My partner, magic mushrooms and our holiday

[Lm4065]

My partner micro doses magic mushrooms daily for mental health reasons (depression). I don’t have an issue with this.
however we are planning our first holiday. Nothing is booked yet but they have said they are planning to take some mushrooms for use there which makes sense but it hadn’t crossed my mind.
im not comfortable travelling with someone who is carrying something illegal. I don’t want to be implicated or get into trouble. I would lose my job.
my partner understands to a point but says this is not what the airport security are looking for and they won’t get caught.
I agree the risk is low however that’s not the point. They are asking me to take a big risk, and even if we don’t get caught I will be super stressed in the run up to the flight, during and whilst waiting for the case.
my partner is playing down the risk but this is not something I’m willing to compromise on.
I know my partner has travelled with friends when carrying these drugs in their bag and the friends have not had an issue with it.
does anyone have any advice Please .

Oh, I'm not saying for a second the handler was making it up. I am sure they genuinely believed what they told you. However the intersection between science, technology and law enforcement can be very narrow.

You can’t OD, so….

Nope dont bother booking it if they are planning on bringing class A drugs.
Go without them or have a staycation

I absolutely wouldn’t travel with anyone carrying anything illegal.

Im not completely against mushrooms and did them many times in my 20s. Though they gave me awful depression on the come down so I find it surprising that people use them for depression! Though I guess that’s the micro dosing aspect.

Yes that was my point - that Lionsmane is used as a supplement, isn’t psychedelic and doesn’t make you trip, and is legal. In my experience i have found that it has boosted my focus and mood. That’s why I wondered if the OP’s partner might want to consider it as a more tame /safer alternative to take on the holiday.

Never say never. You can overdose on water.

Absolutely no way I’d travel with them.

He might not have been caught before but I wouldn’t risk it. I’d also say If they were to risk it and got caught, it would be on them. Nothing to do with me. He wouldn’t be getting any help from me either.

There are sniffer dogs and random checks, it’s probably just a matter of time before he does get stopped.

It also depends on where you’re travelling to as well. The consequences will differ country to country.

Don’t go or organise separate flights. I’d be wary of just being with someone like that anyway, such as in the hotel. However if you say you won’t go if he takes stuff with him, he could just say he won’t take stuff, and then you find out he’s lied.

Yes you can OD on water (quite a different proposition), but as I’ve never taken mushrooms I have no idea of the accuracy of the consultant psychiatrist that was interviewed on their podcast, but I expect he was speaking from a position of some authority.

Just make sure you keep your luggage separate from him.

I guess the risk is that you might do yourself some harm while under the influence - be involved in some sort of accident
Although on a huge amount, you're probably not going to be able to move.

I wouldn't want to travel with anyone who is carrying illegal drugs (no matter what their reason for doing so is). Your partner isn't likely to try and put the mushrooms in your luggage is he? I'd be careful of that too. So, I think you are right to feel as you do. The idea of anyone carrying Class A's through an airport (or to different countries) is absolutely crazy. Hell, if I'm travelling, I take copies of my prescriptions for my inhalers and my HRT!!!

I'm probably sounding very OTT here but I also wouldn't want to use any luggage/suitcases that he had previously used (in case traces of the mushrooms were in the luggage). I was 9yrs old (and living in the ME) when the news came out about two young British girls (Patricia Cahill and Karyn Smith - I remembered one was called Patricia as I'd not heard the name before!) who were arrested in Thailand because they were found with heroin on them: I think it stuck in my mind as it really made headline news and they were so young, and I was also shocked they didn't know the heroin was in their bags (we were taught to pack our own bags and to keep an eye on them/don't carry anything for other people/don't let anyone else pack your bags etc). Still, that media coverage stayed in my mind and scared me enough to be super cautious about the luggage I use, and how I pack it etc!!

Again, everything we eat, drink, see around us is 100% made up of chemicals....

Some you're not allowed to take through customs and risk all sorts of you do so. I'm no pearl clutcher but ye gods, it can't be difficult to grasp the concept that is some countries they're banned and trying to smuggle them in could get you in a tonne of trouble?

