Psychedelic edibles, weed vapes and legal plant-based highs: Harm reduction advice on the drug frontier

Thursday, 12 September, 2024.

Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons. 

Trippy edibles seem to be having a moment in the limelight. It’s not clear why. Maybe the psychedelics craze is taking effect or the relaxation of weed laws has made us more chill about scoffing down a weed brownie. Society changes, the kids grow up, right? Why snort a line or punish your lungs when you can swallow a cute-looking gummy bear? But, whatever the cause, the fad is showing no sign of slowing down and there’s been a few concerning incidents lately. So we thought we’d give some harm reduction advice on this growing trend.

In late June, a batch of mushroom gummies advertised as entirely legal caused a series of hospitalisations across Australia. It’s a reminder that you can’t always trust online advertising and that the wellness industry, for all its eco-friendly, health-conscious PR, is often just a thin veil for profit-obsessed business(wo)men.

How trustworthy are online vendors for trippy edibles?

There’s a big market for legal plant-based highs on the internet, and a lot of it has become entwined with the wellness industry. The marketing for these “natural” highs centres on health, spirituality and being one with nature. You know, the white hippie look.

But, like any other businesses, the wellness industry is about dollars. In fact, it’s rife with false advertising and claims without proven scientific basis.

Here’s an example: in early 2021 the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) allowed Australian pharmacies to begin selling non-prescribed low-dose CBD products (below 150 milligrams) over the counter. CBD or cannabidiol is a chemical in weed that doesn’t make you feel high. There is evidence that CBD has certain health benefits at high daily doses between 300 and 1500 milligrams but no proven benefit at lower dosages for any health conditions. This fact hasn’t stopped some opportunistic players in the weed field.

The wellness industry has bought into the weed craze by marketing hemp seed oils with near negligible amounts of CBD as nutritional supplements and occasionally as medicines. According to a Pedestrian TV report, opportunistic online vendors jumped in immediately, following the relaxation of laws surrounding low-dose CBD in 2021, making these products hilariously easy to access.

But this article isn’t about CBD, it’s about plant-based highs that sit in a legal grey area – substances that actually get you high.

Buying untested drugs online in non-traditional formats, such as weed vapes and psychedelic edibles, without a prescription may be cheap but it’s also risky. You’re better off hitting up your usual dealer or someone a friend trusts. At NUAA, we’ve heard recent reports of people accidentally getting addicted to opioids or needing hospitalisation after using illicit vapes containing a mix of THC (weed) and nitazenes, a new family of drugs likened to super-strength heroin. So, if you’re vaping anything illegal, it’s a good idea to get your hands on some free naloxone. This medication can quickly stop a deadly heroin/fentanyl/nitazene overdose.

Though more common in North America, overseas reporting shows the rising popularity of psychedelic gummies and chocolates in areas with relaxed drug laws. Labels may promise natural trips or creativity boosts but you can’t always trust this. Dozens in the US were recently hospitalised with abnormal heart rates, seizures and vomiting after eating Diamond Shruumz edibles. Testing revealed unexpected substances, such as kava, pregabalin (a prescription drug) and toxic levels of muscimol, which comes from amanita muscaria, the trippy mushroom species that supposedly inspired the fantasy novel Alice in Wonderland. The chemical 4-AcO-DMT, which has effects similar to magic mushrooms, is also appearing in products promising natural highs. It’s a big shock to the system if you unintentionally eat it. 

Amanita muscaria. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons. 

One Canadian woman selling ayahuasca gummies has told a journalist that she sends psychedelic gummies across national lines by disguising the drugs as a Canadian-themed hamper. So, yes, some sellers don’t really care where you’re buying their products from or whether the drugs are legal in your state or country.

So far, health complications relating to psychedelic edibles have rarely crossed the radar of Australian authorities, but in June this year health bodies warned the public that a brand of mushroom gummies not advertised as psychedelic had sent a whole bunch of people to hospital with nausea, twitching and disturbing hallucinations. It’s suspected these Uncle Frog’s gummies contain THC and HHC – ingredients in the cannabis plant that make us high. The packaging didn’t indicate these substances were present. 

