On microdose mushrooms : Tracey Tee was stuck when COVID-19 struck in 2020.
Tee has lost her business, and the sudden change in the schooling of her children led to more home-based responsibilities. Additionally, the absence of an in-person community made her feel isolated without any help.
In the midst of the heaviness of raising kids in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime epidemic, Tee was willing to do anything to raise at least a portion of her spirits.
After having read Michael Pollan’s “How to Change Your Mind and Change Your Life: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches the human mind about consciousness, dying and Depression, Addiction and Transcendence” as well as attending a webinar about microdosing with mushrooms, Tee thought of giving the technique a go.
Tee has never tried illegal drugs, however according to what she’d been told, having a small dose Psilocybin seemed to be distinct from the ’60s-style high that the drug is most famous for.
When she plunged into the water and sucked in the first capsule of crushed mushroom, Tee realized she’d found relief in the midst of her stress.
“I simply felt peace and a sense of space between my life and the world that I’d never felt previously,” Tee said. “In the same way as you would take an antidepressant it’s the same thing with microdosing.”
After the initial sessions, Tee claimed she experienced as if she’d consumed a huge dose of caffeine. She felt a little more energy and a sense of being able to get through the day. However, as time passed, Tee said she was capable of coping with anxiety and trauma in ways she’d never before been before.
“It can help bring your PTSD and anxiety, trauma and any other issues you face up to surface. It’s like looking at it straight in the face,” Tee said. “It’s simple to be just a bit more happy.”
While on her microdosing adventure, Tee said most of people she met with the same enthusiasm for microdosing did not have mothers. They were mostly younger people or the CEOs of well-known companies.
For Tee the product was about making the mundane things a bit easier, especially for other mothers. After interacting with other women who were interested in the concept, Tee started Moms on Mushrooms located in Colorado. It is a national group that educates mothers how to use a small dose of psilocybin.
Shayna Bryan, one of the Denver woman who is a part of Moms on Mushrooms, began microdosing in April after the first class with Tee’s group. Bryan stated that the other mothers in the group appeared to be a mirror of the struggles she has as a mother and that’s what allowed her to feel secure enough to attempt microdosing.
“Everyone must confront the same struggles in motherhood, and we all were searching at something” Bryan said. “It was really satisfying to see the other women on the class see the medication begin to show results.”
Bryan as well as Tee both stressed the fact that micro-mushrooms are not an actual “trip,” but a extremely subtle mood boost.
“That spirit that I’ve wish I had in the past fifteen years has exploded and it’s a vigor that I am so grateful to have discovered,”” Bryan said. “You don’t feel as if that you’re in college. You just ate a handful of mushrooms and are tripping around with your pals.”
Courtney who is mother from Colorado who requested not to be identified by her full name and said that microdosing by itself makes barely noticeable change in her daily routine, but the most beneficial effects come through journaling, meditation, and other forms of healing that go along with the mushrooms.
“What I love to say is that it kind of gives you 10 percent of something: 10% more content and more patient and 10% more imaginative and 10% more flexible,” Courtney said. “For myself, using microdosing enables me to deal with mental health issues.”
Although anecdotal evidence has yielded good results, the research into the use of psychedelics is not as extensive because these drugs are prohibited at the federal level. Denver voters have decriminalized marijuana in the year 2019 within city limits, however, purchasing the drug remains prohibited. Possession of mushrooms is still illegal in areas of Colorado beyond Denver.
To encourage studies and to make the psilocybin accessible to the public, Coloradans will vote on the Natural Medicine Health Act, which will allow for the regulation of accessibility to the mushrooms. While advocates and users of the remedy claim that they support its decriminalization, a majority of people will be voting “no,” on the legislation as it’s written in the belief that the bill’s sponsors haven’t kept the issue of racial equality in the forefront of their minds.
“This may be cannabis 5.0 and the same people running the show and the absence of fairness, which is why I’m very careful about what we can do,” said Melanie Rose Rodgers who is a Denver residents and advocate for the psychedelic who assisted in Denver’s efforts to decriminalize cannabis. “I’m not against legalization. I’m against the legalization process that is being done in a hurry.”
Rose Rodgers, a woman of color, stated that people of people of color have been using cannabis and cannabis for a long time and have been prosecuted for it as White business people have made money from legalization.
“My viewpoint on this comes from the perspective of social justice. It’s based on the way things play out when you legalize the practice in Colorado,” Rose Rodgers stated. “I am wary of what we do with psychoactive substances.”
