Christine,
You are absolutely right in pointing out that what is sold on the street as LSD may in fact be adulterated with other substances. This might explain your observation of "mind frizzing away."
But "magic mushrooms" can be adulterated too.
Many people find psilocybin-containing mushrooms to be preferable to LSD-25. If one lives in a region where these occur in nature, and an individual becomes confident in their ability to identify them, foraging for these mushrooms should be vastly preferable to purchasing them on the black market.
Another factor to consider is that, in most every state in the U.S., possession of fresh psilocybin mushrooms is not prima facie evidence of possession of a controlled substance, unless there is other evidence that the substance is intended to be used or sold as a drug.
That is, while the compound psilocybin is classed as Schedule I by the DEA, there is no Federal law banning the possession of the psilocybe cubensis mushroom itself. And there are over forty other species of mushrooms which contain psilocybin, with new species being added to the list almost every year.
In order to obtain a drug conviction, most courts have required additional evidence of *intent* in order to obtain drug convictions of persons found, for example, walking home from a cowfield with a paper bag full of mushrooms. One could argue in defense that one was simply studying mycology, and wanted to bring them home for identification.
So, in a sense, we have a "thought crime." If someone *intends* or can be proved just to *know* it is illegal (maybe by the books they have in their house or their SI posts!), *then* they are a criminal.
But someone who cannot be proved to *know* it is a drug should (at least if the courts follow the law correctly) be set free.
There used to be some testing laboratories that would provide anonymized testing of street drugs mailed to them for testing. To the best of my knowledge, these have all been shut down by the DEA.
No doubt to protect us from our own stupidity--we should all be ever grateful!
David |
