The Mystery of Why the World’s Most Iconic Magic Mushroom is Banned in Louisiana

“Why the fuck did Louisiana decide to make Amanita muscaria illegal?” says James

So what makes Louisiana different? I searched and searched until I stumbled across a video on Facebook posted by Louisiana Veterans for Medical Cannabis. In a two-minute clip of 2005 legislative proceedings that took place in the state, a legislator (who was not identified during the recording) said that: “The problem with these plants is that in addition to being hallucinogenic they can also be highly fatal.”

The lawmaker then recalls two alleged 2005 incidents in Louisiana where groups of youths drank concoctions of angel’s trumpets, a powerful psychedelic plant shaped like a lampshade that grows naturally. “Police said one of them tried to jump from a roof and the other tried to chew off his arm,” the legislator said in the video. The story may well have been embellished but it does show how several alleged incidents involving other natural “legal highs” could’ve served as a lightning rod for the ban in Louisiana, another case of drug war history repeating itself.