I mention in my last post that at the Koh Phangan Full Moon Party I took too many mushrooms, and in the interest of not freaking out parents and enlightening party goes who might follow in my foot steps I shall shed a little more light on the story.
The exact legal status of Mushrooms in Thailand is a bit of a mystery, the information I have to hand is:
- Mushroom Shakes are sold openly in at least one bar on Haad Rin Beach during the Full Moon Party
- Mushrooms are actually Illegal to Posses or Sell in Thailand, according to Erowid, a normally reliable source of information on such things.
- But a Google Search for “Mushroom Arrest In Thailand” returns only one, unrelated result.
- So, Most sources cite the legal status as “Questionable”.
- More then one person has mentioned the bar selling the Mushrooms has a special license. Though this is purely word of mouth.
So there clearly isn’t any problem with consuming them, and it would make sense that any legal grey area could be cleared up with a “license fee” to the police either officially or otherwise. Additionally, not all magic mushrooms contain the same active ingredients, so the legal status could be worked around by selecting the right mushrooms just as it can be back home in the UK.
With that cleared up (Or not) back to the story, the plan was simple: Get to the beach, dance, drink, dance, meet people, dance with people, drink a small amount of mushroom shake, dance, watch the sun rise, dance, go home. Roughly in that order.
Now I have to admit I’m not sure at what point small amount of mushroom shake turned a heroic dose, but I have it on good authority that the friend I was traveling with had many of these magic drinks, so it’s fair to say I had plenty as well, this was news to us both the next day!
The hazy memory is a novelty, and down to the drink, rather then the mushrooms I’m sure, I suspect since the bar selling the shakes is at the far end of the beach, and up a staircase cut into the rocks – Which makes it one of the most dangerous places on the beach, clearly an ideal spot to sell party goes hallucinogenic drugs! – the hike up there, plus red bull kicked the booze into my bloodstream quicker then I expected.
Next thing I know I’m dancing away on the beach all well and good, but I’ve lost the gang I was with, and so I just danced around on my own though with my visuals boosted with a hazy glow of colours and sound merging in my brain a little beyond what you would call normal, and the confusion that accompanies hallucinogens was clear if I tried to think about anything too tricky so most conversations were too much effort to consider for a while, though the ones I did have were particularly funny!
So when I say too many mushrooms I mean to say, sufficient magic mushrooms that I had to change my plan of action for the night, not that I had a bad experience maintaining my 100% success rate to that effect.
To put this in perspective, not everyone was so lucky that night, “Mushroom Girl” as she will now forever be known to me called the friend I was traveling with early in the night, and from over hearing his side of the conversation the problem was obvious: She’d take Mushrooms for the first time, and been abandoned by her friend.
When people (Including myself) say you shouldn’t take magic mushrooms for the first time in loud, busy, over crowded places you should listen to them, Full Moon Parties are not friendly places for a messed up mind, and confusion and abandonment is always a recipe for disaster when it comes to the shrooms.
We found her and set her right mind you, so that story ended well enough, but Koh Phangan is not a good place to experiment particularly for the first time, there are a lot of people on the lookout for messed up tourists who they can take advantage of one way or another.In my case I simply ended up at a hill top bar which cost me a hefty bike ride back to the hotel, but I blame our travel agent for claiming the 30 minute ride was a 10 minute walk from the peir.
So there you have it, magic mushrooms are Awesome things, but not to be played with lightly, and I wouldn’t take so many at a huge event like the Haad Rin Beach Full Moon Party again so that I can enjoy the night in a different, more social way – Detachment from reality also detaches you from people a bit, but it’s all an experience and it all adds flavor to my travels!