Dr. Michael Moss couldn’t explain why the man in his hospital’s ICU had started convulsing after trying a chocolate bar, but he knew there was more to the story.
The patient recounted eating a mushroomed-infused candy, packaged with trippy artwork – purchased legally at a local store.
He’d been flown in over the weekend from a rural hospital to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City where Moss, a toxicologist, is medical director of the Utah Poison Control Center.
“This was crazy,” he said to himself, “Nobody gets put on the ventilator and has a seizure from eating psychedelic mushrooms.”
Alarmed, he began contacting poison centers around the country, and soon discovered similar cases were popping up: Patients with nausea, vomiting, agitation, seizures, loss of consciousness and other symptoms.
There are now 130 documented illnesses – including two suspected deaths – all tied to the same brand of mushroom edibles, called Diamond Shruumz, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
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