Psychedelic Spores Laws: Problems With Psychedelic Mushroom Legalization?
Psychedelic Spores Laws and Psychedelic Mushroom Legalization
Are magic mushroom spores legal? What are the psychedelic spores laws? Is growing psychedelic mushrooms illegal? Yes, in the United States growing psychedelic mushrooms is illegal. Psychedelic mushroom spores, also knows as psilocybe cubensis spores, are a different situation altogether in the topic of shroom legalization.
To summarize, the mushrooms are illegal but the spores to grow the mushrooms are not illegal in most states. The psilocybin industry in the United States is everchanging and updating to meet therapeutic realities and there are plenty of cases of patients wanting to use psilocybe cubensis for palliative care and for other therapeutic purposes but have to deal with United States DEA laws and rulings regarding cancer therapeutics using magic mushrooms or magic mushroom spores and seeking access to psilocybin mushrooms.
Will psilocybin be legalized in the United States due to constituent pressure and clinical studies showing psychedelics value?
Amateur microscopy beginners are always delighted when they begin to learn about studying the shroom spore legal details and then discover the wide world of mushroom spores and about mushroom legalization details, about these beautiful organisms (or pre-organisms, if you prefer) that offer a unique look at the beauty and variety of microstructures in nature. There’s really nothing like it. We’ll tell you a bit about psilocybe cubensis spores legal information surrounding the “psychedelic mushroom spores” subject, but do not provide legal advice or counseling on laws in your local community.
Magic mushrooms contain psilocybin and are thus illegal, magic mushroom spores do not contain psilocybin in the spore stage. It’s clear that psychedelic mushroom legalization in the United States is a long way off – that’s where microscopy can begin to be a place to start your adventure in psychedelic mushroom strains.
Beginners are further surprised to learn that spores of the Psilocybe cubensis variety are legal to purchase, own, and study in most areas of the United States. The psilocybe cubensis laws are pretty clear to understand. Attempts to legalize psychedelic mushrooms have failed in most countries in the world.
Note that we say that psilocybe cubensis spores or cubensis spore syringes more succinctly can easily be purchased and the laws are straight forward in most areas, but, not all areas in the United States allow growing psychedelic mushroom spores either. For more information about the location-specific legalities of psilocybin mushroom spores, please check our article on magic mushrooms spores legal states where you’ll learn more about why psilocybin mushroom spores are illegal in California, Georgia, and Idaho but not in other states. You’ll also learn about psilocybe spores legal decriminalization efforts, including in certain municipalities within states that otherwise prohibit psilocybin mushrooms and/or spores.
Mature Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms are illegal in the United States, because they contain psilocybin, a Schedule I substance. The immature spores of these mushrooms do not contain psilocybin, and are therefore legal in most of the country.
Are psilocybe spores illegal? As you likely already know, psilocybin mushrooms—the mushrooms, not the spores—are illegal in the United States and many other countries. This is because they contain psilocybin, which is classified as a Schedule I substance. Psilocybin mushroom spores do not contain psilocybin, and therefore are legal. Some microscopists choose to study psychedelic mushroom spore prints to learn more about the spores for psychedelic mushrooms.
It is, however, illegal to cultivate psilocybin mushrooms from the spores. That’s why the Qualityspores.store spore shop only provides psychedelic spores to researchers taxonomists, and microscopists who intend to use the spores for research and identification purposes only. We cannot and will not provide any information regarding psilocybin mushroom cultivation, and any buyer who mentions their intent to use spores for such a purpose will be denied the opportunity to purchase our products.
In this article, we’ll be discussing why magic mushroom spores are legal along with the topic of why are spore syringes legal in more depth, and why attempts to legalize psychedelics have failed, plus what to expect when you get a spore syringe, how to store your spores, and more.
The Best Advice: Do Your Own Due Diligence on Psilocybin Legalization
While the author of this article fully intends to provide readers like you with accurate information (but not legal advice) and further explore the of are spores illegal, we all would likely agree that the legal system is monolithic and subject to change, sometimes quite rapidly—remember that the best advice anyone can ever give you is to “do your own due diligence.”
