Four people are dead in California because they picked the wrong mushroom.
Not wrong like they got a stomachache. Wrong like their livers shut down and they needed transplants to survive. Wrong like three others had to get entirely new organs just to make it out alive.
The culprit? The Death Cap. Nature's most beautiful fuck you to anyone who thinks mushroom foraging is just a cute weekend activity.
Here's what happened ⬇️
Rain Becomes a Death Sentence
Northern California got hammered with winter rain this year. Great for the drought, absolute disaster for mushroom safety.
All that water triggered a massive fruiting event of Death Caps across the Bay Area and NorCal. They popped up everywhere parks, yards, trails. Beautiful little cream colored mushrooms with a delicate veil. Looks almost identical to edible species common in Mexico, like Volvariella Volvacea.
Over 60% of the victims were Spanish speakers.
Think about that for a second. You're foraging for mushrooms that fed your family back home. You see something that looks exactly right. Same color, same shape, grows in similar spots. You cook them up, share them with people you love.
And then your liver starts failing.
The California Department of Public Health has issued a full stop on all foraging in the region.
Not be careful.
Not educate yourself.
Just stop. Because Death Caps don't give second chances.
Wild, right?
One good rainy season and suddenly a mushroom that's been here for decades becomes a mass casualty event.
This is what really gets me though mushrooms don't give a fuck about our assumptions. They don't care that you've been foraging your whole life or that this looks exactly like something safe. Amanita phalloides evolved to be deadly, and it's really fucking good at its job.
Nature's reminder that respect isn't optional.
Meanwhile in the Pharmaceutical Thunderdome
While people are dying from the wrong mushrooms, the government just blocked fast tracking the right ones.
February 6th: The Trump administration vetoed Compass Pathways from getting a Commissioner's National Priority Voucher for their psilocybin therapy, COMP360.
Here's the setup: FDA Commissioner Marty Makary actually recommended the voucher. This thing would've cut review time in half, potentially getting psilocybin therapy for depression to market faster.
But senior HHS and White House officials said no.
There's an internal split on whether psychedelic therapy should jump the line ahead of other health priorities. Makary wanted to prioritize it. His bosses disagreed.
The impact?
Compass is still expected to file for FDA approval later this year. They're still on track. But without the voucher, they're back in the normal timeline which in FDA world means potentially months or years longer before patients can access it.
Honestly, this one's fascinating from a policy perspective. We've got:
An FDA Commissioner willing to fast-track psychedelics
White House officials pumping the brakes
A treatment that's shown real promise in trials
And a bureaucratic turf war playing out in real time
But there's a catch: Despite the voucher veto for depression treatment, the FDA did accept Compass's Investigational New Drug (IND) application to start clinical trials for PTSD.
So they lost the fast track for one indication but got the green light to expand into another. The pipeline continues.
Colorado Says Fuck State Level Delays
While the feds play bureaucratic ping-pong, Colorado just introduced a bill SB26-031 that basically says: If the FDA approves it, we're not waiting around.
The goal?
Automatically align state and federal drug schedules so any FDA approved psychedelic therapy can be prescribed immediately in Colorado. No state level review. No additional waiting period.
FDA approval = automatic prescription access.
This is separate from Colorado's existing 34 licensed Healing Centers (as of Feb 4) for facilitated adult use. That's the Oregon style model where you can take psilocybin with a trained facilitator outside of medical context.
This new bill is about pharmaceutical psychedelics the prescription stuff that comes out of clinical trials.
Think about it
Colorado is positioning itself as the psychedelic therapy capital by removing every possible state-level barrier. If MAPS gets MDMA approved for PTSD or Compass gets psilocybin approved for depression, Colorado patients won't have to wait months or years while state regulators debate.
States are tired of federal caution and starting to build their own on ramps.
Now Here's Where Things Get Actually Hopeful
Enough policy drama. Let's talk about a drug that might actually save lives.
February 6th: Researchers published findings on a new synthetic compound called Pytren-2Q (a 2-quinoline polyamine, if you're into the chemistry).
What it does
Kills drug-resistant strains of Aspergillus fumigatus—one of the nastiest fungal infections out there 32 times more effectively than current leading drugs.
32 times.
Not slightly better. Not comparable efficacy with fewer side effects.
32 fucking times more effective!
Here's why this matters ⬇️
It's like the difference between trying to knock down a wall versus cutting off the electricity to the building.
What This All Means
We're watching three parallel realities unfold:
Reality 1: Wild mushrooms are killing people because heavy rain + misidentification = liver failure. Nature doesn't negotiate.
Reality 2: Pharmaceutical psychedelics are stuck in bureaucratic limbo while federal agencies fight over priorities. Progress is happening, but slowly, with lots of political friction.
Reality 3: Fungal resistance is accelerating, but scientists are finding entirely new approaches to killing the bad fungi before they kill us.
The contradictions are fucking wild when you zoom out:
We can't keep people from dying from Death Caps despite centuries of mycological knowledge
We can't fast-track psilocybin therapy despite promising clinical data
But we can engineer synthetic compounds that obliterate drug resistant fungi at 32x the efficacy of existing drugs
Science moves fast.
Policy moves slow.
And nature?
Nature moves on its own timeline, with absolutely zero regard for human convenience.
What really gets me though is this. All three of these stories are about the same kingdom of organisms. Fungi that kill. Fungi that heal. Fungi that we're learning to kill when they become the threat.
Same biological machinery, completely opposite outcomes depending on context, intention, and a little bit of luck.
Stay safe out there. Don't forage after heavy rain. Don't assume the government will fast track what makes sense. And maybe keep an eye on Pytren-2Q, it might be the antifungal breakthrough we desperately need.
Another exciting week has come and gone. Thank you to my awesome subscribers for tuning in each week!!
I’m always open to suggestions on how to improve or if you want to learn or hear about a specific fungi/psychedelic just let me know!
See ya next week 🍄