Shrooms Vs Weed: The Drugs The Whole World Loves

The two most commonly consumed illegal drugs in the world are magic mushrooms and marijuana. Global trends indicate both will eventually be legal everywhere. However, at present, only a few countries allow legal cannabis and even fewer permit legal shrooms.

NATURE KNOWS BEST

In a pleasant twist of fate, magic mushies and weed are also the two least dangerous recreational drugs. Out of the saturated recreational pharmacopoeia, shrooms and cannabis cause the fewest visits to emergency services. 

Drugs like alcohol, meth, and heroin can do extreme physical and mental damage in the long-term. They are also highly addictive substances.

There is little chance of addiction with either cannabis or mushrooms, and it is impossible to lethally OD. Deaths from THC or psilocybin overdoses are unheard of. Even the most hardened toker will simply end up asleep in the event of overindulgence. Similarly with shrooms. You might have a freaky trip if you ingest too much psilocybin, but you won’t die.

The popularity of shrooms and weed seems to indicate that humans enjoy heightened states of consciousness, especially those having to do with the stimulation of pleasure-producing compounds in the brain.

SHROOMS MEAN PSILOCYBIN

Psilocybin is an alkaloid that predominantly affects the serotonergic system. Serotonin is one of the most “happy-making” endogenous compounds of them all, using observable mechanisms that are little understood. Psilocybin stimulates novel neuronal connectivity—brain scans reveal areas of the brain that usually function independently being connected via augmented neuronal activity. The same scans also show an overall increase in neuronal activity across the whole brain. The corpus callosum becomes more transparent to the left and right hemispheres.

In small doses, a general sense of well-being and a feeling of connectedness to living things is common. Microdosing psilocybin heightens the senses and reflexes, especially visual acuity and creative problem solving. Colours become saturated and the senses experience greater nuances. A microdose of psilocybin is now considered a smart drug in the nootropics community.

In larger doses, enough to induce a “trip”, synesthesia is common. The senses become hyper-connected, sounds take on colours, and music has texture. Walls and floors tend to breathe and objects flow together in organic pulses. The dissolution of the ego is hinted at in the feelings of empathy and universal interconnectedness that affect everyone who takes shrooms. The feelings of well-being can last for weeks after a good shroom session.

With large, shamanic, and heroic doses, full-blown hallucinations are sought. These journeys can be fun for sure, but they can also be really serious business. Large doses of psilocybin morph from recreational to spiritual to universal connectivity very quickly. The pleasant feeling of microdosing and dipping one's toes in the water, or tripping and having a swim close to shore in the ocean of eternity is one thing; heroic doses are to head out where you can’t see land anymore. Where the ocean is deep and full of powerful currents.

MARIJUANA MEANS THC

THC stimulates the production of dopamine in the brain, another “feel-fine” compound. Using cannabis is more than just a pleasure response, though. It also binds to cannabinoid receptors in the brain and central nervous system, which induces the unique cannabis high.

A number of other cannabinoids and volatile compounds are also present in marijuana, which modify the overall effect. This explains why the multitude of high-THC strains of contemporary cannabis available are all different. They all share the same euphoria theme, but can be substantially modified by over two hundred other compounds.

THC is sometimes considered to be in the psychedelic family of drugs, but its effects aren’t as homogeneous nor as intense as mushrooms. There is an old Rasta saying that “marijuana is all things to all people”. This rings true when trying to describe the unique effects of cannabis and THC.

The same substance used for a pre-sport psyche up can be used later on the same day to relax and unwind. The same substance used to sharpen the mind and improve cognitive function can also be used to “totally veg out man”. THC is chimeric. It can amplify emotions and sensory feedback while simultaneously augmenting the projected intent of the user.

Generally, cannabis is a very functional drug. Hashish was smoked at world fairs around the fin de siècle to enhance the interactive experience of the fair-goers. Being stoned and functioning perfectly at work or play is common. Of course, powerful strains can catch you by surprise and subject you to their will. High-THC indicas can staple your eyelids to the floor while resinous sativas frisbee your focus into hyperspace. And don’t even get us started on dabs.

IT’S EASY WHEN YOU KNOW HOW

Magic mushrooms can be eaten raw or dried. Dried is better though, as the desiccation process enhances the strength of the psilocybin. Nature’s cruel trick is making psychoactive alkaloids taste really bad. Mushrooms are no different. They are desperately bland and overly alkaline. Washing them down with fruit juice improves the experience, but there is no escaping the legendary yuck factor.

They can be easily incorporated into other foods or turned into more tasty teas or smoothies. One can even make whole meals for a table of friends with lashings of mushrooms in every serving. Tinctures and teas are fabulously purple or deep blue and are more tolerable with lemon and honey. A palmful of mushroom caps, a banana, and coconut water in a smoothie is healthy for the body and mind.

The kitchen-safe, chemically adventurous can do a simple extract of psilocybin. Completely tasteless for those who just can’t bare the taste of, or are allergic to shrooms. A psilocybin extraction uses easy-to-source, food-safe materials to produce a more palatable key to the door.

Cannabis has been traditionally smoked since the dawn of civilisation. Instruments for smoking cannabis have been found in archaeological sites all around the globe, some dating back over 10,000 years. Simple chillums of hollow clay and bird bones, engraved gold bongs, and elaborate pipes suggest cannabis was enjoyed by many classes of people.

Most commonly, cannabis is still smoked, rolled in a paper joint or twisted in tobacco leaf for a blunt. Tonnes of cannabis is consumed in this way everyday, all around the world. Bongs are the most identifiable piece of hardware in the cannabis community. The use of the bong helped to maintain early cannabis hysteria. It was just so foreign and weird-looking that people were easily frightened. Chillums and small pipes are handy when on the move.

Vaporizing is the method of choice for those wanting to avoid any smoke at all. The vaporizer is a many splendored thing and comes in such a huge variety of forms. Endless choices of tabletop and handheld rigs, discreet pens, and wands are available. If you want to vaporize, review, review, review before purchase.

Edibles are getting stronger as the contemporary grower keeps producing stronger and stronger weed. Eating cannabis can make the experience much deeper and longer-lasting. When eaten, the experience is closer to a proper psychedelic effect. When dabbing or vaporizing high-THC concentrates up to around 90% THC, this psychedelia can be augmented even further, albeit, for a shorter period of time.

MEDICINES OF THE FUTURE

Both magic mushrooms and cannabis are testing positively as therapeutic substances for the human organism. Psilocybin studies suggest a significant role could be played in mental health care of the future. Cannabis positively affects mood and dietary disorders, and has several beneficial physical actions. Cannabis as marijuana can be an anxiolytic or anodyne. Cannabis as hemp can be a source of antiseptic and anti-inflammatory oils.

SHROOMS VS WEED?

There really isn’t a competition. Shrooms and weed? Yes! Weed and shrooms? Yes! Just shrooms? Yes! Just weed? Yes! The effects of each are different sides of a multi-sided coin. Stimulation and amplification of the brain with psychedelics and other substances seems to be part of the human psyche—to go where no one has gone before and bring back Knowledge. Just being out of it is really nice too.

Depending on species and quantity, both shrooms and weed can induce a broad range of experiences—from mild and noticed only as heightened sensitivity to intense, existential, and even personally transcendental experiences. In a fraught future, perhaps the personal insight shrooms and weed can offer is more important than ever.