The FDA and CDC are cautioning the public not to buy chocolates, cones, and gummies from the particular brand after an outbreak of severe illnesses led to a number of hospitalizations.
Dangerous Mushroom Candy
The company issued a recall of various batches of its Diamond Shruumz microdosing chocolate bars earlier this month after the FDA announced it was investigating eight reported illnesses associated with consuming the products. To date, 39 cases of severe acute illnesses in 20 states are linked to the products as of June 25.
The symptoms include confusion, sedation, seizures, muscle stiffness, high and low blood pressure, abnormal heart rate, abdominal pain, and loss of consciousness. The patients in all of the 23 cases reported did not die, although some of them were taken to the intensive care unit and were put on ventilators.
Statements have been issued by several state authorities, urging retailers to stop the sale or distribution of Diamond Shruumz products. Residents who have them in their possession are advised to hold them until the FDA releases instructions regarding returning them or how to get rid of them responsibly.
The actual scale of the outbreak may be even larger, according to Kait Brown, clinical managing director at America's Poison Centers. While the CDC tally represents the most severe cases, poison centers located across the country receive reports of milder cases, ones that were limited to gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea or vomiting, or feelings of sleepiness.
It noted that more and more products containing psychoactive substances-for instance, mushroom extracts-are already pumped into the market and are mostly packaged in chocolate, gummy candies, or other snack foods. The inclusion of undisclosed ingredients or other unsafe contaminants not passed for use in food is high.
While psychedelic mushrooms are banned in the US, the mushroom-based products market, like chocolate and coffee, has been expanding in recent years, just like the demand for edibles with psychoactive properties.
Toxicology experts believe that Diamond Shruumz likely qualify as a dietary supplement based on their listed ingredients and how they are marketed.
Dietary supplements don't have to be approved by the FDA before they are marketed to consumers. However, the agency does require that firms that manufacture, package, or store supplements test their ingredients and minimize contamination.
Why Do These Products Make People Sick?
State and local partners have joined investigations of the products by the FDA, CDC, and America's Poison Center according to the agencies. Two Diamond Shruumz 'Birthday Cake' chocolate bars were tested, and the agencies have determined that the product contains the chemical 4-acetoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, also called 4-ACO-DMT or O-acetylpsilocin or psilacetin.
The company's dark chocolate bar was found to contain the substance psilacetin, along with three compounds consistent with the botanical kava: dihydrokavain, desmethoxyyangonin, and kavain.
Additional testing would be needed to confirm that all such products share the same ingredients and concentration.
Its website advertises the products as hallucinogen-free, but psilacetin is halluciogenic. According to the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, psilacetin is a semi-synthetic tryptamine incredibly close in structure to classic psychedelic mushroom compounds such as psilocin and psilocybin.
Real magic mushrooms contain psilocybin, which is converted into psilocin in the body, giving people trips. In 2020, upwards of 8 million American adults used psilocybin, one in ten saying they had used the drug at some point in their lives. Just like psilocybin, when ingested into the body, psilacetin turns to psilocin upon metabolism.
Diamond Shruumz also explicitly mentions microdosing and their products for the consumption of small amounts of psychoactive/hallucinogenic substances-amounts sufficient to enjoy the positive effects yet minimal enough that they will not cause disabling side effects.
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