The First Law

On the 1^st of December Holland added 186 species of mushroom to its list of controlled substances known as the Opium Law. They have been placed in list II (soft drugs), which includes cannabis and a range of prescription drugs. The species added include the varieties commonly known as “magic mushrooms”, which contain psilocin and psilocybin and two species of Amanita mushrooms, containing muscimol and ibotenic acid. The move has raised a lot of questions in Holland as Minister of Health, Sport and Safety, Abraham Klink of the Christian Democrat Appeal party, has ignored the advice of studies commissioned by the government, failed to explain his position when questioned and rushed the list into law without allowing adequate time for debate.

Abraham Klink clearly has a strong opinion on the matter, but is it a sound opinion? We naturally think in terms of anecdotes, not science. That is to say incidents sway us and we normally make up our minds up without all worrying about statistical validity. The stronger the emotional response to the incident, the less likely we are to make a cool judgment of the facts. Of course if you hold certain views to begin with, you may not be very receptive to facts, particularly those which contradict your view. However a sound opinion should be without such bias and based on the evidence at hand.

There are several reports of incidents which have occurred during the previous years in which people have died following the use of magic mushrooms, although the actual use of the mushrooms have not always been verified. These events on their own give a visceral instinct to believe the magic mushrooms are a danger to society and should be removed from it through legislation. Such a belief is more easily accepted and difficult to remove if one believes that the use of drugs to alter one’s state of mind is wrong in itself. However the causal relationship between the deaths and mushrooms are far from clear. As Freek de Wolff, Professor of Toxicology at Leiden University Medical Center stated, “there are no scientific grounds for making Magic Mushrooms illegal.” (1)

It is important to realize that the active ingredients are not harmful, so we are not talking about toxic overdoses. (2) The reported deaths involve suicide like events, such as jumping from windows in high buildings. In most cases the individuals used alcohol, tobacco, cannabis or other drugs at the same time. They were often foreigners, taking the mushrooms for the first time, in busy and unfamiliar places, with disturbed mental states and without supervision. These conditions are exactly those under which the user guidelines provided by smartshops, and the smartshop staff, advise against use. When this is taken into account a lack of care by the user, and perhaps a failure by some of the smartshops to adequately inform them, becomes increasingly relevant. So a real danger does exist in the use of mushrooms, but it is not the mushrooms which are the cause.

What is the likely outcome of making magic mushrooms illegal? Use will continue, the failure of prohibition is proven by the continued scale required to enforce it. Simple economics tells us that, where there is a demand, there will be a supply. There is always someone greedy, ignorant or desperate enough to take the risks required to deliver that supply, no matter what legislation is in place. What will change, will be the information provided to potential users and the quality of the product. Klink has said that what he doesn’t like about Magic Mushrooms is their unpredictability. Just wait until users take mushrooms they buy on the street, or find in the woods, with no information, or guarantee that what they are taking is even a safe mushroom: That will give truly unpredictable results!

Perhaps this is the reason the mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen is against the prohibition of Magic Mushrooms and prefers instead a more controlled distribution, with a three day delay for first time buyers, so they have time to find out more about the drug and perhaps look into why they want to do it and how they plan to do it. (3)

A risk assessment of Magic Mushrooms was performed by the RIVM in both 2000 and 2007. (4) The results showed the risk to society resulting from magic mushrooms was in fact lower in 2007 than in 2000 due to the improved dissemination of information. The RIVM advised that the mushrooms remain available through the smartshops and that smartshops continue to improve the information which they provide to customers. They were also explicit on the point that making magic mushrooms illegal would most probably increase their risk to society, for instance through users switching to more dangerous drugs.

There is another side which is rarely considered in this debate: What makes a consenting adult choose to take mushrooms? The experiences elicited by mushrooms are often positive and often give lasting benefit to the user. Introspective experiences can lead to the confrontation and resolution of psychological issues, resulting in reduced stress levels. Furthermore some users may have mystical experiences, which inspire them and give renewed strength and purpose to their lives. A report in Nature (5) stated that such experiences can lead to improved moods even a year after the event.

“This experience has a compelling meaningfulness and spiritual component to it that is strongly conserved over time,” argues the study's lead author, Roland Griffiths of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. (5)

Of course it is impossible to know for sure, but it is not inconceivable that more lives have been saved through the use of Magic Mushrooms than lost. After all their use as a tool in medicine dates back thousands of years. One of the most famous healers was Maria Sabina, a Mazatec Indian from Mexico. During her life as a healer she is said to have cured many ailments and illnesses through the use of magic mushrooms.

It is largely due to an emphasis on set and setting that both traditional use and therapeutic use of magic mushrooms has been able to make such a remarkably positive impact. This underlines the point that it is not the magic mushrooms which are a danger, but ignorance in the user. How this problem will be addressed by making magic mushrooms illegal escapes me. Perhaps a policy of tolerance could be adopted to avoid the negative impact likely to result from the recently passed magic mushroom laws, much as has been practiced for that other list II drug, cannabis.

By Chimed Jansen

1) http://www.trimbos.nl/default23947.html

2) http://www.springerlink.com/content/lbmth016rdvf0dr4/fulltext.pdf

3) http://www.nu.nl/news/1417889/10/Meer_paddo%27s_over_de_toonbank.html

4) http://www.rivm.nl/preventie/leefstijl/drugs/cam.jsp#tcm:4-38605

5) http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080703/full/news.2008.934.html