Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 29, 2012

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced by over 200 species of mushrooms, collectively known as psilocybin mushrooms. The effects can include euphoria, visual and mental hallucinations, changes in perception, a distorted sense of time, and spiritual experiences, as well as adverse reactions such as nausea and panic attacks. Although increasingly restrictive drug laws of the late 1960s curbed scientific research into the effects of psilocybin and other hallucinogens, its popularity as an entheogen grew in the next decade. The mind-altering effects of psilocybin typically last from two to six hours; however, to individuals under the influence of psilocybin, the effects may seem to last much longer, since the drug can distort the perception of time. Psilocybin has a low toxicity and a relatively low harm potential, and reports of lethal doses of the drug are rare. Since the 1990s, there has been a renewal of scientific research into the potential medical and psychological therapeutic benefits of psilocybin for treating conditions including obsessive-compulsive disorder, cluster headaches, and anxiety related to terminal cancer. Possession of psilocybin-containing mushrooms has been outlawed in most countries, and it has been classified as a scheduled drug by many national drug laws. (more...)

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