“Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain psilocybin, which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Psilocybin mushrooms have been and continue to be used in indigenous South American cultures in religious, divinatory, or spiritual contexts. They are also used as recreational drugs...” (Wikipedia)
Last Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, at the Cebu City Council session, Councilor Jun Alcover revealed to his peers that he was alarmed by reports on the proliferation of wild mushrooms that he called “magic mushroom” as a substitute for illegal drugs in the city’s mountain barangays that allegedly hospitalized users, who were mostly young people.
While Atty. Cheking Seares, in his column, did not discredit the councilor’s report before his peers, he said: “Well-intentioned as he seemed, Alcover gave scant information: little about the danger and the damage so far and much less about the drug itself.”
“He didn’t say from whom he got the information: just reports (‘mga taho’) reaching his office, which led him to inquire and investigate, learning that some youths in Barangay Guba were taken ill (‘nangalanag’) because of the mushroom drink. Nobody died though, he said.”
We could not also call the councilor an alarmist because he has good intentions in letting the public know and, especially the parents, of this latest binge by teenagers using “uhong” as alternative for illegal drugs knowing perhaps that it is not illegal.
“This is very alarming for our youth. We should act at once against its proliferation,” Alcover told the Philippine News Agency. Alcover said many youngsters from the upland villages were admitted to the Guba District Hospital after eating wild mushrooms.
But did we hear from police authorities, or the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) about this? No offense meant, but are we to understand that the police and PDEA do not care much, if they knew, about this “magic mushroom” that Councilor Alcover is so concerned for the youth about?
We know mushrooms or “uhong” which most of us relish to eat when cooked. Hence, it could not be considered illegal or contraband as Councilor Joy Pesquera pointed out during the session. And this perhaps is the reason that the police and PDEA are not alarmed about its use.
Are mushrooms vegetables? No, said GroCycle. “They are a type of fungi. Technically mushrooms aren’t plants, so they aren’t classified as either fruits or vegetables. They belong to their own separate kingdom. But for practical purposes, we often treat mushrooms as vegetables in the kitchen in terms of how we prepare them.”
(GroCycle is an innovative social enterprise based in Devon, United Kingdom with a mission to teach everyone the easy way to grow mushrooms).
Councilor Alcover could not provide specific details as to who the users are. For whatever it’s worth, police and parents should pay attention to the information Alcover provided.
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Last week, I unexpectedly received a call from a friend, eye specialist Dr. Billy Jaca. I thought he would invite me for a coffee break (joke). However, all he told me was just what I experienced last week, which was the traffic gridlock along Osmeña Blvd. caused by the ongoing road work for the Bus Rapid Transit project. Doctor Jaca said it took him an hour from his clinic in Chong Hua Hospital, Cebu City to get out of the traffic mess.
Well, that is the pain of development, if we may call it that. But I’d be truly dumbfounded if the bus upon reaching Capitol will move backward since there is no turnaround area in Capitol once the first phase of the project is completed.