Illegal mushrooms seized at a Burlington home, according to sate police.
Some of the packaged hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Police arrested Westen Soule, 21, on charges of possession of narcotics with intent to distribute and operating a drug factory
Hallucinogenic mushrooms that can send users on euphoric journeys or hellish trips have been gaining popularity in Connecticut.
"We're definitely seeing an uptick in it," Manchester police Lt. Shawn Krom, head of a regional narcotics squad, said Friday of so-called "magic mushroom" use.
The latest barometer of the market for psychedelic mushrooms in the state came on Nov. 2 in Burlington, where state police and a DEA task force seized homegrown mushrooms valued at $8.5 million and arrested a 21-year-old man on charges of operating a drug factory and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. A search of the property yielded an astounding amount of psychedelic "shrooms" in various stages of growth and packaged for sale, according to photos of the seizure.
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The allure of mushrooms containing psilocybin appears to coincide with the wider use of marijuana edibles, Krom, head of the East Central Narcotics Task Force, said. Marijuana is legal in the state for adult use, while possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms is a Class A felony, punishable by up to a year in jail.
There has, however, been a growing call for decriminalization of psilocybin in Connecticut and across the nation. Oregon voters approved decriminalizing small amounts of psychedelics in 2020, and separately were the first to approve the supervised use of psilocybin in a therapeutic setting, the Associated Press reported. Two years later, Colorado voters passed a ballot measure to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms and to create state-regulated centers where participants can experience the drug under supervision.
A bill introduced in the Connecticut legislature this year, which did not become law, would have made possession of half an ounce or less of hallucinogenic psilocybin a ticketable offense carrying a $150 fine. Supporters noted that the substance, which naturally occurs in hundreds of different kinds of mushrooms, has been found to help psychiatric patients. Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the committee, likened the action to the 2011 decriminalization of small amounts of cannabis.
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Many legislators, however, warned that not enough information was available on the drug's effects, particularly on drivers and in conjunction with alcohol and marijuana use.
"I don't know whether our law enforcement officers have an ability to judge someone who may be driving erratically, whether they may or may not be under the influence of this substance," Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, said. "I have concerns, primarily with the public-safety issues on our roadways. What does this tell our young people?"
Signs of psilocybin use include not only hallucinations, but paranoia, memory loss, body tremors, and difficulty with speech, Manchester police Officer Scott Plourde, a drug recognition expert, said.
A user might say to him, "Turn your badge down; it's too loud," Plourde said. Called "synesthasia," people under the influence sometimes say they can "hear colors and see sound," he said.
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People on "bad trips" also may become dangerous to themselves and others. They may feel someone is out to hurt them or something is possessing their bodies that they need to get rid of, Plourde said.
"An intense bad trip can lead to dire consequences," he said.
The most recent and widely reported example of magic mushrooms' negative effects came last month aboard an airplane in flight from Seattle to San Francisco with more than 80 people aboard. Authorities say an off-duty pilot riding in an extra cockpit seat said, "I'm not OK," before suddenly trying to cut the engines. Joseph David Emerson, 44, told police after his arrest that he had been struggling with depression, that a friend had recently died, and that he had taken psychedelic mushrooms about 48 hours before he attempted to kill the plane's engines, according to authorities.
As with other illegal drugs such as fentanyl, people using magic mushrooms often do not know what they are ingesting, Krom said.
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"It's a game of chance that a lot of people are playing right now," he said.
In properly supervised conditions, however, researchers say psilocybin offers at least a partial remedy for depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and other ailments of the mind. The federal Food and Drug Administration designated psilocybin as a "breakthrough therapy" for treatment-resistant depression in 2019 and recently published a draft guideline on using psychedelics in clinical trials, the AP reported.
A report done for the Connecticut legislature last year by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services found that psilocybin offered a promising treatment for some behavioral health conditions, including substance use, depression, and palliative care for end-of-life anxiety and depression. It also suggested that psilocybin-assisted therapy for mental health conditions is effective when administered in highly structured settings.
The study also concluded, however, that "research to date is limited regarding who may benefit from this form of treatment and who may be at risk of experiencing adverse effects from psilocybin use" and that "there may be serious risks associated with the use of psilocybin, including suicidal behavior, self harm and suicidal ideation, when administration is unsupervised."
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Nevertheless, advocates of the benefits of psilocybin have been active in neighboring Massachusetts, according to a recently Boston Globe story. Since early 2021, six communities in the state, including Somerville, Cambridge, and Northampton, have passed measures directing their police departments to end arrests for growing and sharing psilocybin mushrooms among adults, the Globe reported.
And since early September, canvassers have collected more than 75,000 signatures on a proposed ballot petition that would change Massachusetts state law to legalize the possession and supervised use of natural psychedelics, including psilocybin mushrooms, the newspaper reported. The initiative could go before voters next year.
The 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found 2.6 percent of people age 12 and older, or 7.4 million individuals, had used hallucinogens, including magic mushrooms, in the past year. The percentage was highest among 18- to 25-year-olds.
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'Magic' mushrooms gaining popularity in CT, but they're still illegal – CT Insider
