In the news, podcasts, social media, and shows, there is a lot of talk about magic mushrooms, aka “shrooms,” and their potential benefits through their psychoactive component called psilocybin. For example, people talk about how consuming mushrooms can create life-changing experiences in full or microdoses. In addition, there is a lot of buzz about the important research being done to uncover potential medical applications. 

However, what concerns me is that all these media outlets often fail to address the risks of psychedelics and ways to prevent such risks.  I’ve written this blog to offer an effective way to talk to teens about these risks, knowing that such conversations can be tricky.

Parent Dilemma

As parents, when we try to discuss drugs, including psychedelics, youth often dismiss us, thinking we’re being overly dramatic, uninformed, or anxious and old-fashioned. Teens tell me that adults can sound just like the memes out there that make fun of the idea of drugs “destroying brains.”  

Given the many positive media messages about “shrooms” these days, youth can be especially prone to roll their eyes with discussions about risks. 

Parent Solution

To tackle this dilemma, I suggest a way to talk about psilocybin in mushrooms with kids about age 12 and up without sounding like any of the stereotypes I just mentioned.  

The strategy is to read with them this important recent Op-Ed published in the Mercury News by Kristin Nash, the Co-Founder of the William G. Nash Foundation. The Op-Ed addresses the proposed law currently moving through the California legislature regarding legalizing psychedelic mushrooms.

Michael Pollan, the best-selling author of several books, including “This is Your Mind on Plants,” retweeted Kristin’s Op-Ed, stating, “An important point of view we don’t hear often enough.” I could not agree more with Pollan.

Nash had the unimaginable happen in her family. She has made it her life’s mission to help raise awareness about risks and create solutions. An example of something she has helped support is a reality-based drug education program that she eloquently speaks about in my latest film, “Screenagers Under The Influence.”

Read the Op-Ed as a family:

Gather your family and read the following Op-Ed together. I am confident this will spark a beneficial conversation. 

The Mercury News 

By KRISTIN NASH  

Opinion: California must find middle lane on legalizing psychedelics

We can’t rely on an industry poised to make billions to worry about safety

PUBLISHED: July 6, 2023

A bill to decriminalize five psychedelics is progressing through the California Legislature. The substances are considered a lifeline by some. But what about the risks?

A Bay Area 21-year-old died recently after taking psilocybin. It was purchased in Oakland where psychedelics are decriminalized. No instructions given. They had an adverse reaction and fell to their death. A Marin County mom lost her 16-year-old when he took psilocybin after reading he could talk to God. Shayne became ecstatic then “flew” off their deck.

I lost my own 21-year-old son Will in an accident caused by psychedelic-induced hallucinations. Two months from college graduation, Will had just started a growing business with a friend. He was in his home with close friends — like many, they perceived psychedelics as fun and “safe enough.” He took two-grams of mushrooms. Things were casual, relaxed. Until they weren’t. Will had a severe adverse reaction. He felt sick, tried to throw up and went into a psychosis. His friends called for help. Yet, with campus responders on the scene untrained in handling a psychedelic crisis, our beautiful son, detached from reality, mistook one ordinary object for another, and suddenly was gone.

Despite these tragedies, I don’t believe in drug-war policies or zero-tolerance approaches. Programs such as D.A.R.E. have had meager impact, and they have left generations without real drug education. But I do worry that we are fast-tracking into psychedelic liberalization without understanding the dangers and developing guardrails.

A new study finds that the use of certain psychedelics among young adults has nearly doubled in three years. While we don’t track prevalence of psychedelic-related harm, we know that, in California, ER visits related to psychedelic use increased by 84% since 2016.

Worst-case scenarios, along with other potential harms, have been obscured by talking points, such as “can’t overdose” and “nonaddictive.” But that’s not the whole story, and it’s misleading. Psychedelics can produce hallucinations and delusions. Emotional responses can range from euphoria to paranoia, terror and fight-or-flight panic, which can result in psychological trauma, erratic behavior, accidental injuries, even violence or death.

Most often, we are speaking about psychedelics as medicine for mental health. Research on psilocybin-assisted therapy for anxiety, depression and alcohol use disorder is encouraging but early-stage. We need large clinical trials to determine safety and efficacy. And clinical improvement is not based solely on the drug — a trained professional prepares, facilitates and processes the experience with a client; the practitioner is integral to the outcome.

Though let’s be honest, whether legal or not, psychedelic use is happening. Whatever we decide as a society, we need reality-based education and proven safeguards. Like psychedelics themselves, decriminalization can both help and harm. Depending on how it’s done, decriminalization has the potential to make use safer, such as reducing barriers to help-seeking. But in this moment of immense cultural enthusiasm for psychedelics, decriminalization also, predictably, will drive increased use, and adverse events along with it. With history as a guide, most of that use will be by young adults and other vulnerable people.

None of these kids I’ve mentioned understood the risks. Will perceived mushrooms as among the “least harmful drugs.” The young person in Oakland thought they could safely heal emotional distress. Shayne thought a “God’s dose” would deliver transcendence.

When we downplay possible adverse outcomes, we fail in our imperative to reduce harm and our ethical duty of informed consent.

Psychedelic legislation needs common-sense safeguards — a framework for setting and support, harm-reduction education, public-health tracking and first-responder training — not “later” but baked into any drug-reform policy. I don’t believe we can we rely on an industry poised to make billions to worry about safety. Public policy is the mechanism to ensure protections are in place.

Questions to get the conversation started:

1. In what media have you seen discussions of psychedelics or portrayals of people taking them?
2. What are some of the medical uses of psilocybin being researched that you have heard about? (some examples are,  overcoming alcohol use disorder, treating PTSD, and decreasing depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer).
3. What do we think about the Op-Ed that we just read?

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As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel