Will mushrooms be legalized? What’s the current mushroom legalization status?
In all probability, yes… eventually decriminalization could be a reality.
However, mushroom advocates have many roadblocks to overcome in mushroom law and legislation, the general sluggishness of the legal process in decriminalizing drugs and mushroom legalization may not be the biggest hurdle. While we believe anyone paying attention to the current trajectory of mushroom legalization news will almost certainly have to agree that the patient will ultimately be rewarded, there’s still a long way to go.
It’s not all hiccups and delays, though, you know it’s a good sign when even venerable publications like Scientific American publish statements on specials legislation to the following effect:
Mushroom may be safer and equally effective [than SSRIs] with more enduring benefits. It could help reverse worsening mental health trends. But only if it is made affordable and accessible.
Via Scientific American, October 2021
The potential for mushrooms to treat a variety of serious and often treatment-resistant mental conditions, is likely to be the primary driving force for societal acceptance and eventual legalization and may start the process to decriminalize possession of specials. We’ll discuss that idea in more detail momentarily, but for now, let’s look at the other big hitter in the fight for legalization: decriminalization efforts, which we’re pleased to report are becoming more and more commonplace throughout the country.
Decriminalization Will Likely Lead the Way to Eventual Legalization of Mushrooms
In 2019, Denver was the first city in the United States to decriminalize mushrooms. While mushroom advocates were and still are hard at work in other jurisdictions, this paradigm-shifting win paved the way for later successes in Oakland and Santa Cruz in California, and more recently throughout the state of Oregon.
Note that the act of decriminalization is often mistakenly thought to mean the same thing as legalization, but in terms of the law as written, this isn’t the case. Despite being “decriminalized” in many areas, mushrooms are still very much illegal in all 50 states and are considered a Schedule I substance (alongside heroin, bath salts, and fentanyl analogs, if you can believe it).
Is it legal to grow special mushrooms in my state?
To decriminalize a substance simply means that it’s a very low priority for law enforcement to pursue, meaning that while it’s still illegal, local law enforcement isn’t going to pour their effort into “busting” dissenters.
This, of course, is a good step with regard to mushrooms—but it’s a far cry from outright legalization of mushrooms such as Penis Envy Shrooms. As more and more jurisdictions continue to decriminalize the compound, the odds of legalization will likely become higher.
Denver Continues to Lead the Way for mushroom Advocates
As we discussed in the previous section, Denver was the first city to decriminalize mushrooms. Time will tell, but it very well may be the first city to outright legalize them, too (although things are looking good in Oregon as well!). Unfortunately, in all likelihood that won’t be anytime soon, but progress is being made.
At the time of this writing, only 47 criminal cases occurred in Denver concerning the possession of mushrooms—and 89% of those cases involved additional illegal substances. This, for mushroom advocates, is a remarkable track record built over the past few years.
Thanks to the success of mushroom decriminalization, the Denver Mushroom Review Panel, the group which collects and reports on data concerning mushroom related use in Denver, is using this momentum to recommend a further loosening of the law.
Notably, the panel is suggesting to fully decriminalize “gifted” mushrooms, or mushrooms which freely change hands between people without a profit motive. The panel is also urging legislators to allow for communal, or those in group settings, to be able to use mushrooms while remaining among the lowest law enforcement priorities.
Most of the arguments put forth by mushroom advocates for decriminalization and legalization have been bolstered by the growing support for mushrooms in the medical community; we’ll explore that angle now.
The Medical Community Has a Lot of Influence – And They Have a Lot of Good Things to Say About Mushroom
It seems that every other week we’re reporting on another positive mushroom study out of the likes of Johns Hopkins University or another research outfit. Researchers in the medical community are rediscovering what shamans, natural healers, and spiritualists of all stripes have known for millennia: mushrooms have many healing properties that are too powerful to ignore.
Perhaps chief among those properties is mushroom’s status as a neuroregenerative, of great interest to medical researchers studying ways to help patients with treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other disorders. Being neuroregenerative means that mushrooms are capable of forming new neural pathways in the brain, the “roads” used which form behaviors and habits. If new pathways are formed, people may literally begin to think about things in a way that was previously impossible.
There are at least several ongoing legal cases wherein medical professionals are fighting for their patient’s right to utilize mushroom as a treatment option, particularly for end-of-life care patients. This is because many studies have shown mushrooms to combat the depression and anxiety associated with facing ones own mortality. One of the driving legal arguments for mushrooms in these cases is the Right to Try Law, which came into effect in 2018 and loosens restrictions for terminally ill patients to access experimental therapies—which, at the time, mushroom-assisted therapy is considered.
Interested in Researching Mushroom Spores for Yourself? Here’s How to Begin
If you’d like to learn more about mushrooms, a great place to start is with mushroom spores. Since spores contain no illegal substances, they’re legal throughout most of the United States.
Qualityspores.store mushroom spores spores are for microscopy, mycology, and scientific research only. While our spores are completely viable and free of contamination, they are not for the purpose of mushroom cultivation. See our mushroom spores shop for more information and to place your order now and for mushroom identification tips and guidance.