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Nowadays it's not much different, I used to live in Upstate NY and people had huge bags of mushrooms from the cowfields up there. The problem with that is that not all of the mushrooms are "magic" and some of them just make you sick. Then I started working with this band, and one of the guys had been a mycologist (mushroom expert) in college. He had a mycology degree, textbooks, and everything. Well come to find out, his attic was decked out as a pretty good mycology lab, he grew several pounds of mushrooms every month. At $200 a pound, that's not a bad side operation.

I've only eaten them a few times and don't really care for the "high" you get. I'm not a fan of drugs having never done anything other than smoke a lot of weed in my day and I ate mushrooms a few times. I wouldn't suggest running out and trying them, but they are pretty much harmless and what it does to you is short-lived (a few hours plus a "hangover" the next day), but the experience is interesting.

Here's an article from CBC detailing some mushroom experiments: Mushroom drug creates mystical experience: study

The ones we picked were a type of Psilocybe Cubensis, one of the many "magic" varieties. It was easy to spot them once someone showed you what they looked like. They looked different than the other mushrooms, had black/purple gills and they would quickly bruise purple when you pinched one or broke a stem. They weren't super strong compared to the freeze dried mushrooms you could buy but the dark tea made with a lot of them was really powerful. I never liked the taste or texture of any kind of mushrooms though, and even if you didn't mind the taste of the "magic" varieties a mushroom trip isn't something most people want to experience many times. It was fun I guess but not something you'd want to do over and over again.

As for them being harmless, I don't know about that. I sure wouldn't take them again. They aren't addictive though and I don't think they are much of a threat to society. I still wouldn't want them being legally sold though, although I don't know why possession or sales should be a felony in most states. You can get life in prison in my state for selling or trading any amount of these mushrooms and simple possession of even a tiny amount could land you in prison for up to ten years. Seems like major overkill to me, but I don't write the laws. If I did possession would be a minor misdemeanor involving just a fine and first offense sales of a small amount to an adult at least would probably also be a misdemeanor, but maybe with a short mandatory period of jail time. We don't have enough short mandatory jail terms on misdemeanors. Instead we just crank things up to the felony level and then most people end up pleading to suspended sentences but are stuck with felony records that make it hard for them to make an honest living and get ahead in legitimate society. And of course some get sent to prison for a long time for the same things for which others get probation or suspended sentences. We'd do better with far fewer felony level crimes but real punishments on misdemeanors. Even a ten or fifteen day jail sentence would be a lot more immediate punishment than a suspended sentence on a felony and it would probably act as just as much or more of a deterrent if it was a mandatory sentence no one could weasel out of if convicted. We've gone crazy with our drug laws in this country.