Hyderabad: Even as India fights against the proliferation of narcotic drugs, attempts are being made to sell liquid culture to produce internationally-controlled substances like psilocybin, which could potentially produce psychedelic effects, through leading e-commerce platforms.
Sold by a nondescript Thane-based seller Hydra Spore’s & Liquid Culture on Amazon.in, the liquid culture for mycelium, which is used in the cultivation of psilocybin — a naturally-found psychedelic compound, produced by the fungus commonly known as magic mushrooms.
According to Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau chief Sandeep Shandilya, the cultivation, transportation and sale of magic mushrooms is prohibited under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The 10-millilitre liquid containing spores and a syringe — which could be used to produce magic mushrooms — is available under a misleading name of ‘APE Revert Mushroom Isolated Spore Syringe 10ml - Perfect for Mushroom Enthusiasts’ on Amazon India for Rs 2,000 apiece. The seller claims to have sourced the spores from Orangutan Trading Co Ltd, a company incorporated in Truro, a town of 23,000 people in the remote southwest corner of England.
Psilocybin and psilocin are listed as Schedule I drugs under the United Nations 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances.
Hinting at potential violation of law in several countries, the UK-based seller promises to “keep things as discreet as possible. No markings on the box, just plain cardboard, like nature intended. All other data is stored according to GDPR regulations (so it’s all top-secret and doesn’t get shared with anyone), although you probably don’t care and nobody else does either.”
According to a paper in American Society for Microbiology, magic mushrooms contain an active ingredient called psilocybin, which is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug compound produced by more than 200 species of fungi.
“Psilocybin produces hallucinogenic effects. It can be obtained from both fresh and dried mushrooms in varying concentrations. It can also be created in a lab. There's increased interest in using pure psilocybin for addictions, depression, and other mental and psychological disorders due to its potential to stimulate certain areas of the brain. Psilocybin is illegal under federal law in the US,” said a US-based medical website WebMD.
Speaking of the impact of the psilocybin mushrooms, Baijesh Ramesh, a clinical psychologist and a mental health adviser for the Minerva University in California, said, “Magic mushrooms contain a hallucinogenic compound called psilocin, which can produce psychedelic effects such as altered perception of time and space, intense changes in the mood, vision distortions, hallucinating experiences, both visual and auditory. Sometimes, they can create intense anxiety among people who have consumed them.”
Talking about his personal experiences with people, he said, “Some people have reported a euphoria-like state for 30 minutes after the consumption. The effect may also last for over an hour, or longer, depending on the potency of the compound that they have taken.”
He went on to say, “Its impact also varies from person to person. Sometimes, people mistakenly consume mushrooms thinking that those are magic mushrooms and get poisoned. Very rarely though, but if someone has a genetic predisposition, there is an increased risk of them experiencing psychotic episodes after consuming magic mushrooms.”
Discussions on popular social media site Reddit reveal that the sellers of isolated spores for producing magic mushrooms around the world appear to be taking a legal cover claiming that they are not selling magic mushrooms, which are prohibited. However, the product that they sell could help interested people to produce magic mushrooms, which contain controlled substances which are prohibited in several countries, including India.
