A Psychedelic Debacle: 4-AcO, Microdosing, Media Panics and the Risks of Prohibition
Have you heard about the Diamond Shruumz recall? As of this writing, 113 people in 28 states have allegedly been sickened after eating Diamond Shruumz chocolate and gummy products, with 42 hospitalizations. The manufacturer has issued a recall, as have FDA and numerous state health departments. No one has established which ingredient actually caused these illnesses: alas, we’re already seeing fear-mongering reporting that implies psychedelics are the culprit. Patients report severe symptoms: seizures, loss of consciousness, vomiting, and respiratory failure. The brand and various health agencies have tested some products, but the results remain conflicted:
- Diamond Shruumz claims the problem was “higher levels of muscimol than normal.” Muscimol, a psychoactive substance found in the poisonous mushroom amanita muscaria, is not on the ingredient label. Only six of the nineteen products the FDA tested contained muscimol, and FDA itself said muscimol “cannot explain all the symptoms reported by ill patients.”
- The University of Virginia Health Toxicology Laboratory found psilocin (a psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms) in one product — but in hundreds of clinical studies, psilocin hasn’t caused these types of severe reactions. Hallucinations, yes — requiring blood transfusions, no.
- FDA says their testing found some compounds from the kava plant, which also does not cause these serious side effects. They also found a substance called 4-AcO-DMT.
Let’s set aside the poisoning culprit for a moment and talk about 4-AcO.
4-AcO: The Mystery Psychoactive Sold at Smokeshops Nationwide
Created in a Swiss lab by LSD inventor Albert Hofmann in 1963, DoubleBlind calls 4-AcO-DMT “the most accessible (and mysterious) drug on the market right now.”
4-AcO’s effects resemble psilocybin’s (it’s often called “synthetic psilocybin”) but it’s cheaper and easier to make. Though it’s technically illegal, it hasn’t been on law enforcement’s radar. Those “magic blend” mushroom chocolate bars you see at smoke shops and gas stations probably contain 4-AcO.
In a great investigative piece, DoubleBlind reporters teamed up with Oakland Hyphae labs to test these so-called mushroom products. Shocker: chocolates and gummies whose labels claimed they contained fly agaric, amanita, “nootropic blends” or muscimol did not—but they did contain plenty of 4-AcO.
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Because it’s so cheap, 4-AcO has effectively sunk the price of psilocybin mushrooms. It’s engendered animosity from magic mushroom cultivators, some of whom celebrated the Diamond Shruumz debacle. Some even promoted the specious claim that 4-AcO was the poisoning culprit.
The mushroom underground perceives these trap mushroom bars as muscling in on their territory and trying to hitch their wagons to the psychedelic boom—and they’re correct on the second point. Diamond Shruumz marketed their wares as microdoses.
Mushroom Chocolates and Microdosing Mania
Diamond Shruumz’s products are sold with a wink-and-nod promise: “Each 1.6 ounce bar includes 15 trippy little squares for a little far out fun.” The all-caps slogan “LEADING FORM OF MICRODOSING” and the brand logo implies its contents as well.
As anyone who’s read my work knows, I am pro-microdosing and pro-psychedelics—with an abundance of safety protocols and full knowledge of what you’re taking. I’ve also written about how our Nixon-era psychedelic policy clashes with consumer demand for them, and why lack of legal access makes consumers less safe.
“I’m seeing so many products jump on the ‘microdose’ trend which may or may not have psychedelics in them and now we’re seeing they may have other unknown adulterants in them as well.” Skye Chilton, CEO of organic functional mushroom wholesaler Nammex, speaks in a LinkedIn comment for many mushroom cultivators who see the damage rogue brands can do to legitimate businesses — but I think they could impede the psychedelic movement as well.
Remember the vaping illness outbreak of 2019? Illegal vape products spiked with Vitamin E acetate caused thousands of illnesses and more than 60 deaths. No legal cannabis company added this toxic chemical to their products — but that didn’t stop the FDA from issuing the warning “Do not use vaping products that contain THC,” grouping legal companies with deeply unethical operators who got people killed. Media coverage ran with the “vaping THC will melt your lungs” angle, and legal businesses went under as a result.
Similarly, every single headline about this latest outbreak mentions microdosing. Our media still loves a “something you thought was safe could kill you” story, whether or not it’s true. A glance at these stories would lead you to assume that microdosing mushrooms poisoned people. At Leafly, David Downs wrote that events like these “are akin to bathtub gin under alcohol prohibition” and that these illnesses happen in “unlicensed markets where consumers have no legal alternative.”
Whatever was in those bars that got people so sick they had to be intubated in intensive care, I’m skeptical that it was psilocin, 4-AcO or kava. Reports of patients foaming at the mouth and requiring blood transfusions just do not line up with any of the known side effects of those substances.
Could it have been E. coli, salmonella or some harmful solvent? From what I’ve heard from those in the industry, the brand had recently changed their formula, and surmised the affected consumers may have experienced serotonin syndrome. They estimated the batch size for the problem products was at least two million, which means the toxic reaction was strangely confined to a tiny percentage of customers. Yet the media has run with the angle that microdose mushroom chocolate bars are poison. It’s just a way sexier story than one about food poisoning, or acknowledging we don’t have all the facts yet.
It’s no secret that fear drives clicks, and lurid drug stories feed the media’s bottom line. We will see more of them as decriminalization progresses. To my mushroom industry friends: “Microdosing kills” is not a winning argument for any of us. It’s in all our best interests to educate consumers about the real risks and benefits of psychedelics. Protecting consumers by separating legitimate brands from fraudulent ones is a problem throughout the health supplement space, but inaccurate reporting and alarmist media coverage won’t solve it. Legalization and regulation could solve many of these problems — but in the meantime, caveat emptor.