Health, legal experts say Diamond Shruumz candies part of a ‘wild west’

As reports of sickness tied to the microdosing candies Diamond Shruumz continued to mount this week, the Food and Drug Administration released a list of several hundred shops nationwide where people reported that the products were sold even after they were recalled in June. More than 20 were in Georgia.

Nationwide, 78 people were sickened and 40 people were hospitalized after consuming Diamond Shruumz, according to the FDA, and two deaths that may be associated are under investigation. At least eight have been hospitalized in Georgia, including three who had to be put on breathing machines. Georgia public health authorities said it has been more than two weeks since any new reports of Diamond Shruumz consumers getting sick in Georgia.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, products containing psychoactive compounds such as cannabis or mushroom extracts are increasing in availability. Sometimes called “edibles,” they are often sold as gummy candies, chocolates or other snack foods. The CDC cautions they might contain undisclosed ingredients, including illicit substances, adulterants or potentially harmful contaminants that are not approved for use in food.

The tipsters’ claims about the shops on the list still selling the products after the recall could not be verified.

Uncertainty surrounds the issue in a haze: Not just about whether the products are still being sold, but about what’s healthy, who determines what’s healthy, and what’s legal. Some legal experts describe the edibles market as the “wild west,” and some say consumers shouldn’t trust that things sold in a store or online are safe to consume.

“There’s no legal framework” for shop owners and consumers to clearly know what’s safe and legal, said Josh Kappel, a Colorado-based attorney who has helped draft laws there and co-founder of the Microdosing Collective. The legal landscape is a mixture of gaping voids and laws too complex to easily follow, he said.

The CDC reports products containing mushrooms have been marketed for promoting health or for achieving psychoactive effects or a high. Examples of health claims have included improving focus and increasing energy. Taking small amounts of psychedelics is often called “microdosing.”

The products people buy now are a long way from the hippie era’s baggies of actual mushrooms. They contain extracts and chemical compounds. The problem with Diamond Shruumz appears to be twofold: The company said on its website that it was using an extract that it maintains is legal, muscimol, but the amounts in some products were abnormally high. But researchers at UVA Health in Virginia found that some of the products actually contained an illegal psychedelic extract as well , psilocin, which is listed on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s schedule of banned drugs.

The FDA says it is still evaluating information from the manufacturer, Prophet Premium Blends, on what Diamond Shruumz contains. Regardless, the agency says, retailers should not sell them and consumers should not use them.

But if retailers insist on continuing to sell recalled substances, legal consequences aren’t imminent. In that case, a spokeswoman for the FDA said, then the agency’s next step could be going to court to get an injunction. That’s when the legal system would be involved.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to experts and some of the shops on the federal list. Some shops would not speak to a reporter. One owner spoke but said he shouldn’t be on the list at all.

Dave Alford’s Natural Life franchise in East Atlanta was included in the list by the FDA. But he says he has never sold Diamond Shruumz.

“That’s gas station type stuff,” he said.

What he does sell, he believes, are better quality products that can help people’s lives. He said he bought the franchise in May 2022 after an experience with mushrooms in Amsterdam influenced him to quit his former job and make the shift.

His customers interested in mushroom products are predominantly women and young people, he said. They are often looking for spiritual journeys, or to take a break from other medications by substituting something from his shop. Alford carries a variety of mushroom products from energy drinks to gummies, and he said people with post-traumatic stress, anxiety and attention deficit disorders gravitate toward them.

Once people get the package home, they decide themselves how much to take.

“We are not doctors, so we don’t recommend anything. We don’t prescribe anything,” he said. “The biggest thing is for the people to have whatever experience they’re looking for.”

Alford said the products he sells undergo third-party testing and provide a certificate of analysis. He also said he does his due diligence when buying, looking at if things are “too good to be true,” for example by having very cheap prices.

Kappel, the Colorado attorney, believes people should have the option to microdose with psychoactive mushrooms, but they are being left in a danger zone by authorities’ failure to acknowledge its popularity and properly regulate it.

“They walk into a store and they see a package,” Kappel said. “They assume that it must be safe. It operates in this legal gray area, and there’s no regulatory body determining what’s in these products. It’s on the company to create safe products.”

The Microdosing Collective, a national group advocating to have the industry legalized and regulated, wants a state-based system mandating independent testing labs “to make sure that all these products are safe for human consumption.” The barrier is that would require public and legal recognition for microdosing, which has its own safety debate.

Angela Holland represents Georgia convenience stores. She said most of her member stores don’t sell the products. And for any that do, she said, they deserve clarity.

“It’s like the chicken and the egg,” Holland said of microdosing products. “Those things are changed so rapidly that if you made a law this year and it goes into effect July 1, then they have a new product or a new formulation for that product in August,” she said. “So I think that it’s important for us to stay ahead of that as much as possible — as a state and FDA as well — and say, you know, this is not legal here.”

“A defined line is always going to help our members,” she said.

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