‘Magic Mushrooms’ on Par with LSD & Heroin Now Legal in Denver

Is this what John Denver had in mind when he wrote

'Colorado Rocky Mountain High"?

File Photo: © Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann

The city of Denver, Colorado, has become the first in the US to decriminalize ‘magic mushrooms’, however the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) still classes the psychedelic drug in the same category as LSD and heroin.

The public vote was narrowly passed and means the personal use and possession of psilocybin mushrooms by people aged 21 or older will be Denver’s “lowest law-enforcement priority.” The legal change is expected to take effect as soon as next year.

Do you suppose they were all smoking pot when they passed this bill?

Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic chemical obtained from certain types of fresh and dried mushrooms. It has been federally illegal in the US since 1968, and is classed by the DEA as a ‘Schedule 1’ substance along with heroin and LSD.

Psilocybin or "magic mushrooms" © DEA

Officials with the DEA office in Denver told NPR they still consider psilocybin to have “no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” However studies by medical researchers have shown the substance is not addictive, rarely results in hospital visits, and can be used to treat people with anxiety, depression, PTSD and OCD.

Last year the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted psilocybin “breakthrough therapy” designation.

Denver could now set an example of society's changing attitudes that campaigners need to enact similar law amendments around the country. Advocates have already been working to introduce changes to psilocybin laws in Iowa, Oregon and California.

And what happens to people who share them with children? Is there even a law against it, or a penalty for it? How do you determine if a vehicle driver is high on mushrooms? Is there a blood test, or breathalyzer, for that? Good grief! Do they even know what they've done? Do they know they have legitimized magic mushrooms in the eyes of teenagers? 

Denver Teacher’s Third Grade Assignment Goes Viral Online

Similar messages and pictures came pouring in from other schools worldwide

Gulf News
REUTERS

Denver: A Colorado teacher who posted notes from her third grade class online and started a social media whirlwind under the hashtag #IWishMyTeacherKnew said the assignment had been a revelation for her.

Kyle Schwartz, 26, asked the eight- and nine-year-olds at her Denver inner city school to write down something they wished she knew about them, partly as a writing exercise, and partly as a way for her to learn about her pupils.

Responses included “I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework,” and “I want to go to college,” to one tear-jerker from a girl who said she had no friends to play with at recess.

When the teacher shared photographs of some of the notes on Twitter, similar messages and pictures came pouring in from other schools worldwide.

Schwartz, a self-described suburban girl who has taught at southwest Denver’s Doull Elementary for three years, said she has conducted the exercise each year, in part because she wanted to underline the issue of poverty in US inner cities.

About 90 per cent of Doull’s 532 students are Hispanic, and 46 per cent are classed as English language learners.

Schwartz said one message that garnered a lot of sympathy online, from a girl who said she missed her father after he was deported to Mexico several years ago, was particularly revealing.

“That student comes to school each day with a smile on her face,” the teacher said, adding that she would not have known what the girl was going through if not for the handwritten note.

She said the pupils were told they could write anonymously if they wished, but that most were happy to add their names and to share their messages with classmates.

One widely commented upon note was from a girl who said she had no friends to play with during break time.

Schwartz said that message had been “heartbreaking,” but that she was gladdened to see how the other pupils rallied to support the child who wrote it.

“The next day at recess, all the girls huddled around her and played tag,” Schwartz said.

“A lot of what we’re teaching is how to be a good friend. My students’ emotional needs are just as important as their academic needs.”