But, honestly. Looking at everyone’s responses and how this is making me feel just made something really sink in – no matter how bizarre a story, no matter how awful and distant some of this stuff is, that was a person with a life that that happened to. It affects so many people, and there are so many sides not told in news.

I hung out with Taylor in junior high. 
He was the person that introduced me to Final Fantasy 7. 
He was always an incredibly nice guy. From what I’ve heard, he asked the other two people to leave when Jarred started wigging out just so nothing bad would happen. Jarred was known for being fucking violent and trying to start fights whenever he could.

There’s probably little reason for me to post this, but every time I remember this happened, it makes my skin crawl. I felt like there should be something else said besides the normal commentary, I suppose.

Beyond that, I agree with all those who suggest that the major culprit here is an imbalance in the aggressor’s psyche, not the influence of ‘shrooms. Although they may have been one factor. Still, blame the comically poorly-researched psychoactive component of the story rather than anything else, as usual.

I would love to see some really well-documented (no, not you, Dr Leary) well-designed research on the psychoactive pharmaceuticals. It’s about time. (And space, man).

He’d been using steroids for years, self-administered, without having done research on the substances he was using. He also neglected to follow an informed schedule or plan while administering those substances.

In addition, from what I have learned from steroid users, he wasn’t exactly taking protein powder: the drugs he was taking were very powerful and very dangerous, not least because they contributed to potentially-fatal side-effects when combined with other substances.

Research and education in the interest of harm reduction are still ignored or treated with contempt (or arrest) by media sources and law enforcement. 

1. The MMA guy and his friend had been ingesting cocaine and meth for several days before they ingested mushroom tea. They thought it would “bring them down.” Oh, erowid, where were thee? They had not slept in 3-4 days.

2. The MMA, who naturally, was quite muscular, owed his hyper-developed physique to a combination of training and a multiple year regime of random, illegal and extremely potent STEROIDS. He devised his own steroid regimen and was not renowned for his deep respect for research and education. 

So, cocaine + meth + extreme sleep deprivation until the shadow people are visible. News articles reported that the men had been using cocaine and meth for 3-4 days without an interval of sleep. Ingestion of way too much psylocibin by under-educated drug users. 

They entered into a prolonged, intense conversation about the devil being in the house with them “trip.” The MMA  fighter’s growing conviction that his friend WAS the devil resulted in him attacking and dismembering his friend.

Would such a perfect storm of danger have evolved had the guys taken Valium instead of a random, but hefty, dose of psylocibin? Who knows?

The point is, and many people who’ve used psylocibin might concur, that the media’s focus on ONE (& certain the least physically, if not psychically, destructive) substance that contributed to this horror is cynical, pandering and irresponsibly deceptive.

tl;dr MMA dude suffered a combo of ‘roid rage and hallucinations after by 3-4 days of meth and coke use and the sleep deprivation brought about by those drugs. The guys dosed a huge (and recklessly untitrated) amount of psylocibin in an effort to “come down.” 

Steroids + cocaine + methamphetamine + 3-4 days sleep deprivation + shadow people + religious background (argument re: God v. Devil aka Satan) + shrooms = Really Bad Shit. 

Research and education are our friends.

“Hey Cannibal Cat! What do you think about that guy in Florida who was high on mushrooms & ate his friends still beating heart?”

“I love wet food, but… THIS IS RIDICULOUS!”

I maintain that each drug has a personality of its own, but it interacts with the person who takes it, and so you can’t just look at a single incident and determine the characteristic of the drug based on that. 

Would this guy have done this if he had been sober? Probably not. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we should blame the drugs for what he did. Lots of people take mushrooms without eating anybody’s heart. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here…

I am resistant to arguments like, “that’s so not characteristic of mushrooms,” because, who the heck knows? Maybe every time this guy took mushrooms, he got violent. Like I said–it’s about the drug’s interaction with the person, not the drug itself.

Even when we talk about characterizing the drug in the most general sense, it can be more difficult than it at first appears. Human physiology is so varied that individual chemicals don’t affect us in the same way. For example, people with ADHD become calmer and more focused when they take amphetamines, the opposite of what people without ADHD do.

Bottom line: drugs are weird. People are weird. Drugs + people = 2xweird.