MAGIC MUSHROOMS

Magic Mushrooms are mushrooms which grow in the wild that produce similar effects to LSD when you eat them. There are two main types and they are both very different.

The most common form is a species called psilocybe, the other more potent variety is amanita muscaria. There are deadly poisonous species of amanitas. If you don't know what you're doing, don't take them.

ID: Liberties, magics, mushies, liberty cap, psilcybe semilanceata, psilcybin, shrooms, Amani agaric, Fly Agaric.

Appearance and use

Psilcybin mushrooms are small and tan coloured and bruise blue when they're touched. Amanita Muscaria are more like the red and white spotted toadstools you see in fairytale books.

After picking, they're both either eaten raw or dried out and stored. Most people take between 1-5 grams.

Cost

Free if you know where to find them or up to £5 for a handful.

Purity

The biggest danger with taking any magic mushrooms is making sure you're taking the right thing. There are hundreds of varieties out there and some of them are highly poisonous.

And as you'd expect with something that grows naturally, the strength varies depending on the freshness, the season and regional variations.

The effect

Both types of mushroom give you a trip. Trips can be good or bad. A good trip can be a lot of fun. A bad trip is your worst nightmare come to life. Any sort of trip can have quite random and sometimes very frightening effects. Trips feed off a person's imagination. One person can spend six hours in a very happy place while someone else who's taken the same mushrooms can spend six hours lost in their own fears and paranoia.

How the trip goes has everything to do with who you are, how you're feeling and how comfortable you are with the people you are with.

The effects for both mushrooms can take between 30 minutes to two hours to happen. The strongest part of the trip takes 4-10 hours and the after-effects usually last a further 2-6 hours. The more you take, the longer your trip could last.

• Both mushrooms can distort colour, sound and objects.
• Both mushrooms can speed up and slow down time and movement.
• Both mushrooms can make you feel more emotionally sensitive. Some people feel more creative and enlightened.
• Amanita's can give you the sort of out of body experience that makes you feel like you're dreaming when you're awake.
• Amanita's can give you synesthesia which allows you to smell words and taste colours.
• Bad trips are seriously frightening and unsettling. And you can't tell whether you're going to have a bad trip or a good trip (although there are things you can do to try and avoid a bad trip).
• You're not in complete control of what you're doing. Your perception of your body and the world around you can be distorted.
• Both mushrooms can make you feel sick, tired and disoriented.
• Amanita's can make you nervous, twitchy and cold.
• Amanita's can make make you feel so withdrawn inside your own head that you can't hold a sensible conversation.

Chances of getting hooked

Magic Mushrooms are not addictive in any way.

The risks

• Eating the wrong kind of mushroom can make you seriously ill, and even kill you.
• Magic Mushrooms can complicate any mental health issues you may have. Anyone with a history of schizophrenia should stay away from Magic Mushrooms.

The law

It is not illegal to possess raw magic mushrooms. However, the minute they're prepared (e.g dried or stewed) they become a Class A drug. And that means possession can get you up to seven years in jail and an unlimited fine. Supplying someone else with Magic Mushrooms can get you life and an unlimited fine.