The Drugs

What are magic mushrooms?

‘Magic mushrooms’ is a slang word for psilocybe semilanceata or ‘liberty cap’ mushrooms (the most common type of ‘magic mushroom’ in the UK) and any other mushroom which produces similar ’trippy’ effects, like hallucinations.

It is important to know that different types of ‘magic mushroom’ will differ in how strong and how toxic they are.

For example, the amanita muscaria or ‘fly agaric’ mushroom is stronger than the traditional ‘liberty cap’ mushroom

After picking, magic mushrooms are often eaten raw or are dried out and stored. Some people use the dried mushrooms to make tea. Drying reduces the weight of the ‘magic mushrooms’, but not their potency. People don’t tend to eat fly agaric mushrooms raw as they can make you feel really sick and also because there is a greater risk of poisoning and death from this family of mushrooms.

Here are the main effects and risks of magic mushrooms:

• Colours, sounds and objects appear distorted.
• Your sense of time and movement can speed up – or slow down.
• You may feel disoriented, tired or sick – and some users can get stomach pains or diarrhoea.