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Study Finds Magic Mushrooms Are the Safest Recreational Drug (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Mushrooms are the safest of all the drugs people take recreationally, according to this year's Global Drug Survey. Of the more than 12,000 people who reported taking psilocybin hallucinogenic mushrooms in 2016, just 0.2% of them said they needed emergency medical treatment -- a rate at least five times lower than that for MDMA, LSD and cocaine. Global Drug Survey 2017, with almost 120,000 participants in 50 countries, is the world's biggest annual drug survey, with questions that cover the types of substances people take, patterns of use and whether they experienced any negative effects. Overall, 28,000 people said they had taken magic mushrooms at some point in their lives, with 81.7% seeking a "moderate psychedelic experience" and the "enhancement of environment and social interactions."
The last place you take someone having a bad reaction to psychedelics is the ER. About the only places worse would be jail or the loony bin. You take them someplace they feel safe...ask them.
So 'going to the ER' is the wrong criteria in the first place. % that needed 'babysitting' over freakout is the better question, could also apply to very drunk people.
How would you even categorize: 'Convincing your tripping friend that climbing a tower crane is a bad idea.'
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I jumped at reading the article to validate my existing beliefs, but the article rates mushrooms as safe by the amount of people admitted to the hospital as a result. I don't think that's a great measure to use. Just because you aren't immediately and seriously injured or disruptive doesn't mean it's not bad for your mind or body.
By safe they speak only about emergency medical treatment.
It doesn't include long term damage (non-emergencies) and severity.
You can get to the hospital just because you got into a situation you couldn't control, or because someone else panicked, but you were never in danger to begin with.
Tobacco is probably really safe by this metric. Cancer usually won't get you in an emergency room...
Still interesting, and the results make sense, just know it is not all there is to drug safety.
The LD 50 rating for marijuana appears to be about 1 unstrapped tons in the back of your car. That's one of the few documented deaths clearly due to marijuana. The guy (who was not stoned) was crushed when he had a car accident.
When I started drinking at 33, I had some nasty hangovers. When people start smoking pot- they don't know how to handle it and can end up going to the emergency room because they are freaking out and overdid it.
Personally- I would prefer the high cannibinoid pot available over seas (and MAYBE in colorado) over high THC pot. I like the silly giggly shit vs simply being stoned.
But pot is much healthier for almost everyone than booze is (which is why booze makers donate to anti-pot legislation).
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I bet beer and pot together are safer than shrooms.
That’d be a bad bet. Alcohol can kill you, psilocybin can’t. Alcohol causes liver, (and other organic), damage, psilocybin doesn’t. I would say pot and ‘shrooms are equally safe. No one has ever been known to overdose on either. Alcohol, not so much. But any recreational drug, including alcohol, if used in moderation is not going to cause you any harm. Few recreational drugs are as dangerous as, say, Tylenol, (acetaminophen), which is a liver toxin.
-- sudon't
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