Double Blind again
A predict a fierce political backlash after the US election (whoever gets in) with all these products that will create a new mini war on “drugs” that’s going to be very nasty
“Find white soft stalks with spotted hats,” instructs a deity, according to a legend of the indigenous Koryak people of the Russian far east. “These are the spirits [of the Amanita mushroom].” In the myth, the protagonist is able to perform superhuman feats after consuming the red and white, polka-dotted mushroom — which contain the psychoactives muscimol and ibotenic acid — and following the guidance of the fungus’s spirit.
It has been thousands of years since this tale was first told, and Amanita muscaria remains the iconic fungus in popular culture: in the form of the Amanita-style mushroom emoji, the pages of Alice in Wonderland, items (and characters) in Super Mario, a home in The Smurfs, and atop garden gnomes across the world. But only recently has it emerged as a widely desirable plant medicine, in the form of Amanita-infused gummies, reportedly sold legally in hundreds of gas stations, corner bodegas, and smoke shops across the United States.
The trouble is that these Amanita-infused gummies frequently have misleading labels. Usually, they include pure muscimol (even though it is unclear whether that brings about an authentic Amanita muscaria experience) but sometimes they do not contain what they purport to. Experts warn that some manufacturers could be branding their products as Amanita because it is legal (in every state apart from Louisiana), while in practice, packing the gummies with other drugs. Certain products, which also include candy-flavored muscimol vape pens and pre-rolled joints containing muscimol mixed with hemp, appear to intentionally foster confusion by simply writing “mushrooms” on the package and not specifying between the different kinds of fungi.