In the context of psilocybin mushroom spores, you should always do your own research about the topic of psychedelic mushroom legalization and the problems with legalization. If necessary, confirm with your local authorities that your spore research and possession is legal. Nobody cares about your responsibility to legal compliance more than you do!
If you plan on transporting or otherwise traveling with your spore syringes, make sure you research the laws of where you’re going ahead of time. What’s legal in one place might not be somewhere else. The United States isn’t the only country with laws prohibiting psilocybin in one form or another. Psilocybin mushrooms are also illegal in, for example, Canada, Japan, and Italy, but like the U.S., psilocybin spores are not. But in Jamaica, psilocybin mushrooms and spores are perfectly legal. Everywhere has different laws, so plan ahead—or better yet, don’t travel with your spores.
It’s also very important to understand the difference between the terms “legal” and “decriminalized.” While people tend to use these terms interchangeably, they’re quite different. Read our article Are Magic Mushroom Spores Legal in My State? to learn the definition of both words and why it matters.
With that said, let’s move on from the topic of is it illegal to buy mushroom spores and discuss why magic mushroom spores are, generally, legal in most of the United States. It all begins with having a strong understanding of the different stages of mushroom development:
Understanding the Different Stages of Mushroom Development Pertaining to Psilocybin Legality
Mushrooms have a fascinating life cycle. To the uninitiated, they probably seem to just “pop up” seemingly out of nowhere—it’s not unheard of for mushrooms to push through the soil and become visible in just a few hours, usually overnight. In fact, this is where we get the term “mushroomed,” (as in, “the popularity of the internet mushroomed in the late 90s”) which means to increase very quickly.
To really understand why Psilocybe cubensis spores contain no psilocybin and are thus legal, you must first understand the different stages of mushroom development. But before you can do that, you need to know the different parts of a mushroom.
From top to bottom, a mushroom has the following parts:
- Cap
- Gills (sometimes called lamellae)
- Stem
- Ring
- Volva
- Mycelium and hyphae
Functional Fungi
The cap of a mushroom is probably its most recognizable part of the functional fungi: it’s the convex bit at the top that looks like a little hat, or cap. If you’ve ever wondered what the purpose of that little hat is, mycologists believe that its primary function is to protect the gills of the mushroom.
The gills, located just underneath the cap, are thin, vertical little structures that are sometimes described as looking like protruding lines or ribs. The gills are responsible for producing the mushroom’s spores—the fun part that we’re learning about now. We’ll touch on why and how a mushroom produces spores in just a moment. Let’s finish talking about the rest of the body of a mushroom.
Beneath the cap and gills comes the next part you’re likely to recognize: the stem. Interestingly, not all mushroom types have stems, but cubensis do. The stem of the mushroom is a spongy branch that serves to elevate and support the cap and gills.
Some mushrooms will have a little “thing” attached to the stem, called a ring, which is a covering of organic matter. This is simply a remnant of a membrane that used to be on the gills, which breaks off as the cap grows and separates from the stem. Similarly, the next part of the mushroom, the volva, is also a remnant of a covering that was originally there to protect the mushroom as it was maturing.
Finally, we get to the very bottom of the mushroom, where the mycelium and hyphae are found. This part of the mushroom usually lives underground, and is in fact much larger than the mushroom in most cases (sometimes spanning hundreds of feet and, in some cases, even miles).
Mycelium is considered the vegetative portion of a fungus like a mushroom. It is the part of the organism which produces the visible, fruiting bodies that we call mushrooms. The hyphae are tiny filaments that draw in or “suck up” nutrients for the fungus to survive and grow, which includes water and organic matter made up from plants and even animals. Notably, the hyphae aren’t typically visible to the naked eye, but can be observed under a microscope.
In the wild, spores can undergo a process called germination, which—if given proper nutrients, temperature, and light—will result in the growth of mycelium, which can then go on to grow and, possibly, produce mature mushrooms.
