Mushroom clouds campus culture

[drugo]

I mechanically grabbed a copy of my uni's free student run newspaper today and was surprised with the front page article.

Mushroom clouds campus culture

Rania M Spooner

Leticia Quintana

LA TROBE University students and past students representatives have been using campus grown psilocybin "magic" mushrooms to fund overseas trips and conferences, Rabelais [student newsaper] was told. "I funded most of my trip overseas from selling magic mushrooms grown on campus", claimed a La Trobe Bundoora student in August. The students said he picks the mushrooms seasonally in broad daylight between April and June. "I sold the first batch for 5 dollars a cap but they went faster then I could produce them, so the next ones I sold as three for $25", he said. "I feel a bit guilty because the reason mushrooms have that stuff in them is so that they aren't eaten. It's like giving someone poison".

Anonymous sources confirmed a previous La Trobe Students Representative Council (SRC) environment officer also profited off the campus grown mushrooms.

An official source told Rabelais an environment officer from a previous year funded student attendance to a environmental conference with the proceeds from sales of magic mushrooms. The claim was confirmed by another SRC insider. The insider said the practice happened more than once. "I have also heard rumours about the environment collective raffling of mushrooms to raise money", the source said. The environment officer implemented in the practice was contacted by Rabelais but has not replied to repeated requests for comment. "Magic mushrooms grow everywhere; even in local parks. But I don't advocate the sale of use of illicit substances for any purpose - let alone fund raising - even if people think it is for a good cause", said Casey, the current environmental officer. The science student said he dried and grounded the mushrooms "in a Magic Bullet", then packed the substance into caps purchased from health food supermarkets using chopsticks. "The problem is you have to be really careful when you're picking, because if you eat the wrong ones you will get liver damage so bad you will need a transplant", he said. The science student said that the mushrooms were all over the La Trobe Bundoora campus. "The University imported tam bark form the Dandenongs Ranges where the mushrooms grow, so the tam bark has the spores".

Apart from the obvious bullshit I doubt many of you won't miss, and probably laugh over, I spotted no more than 50 subs all season on campus. And the student body at my uni are generally not into eating Maria Sabrina's little gems. There is no way anyone funded an international flight, especially consider the fact that anyone, if they want to, can pick subs all over Melbourne in season.

It's interesting considering the ways in which this article reflects certain tropes and understandings, concerning psychedelics, which our broader culture lives. To judge the article crudely, "magic" mushrooms are represented, or used, as part of a repertoire of Australian humour. They are profane, diseased pathogens, indicating an example of what is not Australian, or what is not normal and therefore funny to associate with university student politics.