Red states join push to legalize magic mushrooms for therapy
Lawmakers throughout the United States are weighing proposals to legalize psychedelic mushrooms for people
SANDY, Utah (AP) — Shawn Blymiller spent 10 years of feeling mostly numbed while prescribed traditional anti-depressants, trudging through his day-to-day life as a suburban Salt Lake City father of two kids balancing the obligations of family and work selling technology software.
When his son was diagnosed as having special needs a few years later, the stress became increasingly difficult to endure. So like many with treatment-resistant depression, Blymiller, 39, sought out alternatives and found one he said worked: Psychedelic mushrooms.
Under a therapist's supervision, Blymiller took psilocybin — the most popular of the hallucinogens known broadly as “magic mushrooms” — and for several hours, was able to confront past traumas, work through mental illness and ultimately become a better father, husband and friend, he said.
“It’s almost revealing. These curtains in your psyche are being opened and you feel like, ’Oh my gosh, this is how I operate; this is how I present myself,' ” he said after a sunrise mountain hike in the Salt Lake City suburb where he lives.
