of hallucinogens and
other psychoactive substances, including alcohol
and nicotine can have disastrous consequences.
The results of a survey at two Scottish
schools of 59 children aged 14 to 15 years revealed
that 66% of them had already heard about the
mushrooms' effects. Also, a paper published by
R.E. Young and his research team in 1982 found
that the mushroom users in the Glasgow area as a
group are quite young. In 1981, these researchers
treated 49 children and adults aged 12 to 28 years.
These authors are correct in pointing out that the
mushrooms cannot be eradicated due to their large
area of distribution. At the same time, however,
they demand that fungicides be sprayed on
mushroom
fruiting areas that are easily accessible!
This is a baffling and incomprehensible
proposition - to acutely endanger all residents of a
certain area by exposing them to poison, simply
because there were a few mild cases of mushroom
intoxications, with symptoms that soon
disappeared. If anyone is to blame, it is the users
for their carelessness and recklessness.
Fortunately, these crypto-schizophrenic proposals
were never implemented.
On the other hand, there are interesting
statistics available from the poison center in
London, about reported cases, where medical
attention was required following ingestion of
Psilocybe semilanceata. The numbers below
show how many people received therapeutic
treatment in Great Britain in a given year:
1978 33
1979 47
1980 96
1981 142
The average age of the mushroom collectors was
between 15 and 19 years. Reports mostly came in
during September and October of each year,
which corresponds to the mushroom's fruiting
period. Cases that were reported during other
months of the year had been caused by ingestion
of dried mushroom material.
In 36% of these individuals, the
mushrooms caused significant visual distortions
and visions. Five people acted aggressively
without experiencing perceptual alterations.
Dosage varied from half a mushroom (effects) to
up to two or three pounds. If the latter amounts
have been reported truthfully, those individuals
ingested about 1 to 1.5 g of pure psilocybin,
assuming an alkaloid content of 0.1 % in fresh
mushrooms. However, in cases where whole
mushrooms had generally been eaten according to
the Mexican tradition, liquids removed via
stomach pumps largely contained whole
mushrooms. Failure to carefully chew the
mushrooms before swallowing means that only a
fraction of the available amount of alkaloids is
extracted from the mushrooms and absorbed by
the body.