With reports that a packet of 8 Uncle Frog’s mushroom gummies cost roughly $50, it’s important to approach any wellness product that is oddly expensive with scepticism. It’s likely ridiculously pricey “legal” gummies contain unexpected ingredients. These plant highs that sit in legal grey spaces or rely on mislabelling are often advertised on social media platforms like Instagram, so don’t trust what you see online.

Know your substance: The laws surrounding niche drugs often change

Some of these plant-based drugs fall into the category “novel psychoactive substances” (NPS). NPS is a fancy term for new drugs that have similar effects and chemical structures to well-known street drugs. These drugs are intended to dodge prohibition in a game of cat and mouse where underground chemists tweak molecular structures to stay one step ahead of the law. The broad terms can also include new drug innovations based on little-known psychedelic plants. NPS can therefore refer to everything from synthetic weed products to niche psychedelics.

Kanna is one example. Derived from a plant native to South Africa, it’s a plant medicine you can literally snort and it’s just starting to gain attention. It can have MDMA-like, speed-like or sedative effects, depending on what chemists do to it, and it’s perfectly legal to order online. Take note though: the plant only thrives in very particular climatic conditions in South Africa. This is the only place in the world where it’s farmed and kanna sellers should undertake extensive consultation with minority groups in South Africa and develop a relationship of mutual benefit at the very least, but this often isn’t the case. Many online vendors in Thailand and China claiming to sell kanna don’t sell real kanna. The more information you can find out about where your kanna comes from and the more transparent an online vendor is, the better.

If you insist on trying a little-known plant drug like kratom or kanna, it’s worth searching and reading websites, such as Erowid and Reddit, which have firsthand trip reports and peer advice.

If the plant-based high you’re looking for is legally available in a chemist, a physical store, you’re probably better off going there than looking online. Similarly, if a head shop – one of those stores that sells pipes, bongs and other drug paraphernalia – stocks a legal plant high, such as kanna, it’s good to seek advice from store attendants about the effects of the drug, dosages and the supplier.

When it comes to kava, it recently became legal for people in Australia to buy this sedative drug and importation is subject to strict authorisation and quality control, so you don’t need to worry about kava containing any unexpected substances. You can now find kava in Chemist Warehouse and Coles, although there are fierce ethical debates online about whether this widespread availability results in people treating the drug with the same cultural respect as Pacific Islander communities who have consumed the plant root ceremonially for thousands of years.

How about weed edibles?

According to The Guardian, weed gummies are the flavour of the day. They’re everywhere and people love them. At NUAA, we’re inclined to say their popularity is nothing new! But recent data suggests that eating weed edibles is overtaking smoking as people’s preferred method for getting baked.

If you’re after weed edibles and you don’t know how to make them yourself, ordering them online isn’t ideal as it won’t always be clear what kind of dosage you’re taking and they might contain other substances. A teenager in Canberra was recently hospitalised after eating weed gummies he bought over social media.

You’re better off consulting edibles resources and guides and cooking those delicious brownies yourself so you know how much weed is going into them. If you order weed edibles online or buy them from a dealer without instructions on how much to take, take a smaller amount than you usually would and wait for the effects to kick in before eating more.

Eating edibles is different from punching a cone or smoking a joint as you won’t feel stoned straight away. It takes a fair bit longer, sometimes as long 2 hours. The effects can get considerably stronger in the hour after they first become noticeable. This makes it easy to accidentally get way more stoned than intended, so try and be as patient as possible.

Still a bit lost?

If you’re scratching your head after reading this, trying to work out if you should try a certain product or not, remember that there are a heck of a lot of dodgy sellers online. If something seems fishy, such as wild promotional claims or really high prices, don’t risk buying and trying the product. You’ll usually be safer if you go to a proven source a friend has recommended, whether that’s online or a trusted dealer.

Stay safe out there, folks!