Kate's Magic Trip
Let's take a look at a
hypothetical scenario.
Kate is a seventeen year old girl
who attends Meridian Christian College. She has a large group of friends and a
smaller circle of close friends. She loves to hang out with her friends and on
weekends they go to parties.
One night, Kate's close friend,
Gemma, leads her away from the hustle of the crowd to a carpark. A few other
girls that she doesn't know are gathered around a shabby car where they are
handing money through the tinted window. A man in his late thirties accepts the
money and stuffs it into his already bulging bag. He pulls out a plastic bag
for each of them. They take them eagerly and continue out of the car park,
giving Kate strange looks. Gemma convinces Kate to buy some ‘shrooms’, as she
calls them. Kate agrees and gives the man her money.
Kate takes her first mouthful of
psilocybin mushrooms, which to her taste absolutely disgusting. Gemma, having
taken the drug before, stays with her. After a short while Kate tells Gemma
that they aren't having any effect on her at all. But soon after, she notices
that the nightclub colours appear to be pulsating. The music begins to sound
even more vibrant and clear, the lyrics turning into strings of lively notes.
She starts to giggle uncontrollably, even though she has no idea what she's laughing
about. If she could block out all the sounds and colours of the world, she
would notice the throbbing in her head and the strange kneading sensation
wrenching at her stomach.
Kate's mind is making connections
at a million miles an hour; both startlingly clear and yet confusing. The
laughter doesn't subside; her cackling ringing out through the nightclub as a
universal sign of being high.
As her thoughts run wild, Kate is
losing control of her movements, barely able to put one foot in front of the
other.
She begins to have an experience
that she later describes as the cliché 'out of body experience'. She starts to
wonder about herself and seeing everything around her as new again.
After several hours, the glowing
outlines of the lights and the freakish laugher abate, leaving a sober Kate.
The week after her first
experience, Gemma asks her if she'd like to try it again. There is a high
likelihood that if Kate does so, she'll use the drug many times over. Her first
trip was a good one, with largely positive effects. If she keeps taking the
drug there is a high likelihood of her having a bad trip. A long-term effect of
her using this drug could be unpleasant flashbacks.
If she decides not to take the
drug again, she could strain her friendship with Gemma. But if Gemma is unable
to accept the fact that her friend doesn't want to take it, then perhaps she
isn't a friend worth having.
Information for this scenario was
carefully researched so as to be written as sensitively and realistically as
possible. This scenario is for educational purposes only. Any resemblance to
any person, be they alive or deceased, is purely coincidental.
