Free Republic

The Iowa House passed legislation Monday to legalize the use of psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in “magic mushrooms,” for psychiatric treatment through a state program. House File 978, passed 84-6, would establish a Psilocybin Production Establishment Licensing Board within the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, operating in a similar fashion to the existing Medical Cannabidiol Advisory Board that oversees Iowa’s medical cannabis program. The board would grant licenses for the production and administration of products with psilocybin to people with certain mental health needs in the state. The bill also sets new requirements for who can access...

Shortly after the devastating eruption, some gophers went on a very confusing day trip. A member of the gopher recovery team getting to work. Image credit: Mike Allen/UCR When Mount St Helens erupted in 1980, the resulting lava, ash, and debris turned the landscape barren for miles around. It was clear the land would take a long time to recover from the eruption. But one team of scientists had an idea about how they could help speed up the process; sending a few gophers there on a day trip. Plant life struggled to return to the area around Mount St...

Scientists have claimed that the consumption of the fungi psilocybin, also known as 'magic mushrooms,' influenced pre-human hominids' brains six million years ago.They analyzed dozens of studies involving psilocybin and consciousness, finding the fungi increased connectivity between networks in the frontal brain region associated with expressive language, decision-making and memory.These 'significant neurological and psychological effects' may have been the catalase ancient ancestors to interact with each other and the environment - spurring consciousness among our species.The idea that magic mushrooms sparked the pivotal point in humans has been touted by podcaster Joe Rogan, who has referenced the 'Stoned Ape Theory'...

Currently, there are more than 55 million people who suffer from dementia worldwide, and nearly 10 million new cases of dementia are diagnosed each year. Cognitive decline has become such a pervasive issue in modern society; it has become normalized across the political spectrum. Some of today’s government officials show serious cognitive decline, and even the de facto President of the United States routinely stumbles around in a stupor, taking cues from handlers and mumbling incoherently at times. Cognitive decline is a serious health issue worldwide, but in many cases, there are ways to reverse the damage, prevent the death...

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The latest study to examine how tiny amounts of psychedelics can impact mental health provides further evidence of the therapeutic potential of microdosing. Published in Scientific Reports this week, the study followed 953 people taking regular small amounts of psilocybin and a second group of 180 people who were not microdosing. This research, led by University of British Columbia Okanagan's Dr. Zach Walsh and doctoral student Joseph Rootman, is the latest study to come from the Microdose.me project. For the 30-day study, participants were asked to complete a number of assessments that tapped into mental health...

A new study published in the journal Current Biology found that an injection of psilocybin — the active ingredient in magic mushrooms — potentially provides long-lasting relief from chronic pain. Scientists at the University of Michigan injected the feet of rats with formaldehyde to simulate the effects of chronic inflammation. The rats were separated into three different groups. The first group was given a low dose of psilocybin, the second was given a high dose, and the third got a saltwater placebo. Scientists exposed the rats to pricks on their feet and hot plates to gauge their reaction.

In a world where boundaries and definitions are stretched to unrecognizable limits, a congregation of ex-Mormons has outdone itself in an unprecedented display of spiritual anarchy. Stepping far away from previously blasphemous Mormon roots, they’ve founded a “church” where their sacrament is not the bread and wine symbolizing Christ’s sacrifice, but psychedelic mushrooms. Yes, you read that correctly. They call themselves the “Divine Assembly,” trading in pews and hymnals for bean bags and trip guides. These spiritual “adventurers” claim they are communing directly with the divine while they’re tripping, but the only thing they are communing with is the surreal...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen accidentally eating magic mushrooms in China was not on anyone's 2023 bingo card. Last month, while discussing diplomacy overseas, Yellen dined at a restaurant during a visit to Beijing called Yi Zuo Yi (In and Out), a chain known for a Yunnan dish containing mushrooms called jian shou qing which means "see hand blue" in a rough translation. However, Lanmaoa asiatica mushrooms (the mushrooms that are used in the dish) are not your average fungi — they're known to have hallucinogen properties and turn blue when pressure is applied to them. Yellen didn't know this...

"I can tell you none of us were affected by the mushrooms," Yellen insisted to CNN.America's chief macroeconomist accidentally microdosed on Chinese "magic mushrooms" last month. Well, sort of. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen accidentally dined on hallucinogenic mushrooms on a recent diplomatic trip to China. However, she swears she didn't actually get high from the dish. "There was a delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties," Yellen told CNN's Erin Burnett. "I learned that later." "I can tell you none of us were affected by the mushrooms," Yellen added. "I read that if the...

A select group of celebrities are chosen to throw out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game. And not all of them maximize the experience—just ask 50 Cent. Almost no one, however, has had as much fun with the endeavor than rapper Wiz Khalifa—so he claims—did Monday evening. Khalifa, a military brat who grew up in Pittsburgh after moving around frequently as a child, threw out the first pitch ahead of the Pirates' series opener against the Guardians at PNC Park. The event was duly promoted across MLB's soc

Magic mushrooms may have been to blame for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s mortifying bow before a Chinese official last week. Yellen, 76, gobbled four portions of jian shou qing, a type of wild mushroom, when she dropped in at a casual Beijing restaurant soon after she arrived there on July 6, Chinese state media reported in an effusive story that took care to praise the secretary’s chopstick skills. But the funky fungi are known in their native province of Yunnan for their unpredictable psychedelic effects, CNN reported.

