Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/24/toxic-microdosing-candies-cause-horrifying-health-emergencies.html
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From the website:
Our hand-crafted flavors are not only delicious, they’re packed with a kick of Lion’s mane, a touch of Reishi and a bit of Chaga mushrooms
Is “microdosing” just homeopathy now? My understanding was that it involved small doses of psychoactive substances, but this seems to be “eating a tiny amount of widely available edible mushrooms”
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Homeopathy doesn’t leave you intubated. Best guess is either intentional malfeasance or buying mis-identified mushrooms. The toxins those guys can produce do not mess around.
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Hey, at least they aren’t lying about the formula including “functional mushrooms”.
They don’t say what function; but synthesizing mycotoxins is an ancient and honorable one.
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A bunch of things in food production can make people sick, but the mushrooms seem like the likely suspect here, yeah. I was asking about the term microdosing itself, and how people are using it now. Or how grifters are using it, I suppose.
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“Extreme Potency” and microdosing as sales hooks on the same package… seems a bit paradoxical.
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When I see a potent adult product like this sold in colourful packaging that would appeal to children, I’m not exactly confident in the ethics and responsible nature of the manufacturer.
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My guess is they’re sourcing mushrooms from someone who is not an experienced mycologist, and they’re giving people dangerous mushrooms.
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I gave a review on microdosing to my local mushroom club. More looking in at the field than being a participant. It is like the cannabis and wellness industries had a lovechild. They use female influences to promote the products and the majority of the customers are younger males.
Outside of cities or states where psychedelic mushrooms are decriminalized their product can’t contain psilocybin. Instead they are promoting muscimol that is extracted from fly agaric mushrooms (Amanita muscaria) using the excess capacity of the cannabis industry. Like alcohol, muscimol can cause vomiting, drowsiness and suppressed breathing when taken at high enough doses. That could lead to intubation in a worse case situation.
The advertising copy for Diamond Shruumz does not mention muscimol, and the lab report links point to a missing page so I don’t know what exactly is in them. They may be going an alternative route for a “natural” high. Plant extracts that are legal to sell but are metabolized in the body to DMT or other psychedelic compounds. If they picked the wrong compounds then there could be serious issues.
For the muscimol at first I thought there was a new cheap synthesis route but the commercial price for research grade muscimol is still really high. Then I realized that the mushroom hunters picking boletes are now also picking Amanita muscaria and selling it onto the cannabis/THC industry.
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I also want to add that inexperienced foragers frequently post pictures for cherry burls or burls on other trees. If they go through with making tea from a wood burl rather than real Chaga it may cause some adverse effects.
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Yes, hot 20 something ladies, girls, females etc. Sex sells!
I was taking more of the medical literature approach.
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Obviously it should be lady influencer. Influenceress. Influencette.
Or maybe can not be treated like fucking objects… I don’t know why that’s so fucking difficult.
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That was a really common strategy for drug reps in the past as well, and was offensive as hell. That whole “make their blood leave their brain” approach is insulting to the mark, and dehumanizing to the rep/influencer.
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Yes, got it. Wrong terminology, should have used woman or other term rather than female, my apologies.
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That’s been my understanding, too. If I put a dropper of tincture of reishi in my tea, I don’t consider it microdosing. If I put a dropper of tincture of psychoactive mushrooms in my tea, I consider that microdosing.
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