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Comment by vintermann | Hacker News Reader

There are a lot of people with a cultural bias toward hallucinations, who want really hard to get high off anything that could allegedly make them high.

But despite that, this mushroom is not a popular recreational drug. Much like amanita muscaria, which certain people insist must be great if used right, is common as dirt, and yet is so unpopular as a drug that it isn't even restricted.

By these same accounts, you'll get sick. It's unpleasant. Not even the most enthusiastic "psychonauts" seem to manage to take joy in this thing, little people or not.

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> Much like amanita muscaria, which certain people insist must be great if used right, is common as dirt, and yet is so unpopular as a drug that it isn't even restricted.

Psilocybe, the genus containing the most commonly cultivated magic mushroom, is also quite common. It is globally distributed with native species on every continent (less antarctica ofc). It didn't become illegal because it was common in the "wild", but because of the cultivation of one particular species at home and in closets.

A. muscaria on the other hand has never been successfully cultivated as far as we know. You would be surprised how many powerful psychoactive "drugs" can be found in ecosystems around the world

Granted, amanita mushrooms are mycorrhizal, so it wouldn't be worth it to farm them. But they are also extremely common, so why would cultivation make a difference? There are plenty of wild foods which are also not cultivated (cloudberries, lingonberries, chanterelles) yet you can find in supermarkets. They can also be dried, and according to conventional psychonaut wisdom (such as it is - ibotenic acid bad, muscimol good) that makes them better.

I didn't say it was legal because it's common - as you say, psilocybe mushrooms are also common - but because it's so unpleasant it has low abuse potential.

The presence of bioflavinoids, polyphenols, and other things that signal the endocrine and nervous systems in adaptogenic ways is wildly under discussed, and underrated.

Plants/fungus can help convince your systems that things are okay, that it’s okay to be closer to resting state / content - not just “provide nutrients and fiber” as believed - though those things are super important, too!

That does not seem to stop people from taking Ayahuasca, which seems to very commonly make people sick.

It stops the uncountably large majority of people from doing it. Like more then 99.9% of people.

> It stops the uncountably large majority of people from doing it. Like more then 99.9% of people.

Most people don't even know about it or have the means to access it as its either not available or not legal in their jurisdiction so not accurate. About 45% of the adults drink. How much lower would that percentage be if alcohol was little known and subjected to the same regulations psychedelics are under?

That it's not legal in their jurisdiction doesn't stop other drugs. Hallucinogenic drugs just don't catch on. They have periodic fads, but even then they're a fringe phenomenon compared to other illegal drugs.

It's the best argument to legalize them if you ask me. It's clearly a self-limiting problem - I think it's simply because of unpleasant experiences, but I suppose it's also possible that the life-changing experiences make them not need the drugs anymore.

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