From a legal standpoint, this is a key process to understand. Psilocybe cubensis doesn’t contain psilocybin until the spores germinate and produce mycelium or mushrooms. In other words, spores do not contain psilocybin, the Schedule I substance which is illegal in the United States.
With this understanding, now you know why researchers must take care to ensure that their spores do not germinate, or otherwise they may be in violation of the law. While this is unlikely to happen accidentally, it is worth discussing, so we’ll talk a bit more about it in a moment. First, let’s talk about how and why psilocybin spores are stored in a syringe, and what you get when you order our mushroom spores online.
What’s a Psilocybin Mushroom Spore Syringe?
If you’ve been looking into mushroom spores for the purposes of amateur microscopy, you’ve no doubt heard the term “spore syringe.” Quality Spores carries many different kinds of spore syringes. But what are they?
A spore syringe is a standard sterile syringe that contains mushroom spores in the barrel. In our case, these are psilocybin mushroom spores. The spores are suspended in a liquid, which is almost always distilled water. It’s very important that the water is “plain,” i.e., doesn’t contain anything else such as nutrients. This keeps the spores dormant and prevents germination (a process we learned about above).
When you’re ready to study the spores under a microscope, you simply attach a sterile needle to the tip of the syringe and carefully depress the plunger, placing a single drop or two onto a microscope slide. The needle can then be removed and the cover (called a Luer Lock) can be re-secured on the syringe to store your spores for further study later.
What’s Included With a Psilocybin Mushroom Spore Kit From Quality Spores?
When you order psilocybin mushroom spores online from our spore shop you’ll receive a our microscopy kit, which includes a spore syringe containing 10 milliliters of the spores you chose at checkout, such as our Golden Teachers spores strain or our Fiji mushroom spores. All spore syringes are individually packaged.
Included in your microscopy kit will be a sterile needle to make placing your spores onto a microscope slide easy and safe.
Can Mushroom Spores Start Growing On Their Own? Is There Any Legal Risk to Owning Psilocybin Spore Syringes?
In a word, no. While a guide to cultivating psilocybin mushrooms wouldn’t be a terribly complex one, a person has to take several distinct steps in order to grow psilocybin mushrooms. Mycologists studying mushrooms—Psilocybe cubensis or otherwise—typically do so under a specific set of circumstances with specialized equipment, growing mediums, materials, and other tools. Even then, the possibility of failure is present.
In other words, while it’s technically possible, it’s very unlikely that your spores would just happen to grow into adult mushrooms accidentally. It would only be possible if the spores germinated—and that’s when you would have a potential problem. As we learned above, mycelium can contain psilocybin (and is thus illegal). However, it is worth noting that even in the wild, mycelium has a relatively low chance of producing a mushroom, since the conditions have to be just right.
Furthermore, since mushroom spores are stored safely in a syringe, suspended in a liquid solution (usually distilled water) without any nutrients, the likelihood of germination is infinitesimally low. This is especially true if the spore syringes are properly stored, which we’ll examine in more detail later on.
To be completely safe, many amateur microscopists will completely dispose of or otherwise destroy psilocybin spores after studying them.
What’s the Proper Way to Store My Psilocybe Cubensis Mushroom Spore Syringes?
The mushroom spore syringes from Quality Spores are quite robust, however, you may wish to follow a few best practices for storage to get the best results.
When your spore syringes arrive, you don’t have to do anything special—if desired, you can start studying them under your microscope right away. However, if you need to store them, the best way to do so is in a cool, dark place. Put them in a small container (or a brown paper bag if you wish), and make sure that they’re kept at a temperature above freezing but below 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some amateur microscopists recommend keeping your spores syringes in a refrigerator. This won’t hurt your spores, but you may wish to refrain from freezing them—the water in the syringe can expand and break or crack the barrel, which carries the very real risk of contaminating your spores. If refrigerated, make sure that the temperature is somewhere between 35 – 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
We recommend studying your spores within a period of no longer than 12 months.