Lay summary
Psychedelic mushrooms have long been consumed for spiritual and recreational reasons in Aotearoa-New Zealand. These mushrooms are obtained by collection from the wild. Foraging for wild mushrooms, or consuming mushrooms from an illicit supplier, exposes consumers to risks, including unexpected effects from different species to toxicity as a result of the accidental ingestion of dangerous species.
This proposed research intends to pioneer the use of drug checking legislation to enable the collection of mushroom samples from consumers for species and biochemical analysis. The native psychedelic mushroom species of Aotearoa are very poorly understood due to their status as a controlled drug; little research has been conducted to study their chemical constituents.
This project aims to initiate the research and development of mushroom testing procedures that can be used in drug checking clinics to identify mushrooms in use in Aotearoa and reduce harm to consumers in possession of toxic species.