BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, JUNE 30, 1977 VoL. 25, No. 5 
THE USE OF PSYCHOACTIVE MUSHROOMS 
IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: 
AN ETHNOPHARMACOLOGIC REPORT 
AnprREW T. WeiL, M.D. 
I. 
More than two centuries have passed since westerners first 
learned of a traditional Old World use of mushrooms to pro- 
duce intoxication. In 1730, a Swedish army officer published an 
account of the cult of the fly agaric, Amanita muscaria (L. ex 
Fr.) Hooker, among primitive tribesmen of Siberia (1). Only 
forty years have passed since the rediscovery of the ceremonial 
use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Mexican state of Oax- 
aca (2). Today, ritual Amanita- eating in Siberia apparently is a 
thing of the past, and the mushroom ceremonies of Oaxaca are 
in great disarray as a result of the tremendous publicity ac- 
corded them. 
Yet more people than ever may be eating mushrooms to 
bring on unusual states of consciousness. The bright red fly 
agaric 1S now in widespread use in the Rocky Mountains, 
California, and the Pacific Northwest. In Oregon and Washing- 
ton, some people are using its close relative, the more potent, 
tan-capped panther fungus, Amanita pantherina (DC. ex Fr.) 
Krombh. Psilocybin-containing mushrooms, originally known 
from Oaxaca, are turning up in many localities and coming into 
more general use as people discover their properties. For 
example, Stropharia cubensis Earle, the ‘‘San Isidro’? mush- 
room of Oaxaca, is now well known in Colombia, Costa Rica, 
Florida, along the entire Gulf Coast of the United States, in 
Texas, southeast Asia, and, probably, elsewhere (3). 
To be sure, the use of psychoactive mushrooms outside of 
