Some mushrooms make people see villains, and some mushrooms make people go to jail.

Audit expert: Wang Guoyi

Postdoctoral fellow in Nutrition and Food Safety, China Agricultural University

The heat of summer is still on, and mushrooms are coming out of the ground under the stimulation of temperature and rain. While the people of Yunnan are enjoying the delicious mushrooms in various ways, such as stewing, frying, and stir-frying with meat, a Yunnan girl who has moved to Shanghai has been sentenced by the Shanghai court for selling mushrooms.

It turned out that the girl, surnamed Jin, was selling a kind of chocolate with mushroom powder added. After eating one, you will feel dizzy, see stars in front of your eyes, and your brain will stop working. For a while, you don't even know what you are doing.

Why does chocolate cause hallucinations? In fact, the problem is not the chocolate, but the mushroom powder added to the chocolate, which comes from a well-known psychedelic mushroom - Psilocybin. The disguised drug Psilocybin has gradually become the "new favorite" of bars, nightclubs and other entertainment venues, and many young people who like to try new things have been deceived.

Source | Weibo

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Psilocybe and its “killer weapon”

Psilocybin mushrooms, formally known as psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as "magic mushrooms", "magic mushrooms" or "magic mushrooms", are mushrooms containing psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and dephosphorylated psilocybin.

The ugly Psilocybe

Source | chemistryviews.org

Not all poisonous mushrooms have red umbrellas and white stems. From the appearance, Psilocybe edulis looks harmless to humans and animals. Their ordinary color often makes people ignore them when they grow in the moist soil in the forest.

But there is evidence that humans have used psychoactive mushrooms in religious ceremonies for thousands of years, and scientific research began when American R. Gordon Wasson discovered the use of psychoactive mushrooms by local Mexicans in 1955.

In 1957, French mycologist Roger Heim identified several mushrooms as species of the genus Psilocybin. In 1958, Albert Hofmann, the creator of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide, a representative of hallucinogens), isolated, identified and synthesized the psychoactive compound Psilocybin from a Psilocybin mushroom in the genus Psilocybin, which is the source of the psychoactive effect of Psilocybin.

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“Time seems to have stopped”

Hundreds of species of mushrooms (including Psilocybin) can produce psilocybin, but not all species produce psilocybin. People usually refer to mushrooms that produce psilocybin as psychedelic mushrooms. Different mushrooms have different psilocybin contents, but psilocybin is quickly metabolized in the human body and converted into dephosphorylated psilocybin (Psilocin), also known as psilocybin.

Psilocybin is converted to dephosphorylated psilocybin

Source | Researchgate.net

As a structural analogue of 5-HT, dephosphorylated psilocybin enters the human body and acts on 5-HT receptors. Since 5-HT receptors are widely distributed on the plasma membranes of cells sensitive to 5-HT in the brain, muscles, and platelets, they affect the release of multiple hormones and regulate a variety of physiological processes in humans, such as aggression, anxiety, cognition, learning, memory, emotions, sleep, etc. Therefore, psilocybin affects many biological processes in the human body, including pupil dilation, changes in heart rate, changes in blood pressure, nausea, etc.

More importantly, it distorts perception. People who take this ingredient will not only become disoriented, but also feel that time seems to have slowed down. This is mainly because psilocybin can affect the prefrontal cortex of the human brain. However, the specific mechanism has not yet been clearly studied.

Prefrontal cortex

Source | Wikipedia

The toxin also causes hallucinations, with affected people seeing colorful geometric shapes and vivid imaginary objects. It may also indirectly increase dopamine levels in the basal ganglia, which can produce feelings of pleasure.

The effects of psilocybin vary from person to person based on the user's mental state and personality, as well as the immediate environment. In general, psilocybin-induced symptoms have similarities to schizophrenia.

GIF source | Zhuzhou.com

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False Happiness

Since the 1950s, the psychoactive effects of psilocybin have become increasingly well known and have become an important category of popular drugs. Although psilocybin can be synthesized, except for research institutions, the psilocybin that people usually consume is basically derived from the mushrooms that can produce psilocybin.

Common ways to ingest psilocybin-containing mushrooms are to eat them directly, prepare herbal teas, or mix them with other foods to mask the bitter taste. Apparently, adding psilocybin powder to chocolate is intended to mask its bitter taste and reduce people's vigilance.

Drugs disguised as chocolate

Source | Shanghai Political and Legal Comprehensive Governance Network

According to my country's Criminal Law and Anti-Drug Law, drugs not only refer to opium, heroin, methamphetamine, etc., but also include other addictive narcotic drugs and psychotropic drugs that are regulated by the state. Psilocybin and dephosphorylated psilocybin are listed in the "Catalogue of Psychotropic Drugs".

If you accidentally consume this drug, don't worry too much. Psilocybin is very low in toxicity, with a lethal dose in rats being only half that of caffeine, so just restrain yourself from taking it again.

Psilocybe cubensis

Source: Wiki

However, although psilocybin is not addictive and does not cause physical dependence, this feeling of pleasure will undoubtedly make people psychologically dependent and want to try again. Some criminals take advantage of this psychological dependence and come up with a way to deceive people by offering free samples, and then they will face high prices if they buy from them.

What's worse is that taking psilocybin more than once a week will cause the effect to weaken. If people who are unfortunate enough to get addicted to this substance want to achieve the same effect again, they will have to increase the dosage over and over again, and be "slaughtered" over and over again at high prices.

Nowadays, new drugs are becoming increasingly difficult to identify. The best way to prevent them is to not accept snacks, drinks, etc. from strangers. Be especially wary of so-called "free samples." It is an irrefutable truth that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Source: Digital Beijing Science Center