32 AUGUST 8-14, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | REAL ESTATE | RENTALS | HEALTH WELLNESS | SERVICES | EMPLOYMENT | ADULT | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | A S K A S T O N E R BY HERBERT FUEGO Dear Stoner: When did smoke shops become so much more than pipes and smoking ac- cessories? I understand some merchandise, but some of these places are selling stuff that looks like weed, ’shrooms and boner pills now. Call Me Todd Dear Call Me Todd: Smoke shops have always been a land of weird trinkets and products that toe the line of legality. Sure, you’ll always fi nd glass, papers, incense and posters, but it’s the gray-area stuff that really brings in the new traffi c. When I was in high school, it was salvia, spice and bath salts. Then CBD came along, and now we have synthetic THC and bootleg mushroom products, which I don’t even want to touch, let alone eat. Smoke shops will get raided or stop selling products after law enforcement starts enforcing edicts, but there’s always something new and “legal” right around the corner. Plenty of glass-fi rst smoke shops display local artists instead of selling questionable drug knockoffs, especially in Denver, but most vape and smoke shops have been sketchy places since I can remember. Dear Stoner: I heard magic mushrooms have strains, just like cannabis. Is that true? Doctor Cat Dear Doctor Cat: There are a lot of paral- lels between the two. After all, this is plant medicine we’re talking about (and fungi, but you get the point). There are dozens, if not hundreds, of species of psilocybin mushrooms. And al- though they all have psilocybin, they’re not all the same. These mushrooms have other tryptamines and alkaloids that infl uence how our bodies and brains react. While this mixture of magic mushroom components isn’t fully fi gured out, specifi c mushrooms have shown potential in treating specifi c mental and physical ailments, according to researchers and lab analysts. Sounds pretty similar to cannabis and terpenes, doesn’t it? Mushrooms and cannabis also have car- toonishly fun names — like Alaskan Thunder- fuck, or Hillbilly and Penis Envy, two popular strains of mushrooms in Colorado. However, mushrooms seem to have more species vari- ance than cannabis, which only has a handful, with indica and sativa being the main two. Colorado’s upcoming medical psilocybin system is poised to allow only one species of mushrooms: psilocybe cubensis. Although psilocybe cubensis is the most popular spe- cies and includes many strains, such as the aforementioned Hillbilly and Penis Envy, growers and researchers hoped for more. ■ CLICK it! ®
