If you look at the inconspicuous Pointed Cone Bald, the thin whitish mushroom looks rather harmless – and that’s exactly what it is not, quite the opposite. It evokes hallucinations 20 minutes after eating, sometimes colorful sensory perceptions, and sometimes the trip into the drug world ends in a horror trip. The bald head belongs to the “magic mushrooms” (“magic mushrooms”), which have already started a triumphal procession into the party scene years ago and are almost as popular as Ecstasy among “connoisseurs”.
Drug use has a long history
As reported by the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union of Germany (NABU), drug use has been common in all cultural circles since time immemorial. More than 10,000 years ago, people were already using plant drugs for hunting, warfare, healing and rituals. In South America, the consumption of coca leaves has long been common. Intoxicating mushrooms had a sacred status among primitive peoples and were used in spiritual ceremonies even before the discovery of alcohol. Relatively new nowadays is the trend among young people toward “biodrugs” such as magic mushrooms with their hallucinatory effects: they are easy and cheap to obtain from gardens or nature and are not yet subject to legal regulations.
Life-threatening complications
Emergency services and clinics are increasingly confronted with life-threatening complications and severe mental conditions after biodrug use. A problem with the plants, which are often prepared as teas, is their highly variable active ingredient content. Dose and effect are hardly assessable – with the risk of unexpected complications. The effects of the numerous ingredients have hardly been researched.
Biodrugs: Magic mushrooms and co.
Magic mushrooms belong to the bio- or magic drugs. These are drugs from the plant world with “psychoactive” substances – that is, they change consciousness, for example, cause hallucinations. The magic mushrooms contain the two active substances psilocybin and psilocin. They taste very bitter, nausea and stomach problems may occur. After some time, an altered body sensation is added, sense of space and time are felt differently, some experience hallucinations. If the mushroom dose is too large, they were not taken consciously or the consumer is in a problematic environment negative ideas are often evoked:
- Fear
- Depression
- Confusion
- A blurring of illusion and reality
As the autonomic nervous system has been stimulated one gets dilated pupils, a rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure and sometimes elevated blood sugar and body temperature. In addition to magic mushrooms, nightshade plants such as henbane – with it, according to Shakespeare, Hamlet’s father was killed – with high levels of active ingredients are in fashion, as well as cacti containing mescaline and even skins of exotic toads. The fruits of belladonna, datura and angel’s trumpet also contain substances that act on the nervous system.
Even low doses have a strong effect
Biodrugs, once eaten or drunk, quickly enter the brain and cause delusions, restlessness, dreams, feelings of pleasure and the idea of being able to fly. “From datura, 10, 50 or 100 seeds are enough to cause life-threatening unconsciousness, seizures and cardiac arrhythmias. With belladonna, symptoms occur from one fruit. In addition to acute symptoms such as excitement, euphoria, intoxication and confusion, hallucinations, violence, loss of control, fading consciousness are feared as particularly long psychotic courses,” writes NABU.
Not at all harmless: synthetic party drugs
The term party drug trivializes a seemingly legal and harmless drug use that more and more young people are indulging in because it’s simply “cool” to enjoy speed, ecstasy or Thai pills, at least occasionally. Party drugs or designer drugs are synthetic chemical compounds developed from known drugs or intoxicants – sometimes professionally and “cleanly”, often enough peppered with dangerous extenders. They seem to be a harmless additive in a fun society geared to ever new dimensions of experience. In the techno scene, they are traded as stimulants, but in reality they are nothing more than hard drugs. Almost all designer drugs have a mood-lifting, stimulating and euphoric effect.They can cause severe psychoses, brain damage, depression and other diseases, even death. No wonder, because the 100 million nerve cells that transmit signals in the brain are permanently affected. Metabolic processes control very different mental states, such as fear or happiness, but frequent use of the drug substances throws the brain and psyche out of balance. But if in the beginning it was only about enjoyment or fun, after prolonged use, drugs are increasingly used by unstable people to conceal weaknesses and inhibitions or difficulties. Eventually, one can no longer get along without drugs – these are mental withdrawal syndromes.
