Madam, - Shops selling psychedelic mushrooms have had their merchandise seized and all trading of such substances has been stopped. Why is there so little debate about this matter? Categorising these non-addictive materials as Class A drugs, together with heroin and cocaine, is absurd.
Further, it is an ethical inconsistency. Known carcinogens such as tobacco are legal. Alcohol - which is responsible each year for thousands of deaths (including suicides), rapes and various other serious crimes - is a recreational drug with no medicinal value. Cigarettes and alcohol are proven beyond doubt to be addictive; both remain enjoyed by politicians up and down the country.
Conversely, so-called "magic mushrooms" (specifically the now "Class A" pscilocybin cubensis) have been shown to be effective at treating severe migraines. Moreover, psychedelic substances, under controlled conditions, have been used by Stanislav Grof, among other leading researchers, to treat addictions such as alcoholism and narcotic dependence. This is not to mention the contentious potential for creative, lateral thought or even the spiritual growth psychedelics may allow, neither of which properties inhere in cigarettes or alcohol.
The complex issue of psychedelics (and entheogens) has met with little (if any) informed public debate and has now been settled suddenly with no recourse to scientific evidence. Now we have yet another substance pushed underground by a dangerous, hypocritical ruling. So the public can relax: if there's one thing history has taught us, it's that prohibition works flawlessly. - Yours, etc,
COLM O'SHEA,
Kilnaglory,
Ovens,
Co Cork.
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Madam, - So "magic" mushrooms have been banned because they might be dangerous - because they have caused one death?
When are we going to ban alcohol? Nicotine? Private cars? Could the Minister for Health, or anybody else, estimate how many deaths been averted through the prohibition of heroin (discounting the gang warfare killings)? -Yours, etc,
ART Ó LAOGHAIRE
Bray,
Co Wicklow.