Mood-altering mushroom sales bloom despite safety concerns
, a hemp dispensary in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood, stopped selling the edibles in December after regulators from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services ordered it to do so, calling
A. muscaria
a dangerous ingredient. The shop returned $30,000 worth of merchandise to Psilo Mart, a Las Vegas-area supplier that says it imports the mushroom from Lithuania. The Agriculture Department, which regulates shops that sell products like hemp vapes, then lifted its restrictions on the dispensary.
Dirk Shadd
/
Tampa Bay Times (via KFF Health News)
Packs of Amanita muscaria mushroom gummies in various fruit flavors at Chillum, a mushroom and hemp dispensary in Tampa.
Drew Gennuso, president of Psilo Mart, said he hasnt heard of any major issues with the edibles.
Chillums owner, Carlos Hermida, said he believes the products are safe.
Its so mild, he said of the funguss effects. Its not anything where youre going to smell the color purple.
Hermida recently began selling the products again for between $20 and $55 but, attempting to avoid another state order, he said Chillum added labels warning they are solely for educational or spiritual purposes and not human consumption.
Federal officials havent approved the fungus and its chemicals to be sold as food additives or to treat medical conditions.
The Tampa case highlights the gaps in oversight of this nascent national market despite concerns from federal officials.
The companies are moving faster than the research, said John Michelotti, who heads the medicinal mushrooms committee of the North American Mycological Association and founded Catskill Fungi, an upstate New York business that sells mushroom extracts.
"It's the wild, wild West."
The crackdown at Chillum began in October. The state Agriculture Department collected samples of products for lab testing. Returning in December, the agency said a Psilo Mart hemp joint with
A. muscaria
powder had elevated levels of toxic heavy metals, department records show.
Dirk Shadd
/
Tampa Bay Times (via KFF Health News)
Attempting to avoid another crackdown on mood-altering mushroom products, Carlos Hermida recently began selling products containing the funguss chemicals again at his shop in Tampa but with labels warning they are solely for educational or spiritual purposes and not human consumption.
Hermida threw out his inventory of the mushroom joints, he said, and regulators ordered him to stop selling the other fungus products. They cited a state law that says food is adulterated if it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render it injurious to health.
The gummies with the extracts elicit a feeling of being high and drunk, Hermida said, while the capsules cause a tingly body sensation and throw off depth perception.
The mushroom is poisonous, though likely not fatal, and can be detoxified in boiling water. Consuming the raw fungus isnt the same as using low doses of its chemicals, Hermida maintained.
The Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa gets one report a week, on average, of a hallucinogenic mushroom poisoning, but many callers dont explain what kind they ate, and doctors dont have a quick way to verify, said Alexandra Funk, its managing director. She said
A. muscaria
products should be kept away from children.
In the greater Tampa Bay region, medical examiners havent recorded any recent deaths from the mushroom. Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital in St. Petersburg and local AdventHealth emergency rooms havent seen poisonings, according to spokespeople. But there appears to be a lack of routine testing for the fungus.
The edibles sold at Chillum appealed to Antwan Towner, a 40-year-old Ybor City magician who said he struggles with anxiety. He eats half a gummy when having a bad day, he said, and it produces euphoria that lasts about four hours, then peace of mind for a week. He said he hasnt experienced a negative reaction or hallucinations.
It was never about getting high, he said. It was just about trying something that may be effective.
Theres a lot of anecdotal evidence that low doses of the mushroom may be useful therapeutically, said Hallen-Adams, who chairs the toxicology committee of the North American Mycological Association.
But more data is needed to prove if it helps those with various medical conditions or if its simply a placebo, she said.
Dirk Shadd
/
Tampa Bay Times (via KFF Health News)
Carlos Hermida, owner of Chillum, a mushroom and hemp dispensary, holds a pack of 10 watermelon-flavored Amanita muscaria mushroom gummies at his shop in Tampa.
Last year, a Canadian company said an independent group of scientists found that its A
. muscaria
generally recognized as safe
.
The Toronto company, Psyched Wellness, conducted preclinical studies on its Calm extract, a sleep aid, said CEO Jeffrey Stevens.
Other businesses, Stevens said, havent invested in such research. We have so many cowboys right now who are just saying, Oh, this is a legal psychedelic mushroom, lets just put product into the market. "
Since early February, Florida regulators have cited five businesses in Daytona Beach, Largo, Plant City, Tallahassee, and Tamarac for selling merchandise containing
A. muscaria,
according to state Agriculture Department records. Because federal officials havent approved the mushroom to be used in food, the agency orders businesses to stop selling these products when its inspectors find them, Aaron Keller, a spokesperson for the department, wrote in an email.
In this emerging market with many unknowns, Hallen-Adams urged consumers to be careful if this is something youre going to experiment with.
Under Chillums new labeling, consuming the edibles it sells is an abuse of product, Hermida said.
If you want to study it, or if you want to pray to it, thats fine with me.
This article was produced in partnership between KFF Health News and the Tampa Bay Times.
Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 11:39 am