Why do shrooms have such a bad reputation?

I'm not referring to just shrooms, but psychedelics, and drugs in general. I have my personal opinions on certain hard narcotics, as I grew up with a mother who would rather pay for meth than clothes for her children to wear or food for them to eat. OKAY, addictive drugs can potentially turn your life upside down, I GET THAT. But why such a bad stigma, still, against LSD, DMT, shrooms, etc?

I'll get to the real reason I'm posting this.
I'll make a long story short - My girlfriend of 5 years has an unholy bias against drugs. I tried shrooms and she wanted to leave me because of it. I tell her I would love to experiment with LSD, etc. And she tells me it's not something she can't have in her life.

Now, I can respect that it's not something she wants to do. But why should it concern her so much that it's something I would like to do? I feel like she doesn't even really KNOW that theyre bad, it's just what she 'learned' in third grade D.A.R.E. class, and i suppose it really stuck with her.

The issue at hand: I know what I care more about in life, and it's her. I can go my whole life without ever trying LSD. I would just like to convince her that it is OKAY. And that the police wont arrest you and that you won't go to hell for experimenting, and LIVING a little. (her response: omg if you need a drug to experience life, youre a sad person) - how to respond to that?

I know this thread has been all over the place, forgive me, it's somewhat of a rant but at the same time a desperate seeking of advice. How can i convince her to try it with me? Perhaps if i can understand why there is such a stigma towards hallucinogens in modest america, i can have better means to build my case.

Thanks in advance!
-DLC, live from Iraq

 

because a good percentage of society is sick in the head ... just turn on the tv set. better yet, dont!!

 

A girl committed suicide in Netherlands in 2007 after consuming shrooms.

 

Dont see why u shouldnt do it tho i wouldnt ask her to par take,

 

i have a friend who went mormon after a shrooms revelation

 

That's tragic news. I don't know the details, but terrible things happen everyday in all parts of the world, when you're not responsible.

Some argue that responsibility and shrooming can't be used in the same sentence. I disagree. There are ways to be safe about things, and there are ways to be unsafe about things. Environment, experience, trip-sitters, etc.

I'm sure we can credit alcohol with a higher suicide rate than mushrooms. Yet alcohol is not illegal, nor does it have a negative stigma towards it as mushrooms do.

I appreciate your input, but it doesn't seem to answer the question

The psychadelic experience to me is often times more than I can describe. It's more than "getting fucked up" or "trippin ballz lol" - With that being said, it's something I would love to share with her. If I can't convince her to experiment with me, I at least aim to convince her that it's acceptable if it's something I want to do.

 

I think it does. Shrooms create a much more intense mental experience than alcohol, and do so in a single dose. Some people can't handle it. Trip-sitters and all the precautions in the world can't eliminate the chance of a strongly negative experience. That's enough to give it a bad reputation, whether deservedly or not.

 

I think she's hung up on the idea of 'needing' to. lol

Maybe if you appear to her one day, all shroomed up, she will finally realize you are a god and decide to let you eat your own food for a change.

 

A sensible response. But what is it that allows users to bypass these risks and just DO IT ANYWAY? I mean, is it the same thing we do every day when you drive your vehicle and risk getting in an accident? Is it the same risk I'm taking out here, in Iraq, simply for being American?

What you said makes sense to me, and as a user, I can attest to the potential hazards at risk with taking mushrooms. Unfortunately, for me, I'm no closer to solving my predicament. My girlfriend doesn't view them as a potentially dangerous thing, [she used to smoke weed] for the most part she just feels that drugs are "trashy" - How to convince her otherwise?

Thanks for your input.

 

it depends on who you ask..
Reality is already a tiltawhirl. Youre told one thing when its really something else. People generally only know wild mushrooms to cause death ... You have to live according to the environment around you. If you lived in the middle of nowhere, had no education and didnt know you was allergic to Peanuts and come into contact with them, you can die!

Peanut allergy can also pass with organ transplant.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/watch_that_peanut_butter.htm

power in knowledge. thats goes with everything.

If you understand the power of nuclear energy, your conventional army isnt shit.

Think.

 

Not sure how anaphylactic shock or nuclear physics is relevant... ?