All the people I know who have microdosed or taken psychedelics for their MH told me they have treatment resistant depression but when asked what treatments they’ve tried (CBT, EMDR, interpersonal etc.) it turns out they were not cured by an antidepressant and are not willing to “do the work”. I’m not against ADs at all but they won’t remove trauma, fix thought processes etc. without some effort from the taker. So for that reason I’d call the whole relationship off and not go on the holiday at all. But that’s just me and that’s not the question you asked so 🤷‍♀️

Yes.
CBD gummies and oil get picked up at some airports e.g. Barbados. You really need to check carefully.

Indeed. And there are people who don't use mushrooms "recreationally" - although you certainly can use them that way.

"Druggies" indeed! As a PP said, MN at its finest 😬

The Lancet published a study in 2010 which included this interesting chart rating the harms of various drugs, including alcohol. Mushrooms are at the very bottom of the risk spectrum, alcohol at the top. The abstract is pasted below.

The biggest risk with mushrooms is that you might die of laughter.

What's legal and illegal does not generally reflect the relative dangers of a substance, but does complicate travel arrangements.

Background
Proper assessment of the harms caused by the misuse of drugs can inform policy makers in health, policing, and social care. We aimed to apply multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) modelling to a range of drug harms in the UK.
Methods
Members of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, including two invited specialists, met in a 1-day interactive workshop to score 20 drugs on 16 criteria: nine related to the harms that a drug produces in the individual and seven to the harms to others. Drugs were scored out of 100 points, and the criteria were weighted to indicate their relative importance.
Findings
MCDA modelling showed that heroin, crack cocaine, and metamfetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals (part scores 34, 37, and 32, respectively), whereas alcohol, heroin, and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others (46, 21, and 17, respectively). Overall, alcohol was the most harmful drug (overall harm score 72), with heroin (55) and crack cocaine (54) in second and third places.
Interpretation
These findings lend support to previous work assessing drug harms, and show how the improved scoring and weighting approach of MCDA increases the differentiation between the most and least harmful drugs. However, the findings correlate poorly with present UK drug classification, which is not based simply on considerations of harm.
Funding
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (UK).

As Leah Betts did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Leah_Betts

@mumuseli my supplements include include lionsmane along with psilocybin shrooms (micro dose) I like my elevated mood - when I remember to take them ! (No doubt I have a drug addled brain by MN standards heh heh)
And ecstasy aka mdma (when it was good) is a whole other kettle.

Here that, OP? Report him 😂
Honestly this place sometimes...

*Hear. Brain not working. Not enough psilocybin.

Totally, report him to who 🤣🤣

Honestly, my advice is that someone who relies on microdosing class A drugs for mental health reasons, maybe shouldn't go abroad.

If he's set on going and can't face time away from his microdosing, then there are ways he could reduce risk.

Tincture or sweets/chocolate are less likely to get sniffed by dogs than the raw mushroom or powder, and if no dogs involved, both these might not even cause any suspicion at all to an officer who just searched your bag randomly. It's just some food supplement drops or sweets and a bar of chocolate.

Even better could be to find a local supplier on the internet or dark web and order the day before travel to the address you're staying at.

The above is all still risky but using and carrying drugs carefully is about risk reduction, you'll never eliminate the risk completely.

Oh and also if you're at all worried yourself, book your flights separately and sit separately, go though checkpoints separately etc. You can be on the same flight if you want.

Or don't go, or dump him as others have said. Having re-read your OP, it certainly sounds like he's dismissing your concerns.

If you're not over-exaggerating about you losing your job, then definitely don't go, no holiday is worth that!

There is a great deal more chemistry involved in turning poppies into opium. Mushrooms you pick directly and put in your mouth. You don’t have to change, cook, mix with other chemicals. It exits in nature exactly as is. This is the point. You can’t outlaw nature for existing as it always has. Certainly not to the extent of it being a class A drug.

I used to work in a CQC registered psychedelic therapy clinic. Our psychiatrists take was generally that microdosing is a placebo effect only but that people benefit a lot from placebos and it’s a harmless one. The convincing data around psilocybin is all from large dose studies.

IF I was going to take them abroad I would:

buy a load of the empty pill capsule cases from eBay

buy some supplements from H&B or similar

grind up the shrooms to a powder and if I could be bothered weigh out doses of 0.1-0.3 (a microdose)

fill the capsules with the mushroom powder and put them in the jar mixed with the supplements.

the gentle iron/B12 I take look the same as ground mushrooms and I don’t think anyone would detect the difference

Oh for the future OP - mn isn’t the place for measured discourse on drugs, use Reddit/shrooms