Canada's Health Minister says health care professionals can consume magic mushrooms

[frauenfelder]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/08/canadas-health-minister-says-health-care-professionals-can-consume-magic-mushrooms.html

…

[prooftheory]

groovy

[knoxblox]

Whoo-hoo! Like I always say, everyone should try it at least once in order to break down their ego-centric worldview. It’s very therapeutic if guided properly.

[zhasu]

Magic mushrooms are pure medicine. They actually make you more sane if you microdose them.

[bolamig]

It will be fun to watch the videos of hippies trying to convince the police that they are chakra alignment therapists.

[lizard-of-oz]

@frauenfelder

He added that few “would advise going to a sex therapist who’s never had sex before.”

Preferably with another person, and several times.

[Michael_Black]

When I was in Vancouver for two weeks in 1980, I was sitting somewhere in the fog, and a teenager comes by, and starts talking about how he was going to look for magic mushrooms. I’d read at the time something about them being legal in BC, but certain conditions. So it wasn’t just tye kid following a bit of folklore.

But I didn’t think about it until now. I forget details, and I wonder if the law changed.

But if not, this may be just an extension.

But don’t go looking for magic mushrooms just because I remember something.

[David_Guilbeaul]

@Michael_Black

hen I was in Vancouver for two weeks in 1980, I was sitting somewhere in the fog, and a teenager comes by, and starts talking about how he was going to look for magic mushrooms

Had a friend who claimed he made cash picking mushrooms near Vancouver, around the same time; both magic and shiitake, the latter he claimed grew wild. I know the former is true, but I thought shiitake mushrooms were only there if deliberately planted . Good climate for it though, and a lot of Japanese immigrants lived in B.C. for many years so perhaps that’s been happening

[jojojo]

Death cap mushrooms also grow abundantly in Vancouver, so you should definitely be 100% absolutely sure about any mushrooms you forage there. Or like, just don’t. You are probably way way way safer buying.

Death Cap Mushrooms

[elliotk]

Yes, shiitake aren’t native to North America, but many field guides will list them anyway in case of escaped cultivated mushrooms. I’ve personally never seen any, but that doesn’t mean much.

[elliotk]

No one with any level of experience identifying mushrooms is going to confuse a shiitake or a Psilocybe species with a death cap. Death caps are common all over North America, not just in Vancouver. The main causes of poisoning from death caps seems to be Asian immigrants who confuse young ones with paddy straw mushrooms.