Magic Mushrooms. LSD. Ketamine. The Drugs That Power Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurs including Elon Musk and Sergey Brin are part of a drug movement that proponents hope will expand minds, enhance lives and produce business breakthroughs Elon Musk takes ketamine. Sergey Brin sometimes enjoys magic mushrooms. Executives at venture-capital firm Founders Fund, known for its investments in SpaceX and Facebook, have thrown parties that include psychedelics. Routine drug use has moved from an after-hours activity squarely into corporate culture, leaving boards and business leaders to wrestle with their responsibilities for a workforce that frequently uses. At the vanguard are tech executives...

Sen. John Fetterman offered full-throated support for psychedelics as a form of mental health therapy, bringing the emerging drug reform movement to Capitol Hill. Fetterman, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, made the comments on Wednesday during Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing, saying he’s “been an advocate of psychedelics in terms of magic mushrooms for PTSD and for veterans especially.” “I always thought it could be - and maybe I’m wrong - an amazing economic kind of boom for the mushroom [sector],” said Fetterman, as quoted by the website. “I think it could be a revolution in mental health.” Fetterman, a Democrat...

P. maluti. (Cullen Clark) Planet Earth is home to possibly hundreds of species of magic mushroom that contain the hallucinogen, psilocybin. Systematic fieldwork surveys of the genus, Psilocybe, however, are "entirely lacking" for many regions of the world. Now, a new paper describes two species of magic mushroom in southern Africa that are wholly new to science. That brings the total number of reported Psilocybe mushrooms on the continent from just four to six. One of the species, called Psilocybe maluti, is the first scientifically documented magic mushroom with traditional, spiritual uses in Africa. P. maluti was originally photographed in...

A Brookline teen was severely injured after he had “magic mushrooms” and jumped from a sixth-story window, according to police who arrested a drug dealer accused of targeting local kids. Brookline Police are now warning parents after this incident and the arrest of a 22-year-old man in Brookline Village. Based on a tip, Brookline detectives began investigating a suspected drug dealer who goes by the name Niko. He was allegedly selling drugs to underage teens. Some of the products were purchased at local marijuana dispensaries, where Niko allegedly bought the products that are legal for those 21-plus. Many students at...

For the last 18 months or so, a new organization has been tabling on the sidewalk in San Francisco’s Castro District, distributing wisdom to passers-by. Called the Church of Cosmic Consciousness, its gospel deals with an increasingly common path to spiritual growth: so-called magic mushrooms. The church recently rented a brick-and-mortar on the corner of 18th and Ord streets, a few blocks uphill from rainbow flag-filled Castro Street. It’s a bit different from the Bay Area’s other mushroom churches. The firmly established Zide Door, with locations in East Oakland and SoMa, is ambitious in scope and guarded by fearsome security....

The out-of-control airline pilot who tried to down an Alaskan Airlines flight midair told cops he had taken magic mushrooms before the flight, it emerged Tuesday. Joseph Emerson, 44, an off-duty commercial airline pilot, went off the rails while sitting in the cockpit jump seat of a flight between Everett, Washington, and San Francisco on Sunday — trying to cut the fuel to the engines before he had to be held down by crew members. Even while restrained, Emerson tried to open the emergency doors on the Alaskan flight, which was being operated by Horizon Air, as the pilots frantically...

What a trip. Magic mushrooms may have been to blame for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s mortifying bow before a Chinese official last week. Yellen, 76, gobbled four portions of jian shou qing, a type of wild mushroom, when she dropped in at a casual Beijing restaurant soon after she arrived there on July 6, Chinese state media reported in an effusive story that took care to praise the secretary’s chopstick skills. But the funky fungi are known in their native province of Yunnan for their unpredictable psychedelic effects, CNN reported. “You thought you were walking straight but you just fell...

Redoubling financial backing for Ukraine in its war with Russia is the “single best” way to aid the global economy, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday. She added boosting emerging economies and tackling debt distress also have their role to play alongside sending billions in taxpayer dollars to Kyiv. AFP reports Yellen used the sidelines of a G20 finance ministers’ summit in India to reveal she would “push back” on criticism there was a tradeoff between aid to Ukraine and developing nations. “Ending this war is first and foremost a moral imperative,” she told reporters in Gandhinagar. “But it’s...

Cast a net back 450 million years ago to the Ordovician Era, and you wouldn’t capture anything more than the ancestors of millipedes and worms. However, you might notice tall 29-feet-tall (8 meters) trunks without branches or leaves, towering over a landscape of newly-evolved vascular plants. These trunks, which have been found as fossils all over the world, are now strongly believed to be mushrooms—giant fungal towers that mean the kingdom of fungi produced the first giant land organism. The idea of a ‘fungal forest’ is one that’s often reproduced in fantasy and science-fiction writing. Mushrooms, for many, many reasons,...