 

op-why would you tell your girl friend about the drugs if she is a dare freak...dont let your self get caught up in all that honesty and relationship garbage....just hide it from her

 

Your post literally made me lol. She isn't exactly a DARE freak, and she USED to smoke weed. Now it's just not something that interests her, I suppose. All the sudden she's on a moral high-horse, and now mind-altering substances aside from caffeine are trashy.

Also, I have been hiding it. For quite some time now. I would just like to not hide it anymore.

 

De Los Cielos:

Orison is number five. It's as relevant as it gets. I'm not even bemushroomed and I know that. Get wife the porgam!

 

You can hide when you're on mushrooms?! ?!

 

tell the bitch if it wasnt for LSD you wouldnt have computers., Then give her a computer to look it up....
http://www.pcworld.com/article/193685/tech_visionaries_and_lsd_turn_on_tune_in_geek_out.html In an interview with John Markoff for Markoff's book, What the Doormouse Said, about the counterculture's influence on Silicon Valley, the Apple co-founder confided that "taking LSD was one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life." During that interview, Jobs intimated that the trippy graphics that early iTunes players produced in synch with music reminded him of his youthful psychedelic experiences. Jobs' openness about his drug use prompted Albert Hoffman, the Swiss chemist who first synthesized LSD in 1938, to ask him to help fund a study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy. Jobs reportedly never funded any of the research.

 

Tell her that if using something that is safe, for the purpose of expanding your mind and growing as a person is not to her liking, and that she would rather you just paddle through mediocrity always regretting the "what ifs" in life, then she clearly is not a very open minded person. Explain how it is a tool, not a need. And how if she doesnt care if its a tool and that its still wrong, then she should stop using caffeine as a tool to get up in the morning because you do not agree with the addictive nature of such drugs. Where as the ones you want to try, are simply not physically addictive.

 

This is exactly the answer I was looking for. It is exactly what I've been trying to say for years now, I just could never seem to find the right words to build my case. With this, I could at least bring her to accept my personal desire to do such things.


orison319 - I'm not sure I understand your character, but I imagine if I'm to become a part of this community that you and I should be on good terms. The nuclear physics and anaphylaxis speech was nothing but tangential to me, but you brought up an interesting fact about Steve Jobs that I did not know. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, right?

Thank you all for your input.

 

Misinformation, plain and simple. The Powers that Be don't ban drugs because of their negative potential, but because of their ability to stimulate independent thought, revolutionary thinking and other things that would threaten the power structure.

People that haven't done independent research or tried drugs themselves are prone to believing the "drug use ---> addiction ---> death" myth we've all been fed since we were in diapers, and understandably so. 99% of the drug info out there focuses on exaggerating the negative and downplaying the positive, which is enough to scare most people away from drugs forever.

I always encourage those types to check out some of the more balanced info out there. Documentaries like "Ecstasy Rising" and "American Drug War: The Last White Hope" and books like "Chocolate to Morphine" are a good starting place. And Erowid.

 

My boyfriend used to be the same way. He has since been the victim of my many rants on harm reduction and responsible use. He's even to the point where he actually *gasp* asks questions to further his knowledge. He's not as bad as your gf threatening to leave because of my lifestyle choices, he knew what scene I was into when he met me and he respects it as part of my life even if he doesn't partake.

I know it's not really what you want to hear but that's bad form on your girl's part. I know you say you choose her over drugs but it's the principal of it - she's holding you back from being yourself. I don't know about you but it's more important for me to be true to myself than it is to suppress parts of who I am in order to keep the peace in a relationship. She might find other things about you that she deems "trashy" as time goes on... just something to think about.

Now, if she's not completely closed minded and set in her ways the best thing you can do is re-educate her with correct information. Hopefully she will start to ask questions and you can show by example that responsible use of psychedelics does not equal meth addiction living in a tweaker pad. My bf used to think all stoners were lazy, stupid, sketchy drug addicts but after seeing me work 2 jobs, run a household, take care of him, pay my own way, and I somehow manage to do it all while smoking weed everyday. Now he understand that it is the individual's personality that effects how one responds to drugs, not the drug itself. He also realizes now how ridiculous it is for LSD et all to be illegal while the Devil's Firewater, alcohol is perfectly legal.

Show her some stats on the toxicity of psychedelics vs. alcohol and caffeine and deaths per year caused by each. Gather info from Erowid and the likes.. really all you can do is provide the knowledge and it's up to her to change her (misguided) view on psychedelics. Good luck man