“Magic Mushrooms” Make a Resurgence

Psychedelic drugs, such as “magic mushrooms”, which contain the chemical Psilocybin, are making a comeback on the party scene across the nation.  The substance is a hallucinogen and can cause a range of mind-altering, “trips” that young people are experimenting again with once more.

We are seeing people find legal ways to take shrooms and a push for them to become fully legal.  There are also pushes to make the much more powerful drug DMT legal.

In the 1960’s Mushrooms were first introduced to the party scene in Australia. As soon as they hit America, the mid-late 1960’s, era of the free love & peace hippie scene, they exploded.

Commonly referred to as:

• Mushrooms
• Magic mushrooms
• Shrooms

How This Dangerous Drug is Found and Used

The chemical makeup of Psilocybin

People will ingest the mushrooms by either eating them, cooking them into a tea, or even just putting them in other foods.  Unfortunately, there have been reported deaths due to people picking the “wrong” mushroom, thinking they were picking a culinary mushroom and ending up with a psychedelic. Often, the mushrooms picked straight from the ground even have maggots in them, thus they ingest maggots.  If people do not know what they are doing 100%, they should stick to “picking” their mushrooms up from the local grocery store, so they don’t end up on a “trip” instead of a topping for their steak.

How Risky Is It?

The use of “Magic Mushrooms” may have a reputation of not being as harmful as other psychedelic drugs, but many incidents of overdose and death have occurred.  When used often, or in high doses people can damage the developing brain, making this even more dangerous for teens and young adults. Addiction can take place.

Users can suffer psychosis, excessive anger and the danger of taking extreme risks, while high on the Psilocybin found in Mushrooms.

Law Enforcement is Cracking Down

It seems if you ask law enforcement while there has not been a bigger crackdown on “Mushroom Picking” and usage, they will candidly tell you they have been dealing with so many other drugs that have been deemed riskier, or more abundant in the past. It is almost unheard of to hear of anyone having gone to jail for picking them in the past.  Let it be known, The active ingredient, Psilocybin, is illegal in all states and in the past it has often been punished with a fine. Drug & Alcohol rehab counselors, educators and law enforcement are now saying that the possibility of serving jail time should be stressed as well as the health concerns to discourage the use.

How To Find Help

If you yourself, or someone you know, has been abusing Mushrooms, you need to find a reputable rehabilitation facility that has experience in treating this type of drug abuse.   Each rehab will offer a variety of treatment programs.  You may choose inpatient or outpatient drug addiction counseling to help you learn to live and enjoy life without the use of mushrooms, and other psychedelic drugs like them.

A Dangerous  Addiction

In just the past few years the streets of Florida and other southern states began seeing the impact of the inexpensive, explosion of Flakka on their streets, sending drug rehab facilities into high alert to educate themselves on the safe detox from the drug. The drug is manufactured primarily in India, China and Pakistan, and the United States is working diligently to circumvent the import of this dangerous substance.

Recently, across the U.S. cases of individuals testing positive for the active ingredient in Flakka, a stimulant developed in the 1960s called alpha-PVP, has shown a dramatic increase.  Today, alpha-PVP is manufactured in overseas pharmaceutical plants and shipped all over the world.

Why People Use Flakka

Availability appears to be the big draw.  It has been referred to as the “poor man’s meth”.  They also saw a large number of younger addicts abusing this substance, most likely due to the low cost and availability.  Flakka is cheaper than most street drugs, and has been sold under the illusion of “Bath Salts” in tobacco shops, and convenience stores. Now Flakka has moved to the street dealer.  Sometimes called “Gravel” and “Salt”, Flakka only became declared a controlled substance in January 2014, and that was only by emergency declaration from the Justice Department.  Each time a ban on a specific formula, the formula would be changed slightly, and repackaged.

Flakka is often ingested through snorting, smoking, or eating. However, it can also be ingested through “vaping” in an e-cigarette, so addicts can conveniently take it in public without anyone noticing until the crazy effects begin.

The bizarre behavior of the people using Flakka has caused First Responders, Police Officers’, and Substance Abuse Counselors to act swift in finding a response to this epidemic.  Drug treatment centers began to reach out into the streets to educate the young addicts of this dangerous chemical.

Signs of Flakka Use

Flakka is associated with cocaine-like changes in behavior. Behavior changes induced by Flakka use may include:

• Extreme agitation.
• Aberrant and ‘bizarre’ behavior.
• Delirium or intense confusion.
• Psychotic symptoms, delusions, and hallucination
• Changes in heart rate.
• Heart attack.
• Cardiomyopathy (damage to heart muscle).
• Death due to cardiac complications.

*Warning the video below may be disturbing to some individuals

Inpatient Drug Rehab is the Best Answer

The Flakka addict is like any other addict.  The first step would be detoxing in a qualified rehabilitation facility.  Quitting on their own, if they even attempt it, proves to be unsuccessful without the aid of rehab counselors facilitating a medical detox. A good follow up rehab program after detox is imperative for drug addicts, including Flakka addicts. Addiction specialist agree that inpatient drug rehabilitation is the best treatment option for these addicts.

 Long Term Effects of Flakka Use

Assuming the Flakka drug user survives the end result of his/her bizarre behavior while under the influence of the drug there, are lasting effects on the body.

The worst of the lingering after effects of the drug can be compared, in rare instances, to someone who runs a marathon, wherein muscle tissue starts to decompose and break down into the blood stream. That can lead to kidney failure and death.

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Struggles in Recovery

Being successful in recovery can be very challenging and requires a ton of effort. Obviously, the most crucial step is ending the substance abuse itself, but that isn’t the end of the road. Recovery is lifelong and is a choice you will face every single day, which makes those recovering extremely vulnerable to relapse.

These are the top 5 struggles that recovering addicts face during their lifelong journey of recovery:

1. Anger- Drug addiction changes the chemistry of your body and brain, and you may find yourself struggling with anger issues when recovering from addiction. In most cases, the anger is a normal part of life, but for recovering addicts, it can quickly lead to relapse.

2. Sadness or Depression- Sadness is another normal emotion, but that may be made worse by those who are recovering from drug addiction. Because of the changes in the brain, it can take a long time after stopping drugs for your body to regain some balance in emotions. Those recovering must learn to manage these emotions and create a routine and healthy lifestyle.

3. Being Around Drug Users- Often times those who are on the path to recovery find themselves wanting to spend time with the friends they had while on drugs. Usually, those people are also using drugs and this can be very dangerous. People want to fit in, they want to please, and they often give into temptation—and giving into that peer pressure can ruin some people’s chances at full recovery.

4. Happiness- Negative emotions can easily trigger relapse to drug use, but so can happy or joyful emotions. Exciting events in life usually are cause for celebration—it’s hard to celebrate as the ‘new’ you when the ‘old’ you would have used drugs as celebration.

5. Stress, Mistakes, and Boredom- Making mistakes, being stressful, having boring or dull days is a commonplace thing for everyone. But for those struggling through recovery, your mind might be quick to jump to the desire to take drugs again because you may think that will relieve your stress or boredom, or make you forget those mistakes.

All of these struggles are common, not only for everyone but especially for those who are recovering drug addicts. You must learn to understand who you are and how you feel, and learn to cope with those feelings. You have to strive to develop ways to do things without going back to using drugs.