Ecstasy – colorful pills
Well over half of the visitors to techno parties use ecstasy (E, XTC, MDMA). The colorful, sometimes fancifully printed pills are considered the lucky charms in the scene because they release the neurotransmitter serotonin, a hormone that also controls appetite and sleep, sex drive and body temperature. MDMA is short for 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. It produces a relaxed, euphoric, and alert state that is not usually accompanied by hallucinations. However, the quality and composition of the pills are highly variable. Since 1996, ecstasy has been subject to the Narcotics Act. The drug is often mixed with other substances (fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, LSD and strychnine).
Ecstasy: pills with strong side effects
The drug clearly damages brain function. This is the result of a study conducted by a research group led by Dr. Rainer Thomasius of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). One result of the study was that more than a quarter of ecstasy users exhibited psychotic disorders, such as hallucinations, person recognition or delusions. In addition, there are relationship ideations, in which relationships are perceived with people or objects that are not real. A known and threatening side effect of MDMA is a massive increase in body temperature (“hyperpyrexia”) above 40 degrees. The temperature rise is accompanied by muscle stiffness, muscle breakdown, and kidney failure. Even early intensive medical treatment cannot always prevent death from heart failure. Sometimes an “ecstasy hangover” occurs after a few days, which manifests itself in depression, insomnia and loss of appetite. Here, a vicious circle not infrequently begins, as the desire for the positive mood makes many users reach for the next pill.
Amphetamine or speed
Speed is the fashionable name for amphetamine or methamphetamine. It is considered a stimulant and fitter for long party nights. Already in the war, then known as “Weckamin”, it was administered to soldiers to increase their performance. It releases the performance hormone norepinephrine, as well as dopamine, which boosts self-esteem. One of the late effects of amphetamines is extreme psychological dependence. Those who have taken the drug for a long time suffer from sleeplessness and restlessness. Delusions are often added. Chronic use can lead to amphetamine psychosis, which is difficult to treat. Speed is available as a white powder, sometimes in tablet form, also called “Thai pill”. There is also a variant called crystal speed, which contains 100 percent amphetamine or methamphetamine. Methamphetamine is considerably stronger than amphetamine – the effect lasts up to 30 hours, while “normal” amphetamine lasts four to six hours. After the effects have worn off, the euphoric effects often turn into the opposite, leading to depression and aggression. Typical of prolonged consumption is increased blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries, heart damage, aching limbs. Always risky is the unknown purity and composition of the drug. Often amphetamines are combined with other drugs to get a stronger effect. Especially the drug LSD is often stretched with speed.
LSD – lysergic acid diethylamide.
LSD is the abbreviation for the complicated name lysergic acid diethylamide, where the ingredient lysergic acid is derived from ergot, a poisonous cereal fungus. It was first produced in 1938 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann. He discovered the hallucinogenic effect rather accidentally when he actually only wanted to develop a circulatory stimulant from ergot alkaloid. LSD is a colorless and odorless powder that is applied as a solution to a carrier, such as blotting paper.LSD almost always comes on the market in the form of harmless-looking paper trips (“trips,” “tickets,” “cardboards”) or as mini-pills called “micros.” Micros are much higher doses than the little papers. Once they take effect, patients may experience disorientation and balance problems, sweating, dizziness and nausea. At the same time, the ability to react is severely impaired. Pupils dilate, blood pressure and temperature rise, and breathing accelerates. Under LSD there are sensory illusions such as moving walls, change of body consciousness (being able to fly) and the sense of space and time, blurring of the boundaries between the person and the environment, euphoria and thought jumps. A great danger: due to the distorted perception and hallucinations, there are false reactions and accidents or self-destructive actions.
Horror trip and flashbacks with LSD.
LSD is an emotional amplifier, so sensations, especially in a negative mood can suddenly turn into fear and panic. This is how you end up on the dreaded “horror trip.” With frequent use, tolerance develops: the dose must be increased in order to achieve the same effect. In individual cases, so-called “flashbacks” can occur weeks after the last use. All of a sudden, a very unpleasant intoxicating effect occurs without LSD having been consumed. The greatest danger of LSD use is “hangover” – this is a drug psychosis that causes the user to experience hallucinations again and again, for example, even though the effect of the drug has long since faded.
