Diamond Shruumz was a candy brand that billed itself as “the future of microdosing,” selling chocolates and gummies that weren’t supposed to include actual psychedelic drugs but rather non-hallucinogenic mushrooms such as Lion’s Mane, Reishi, and Chaga.
But Diamond Shruumz, part of California’s vape e-liquid company Prophet Premium Blends, has come under serious fire because seemingly no one knows what the heck is actually in their stuff—and that has led to a lot of their customers getting sick and some even dying.
An ARS Technica report describes 145 cases of illness associated with consuming Diamond Shruumz, including 59 hospitalizations and two deaths spread out among 29 US states. Diamond Shruumz had nationwide distribution, and Georgia (23) and North Carolina (17) were the states with the most reported illnesses. The FDA has feverishly been trying to identify what exactly is causing it.
An FDA Alert issued in June warned not to eat, sell, or serve any Diamond Shruumz brand products. It cautioned: “People who became ill after eating Diamond Shruumz-brand products reported a variety of severe symptoms including seizures, central nervous system depression (loss of consciousness, confusion, sleepiness), agitation, abnormal heart rates, hyper/hypotension, nausea, and vomiting.”
This week, the FDA issued an update that revealed their test results, which included finding 4-AcO-DMT, a semi-synthetic psychoactive drug similar to shrooms, and plain psilocin, a hallucinogen that produces effects similar to LSD. The FDA also pointed out that muscimol, a chemical found in some magic mushrooms, was in 9 of the 22 bars they tested. Some included the prescription drug pregabalin, used to treat seizures, and some had chemicals from the Kava plant.
But none of these chemicals, on their own, is known to cause the effects that Diamond Shruumz users have reported—though the FDA notes that there’s little research on combining them.
Today, the Diamond Shruumz website has a pop-up that shares the company’s response. They’re claiming not to know what happened either:
“At Prophet Premium Blends, we prioritize the health and safety of our consumers above all else. Recently, we have been made aware of reported incidents involving our product, Diamond Shruumz. Due to consumers becoming ill after consuming the entire chocolate bar and some products containing higher levels of Muscimol than normal, it is crucial that all of our consumers refrain from ingesting this product while we, alongside the FDA, continue our investigation as to what is the cause of the serious adverse effects.”
The post ‘Microdosing’ Candy Investigated After 145 Illnesses and 2 Deaths appeared first on VICE.
The post ‘Microdosing’ Candy Investigated After 145 Illnesses and 2 Deaths appeared first on VICE.
