The Colorado Secretary of State released some sad news yesterday.
A group of activists failed to submit a sufficient number of voter signatures to qualify their initiative for inclusion on the November 2022 General Election ballot. The proposed initiative, known as Initiative #61 — “Legal Possession and Use of Entheogenic Plants and Fungi” — needed 124,632 signatures to qualify, but the entheogenic plant and fungi enthusiasts were able to submit only 5,001 signatures by the petition deadline.
So for the time being, we will have to possess and use entheogenic plants and fungi illegally. Which poses certain challenges, of course, and will require some sneaking around and hiding.
I was a bit surprised, that the petitioners did such a poor job of collecting signatures. Heck, I would have gladly signed their petition. I would have gladly signed it twice, in fact. But I was never offered the chance. I have to presume the petitioners were all on mushrooms.
I tried mushrooms once (illegally) when I was in college, and to tell the truth, I haven’t been the same since. In fact, I credit my encounter with entheogenic fungi with two life-changing results. My ill-fated marriage to Darlene. And my career as a struggling humor columnist.
Had I not used mushrooms on that fateful day, I would probably have ended up as a CPA, with a trophy wife.
Which is not meant as a criticism of CPAs, or trophy wives. Nor is it meant as an endorsement of entheogenic fungi. Life just happens, and we really don’t have much control of it, no matter what we may have eaten.
But based on what I’ve been reading in the news lately, I probably ought to give mushrooms another try.
Carefully.
According to the National Association of Mental Health, over 43 million American adults experience mental illness each year. Depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, and other recurring conditions. (I don’t suffer from any of these conditions, except maybe anxiety and schizophrenia.)
Apparently, mushrooms can help.
The latest thing in mushroom therapy is ‘microdosing’: eating small amounts of normally-hallucinogenic fungi; small enough that you hardly notice it. Just a little ‘buzz’, maybe?
When some researchers in Canada tested the effects of microdosing on nearly 1,000 eager volunteers, using psilocybin mushrooms… and compared them to 180 (less eager?) individuals who were not microdosing. The participants completed a series of questionnaires and tasks on their mobile devices at the onset of the study, and at one month after recruitment.
These assessments included self-report questionnaires to assess mood and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. The researchers also assessed cognitive function and psychomotor ability (physical movements that require cognitive thinking). The researchers reportedly found that microdosers showed greater improvements in mood and larger reductions in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress over the study period than the unfortunate control group who didn’t get to eat the mushrooms.
This kind of experiment would naturally take place in Canada, where — if I know anything about Canadians — they could easily have gotten 124,632 signatures, no problem.
These positive effects of microdosing were observed in all the mushroom eaters, regardless of whether they used psilocybin alone… or a combination of either psilocybin with lion’s mane (another cool fungus)… or psilocybin, lion’s mane, and niacin. (Who knew that niacin can get you high?)
I didn’t find any information about how the microdosing affected the use of mobile devices. But we can imagine.
Prior to 1971, when the UN stuck its big fat nose into the business of psychedelics by creating an international treaty called the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, it was much easier to cure anxiety and schizophrenia.
But things might be looking up, in spite of the failure to get Initiative #61 on the Colorado ballot. In 2020, Oregon legalized ‘therapeutic’ use of psilocybin through a ballot initiative called Measure 109. Under the new law, psilocybin mushrooms are legal for mental health treatment in supervised settings. The new law allows anyone age 21 or older who passes a screening to use mushrooms for ‘personal development’.
I’m looking forward to when Coloradans can also experience ‘personal development’.
Oregon voters also passed Measure 110, which rewrites vast sections of Oregon state drug laws to end criminal penalties for possession of limited amounts of all drugs and redirects resources to treatment services. That measure passed by 59%, an even wider margin than Measure 109.
Possession of small amounts of drugs is now punishable by no more than a $100 fine, similar to a traffic ticket.
Folks, that’s my kind of traffic ticket.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.