Community Guidelines

Rules and norms for participation in the LearnShrooms forum. Read before posting.

Last updated: April 2025

Purpose of this community

LearnShrooms is an educational resource covering psilocybin therapy, cultivation, harm reduction, legal developments, and science. The forum exists to extend that mission through peer discussion — allowing people to share experiences, ask questions, and support each other with accurate information.

We serve a wide audience: people researching psilocybin therapy for the first time, experienced cultivators, veterans and first responders exploring psychedelic treatment options, clinical researchers, and curious observers. The guidelines below are designed to keep the community useful and safe for everyone across this spectrum.

This is not a recreational drug community. Discussion of psilocybin for therapeutic, harm reduction, scientific, legal, and educational purposes is welcome. Discussion that primarily serves to glorify recreational drug use, facilitate illegal sourcing, or encourage reckless behaviour is not.

Core rules

1. Be accurate

Psilocybin carries real risks and real potential benefits. Both deserve accurate representation. Do not overstate safety, exaggerate therapeutic benefits, or dismiss genuine risks. When you're uncertain, say so. If you're corrected with evidence, engage with the correction rather than doubling down.

Cite sources when making empirical claims. "I've read that..." is fine for personal experience; claims about clinical outcomes, drug interactions, or legal status should include a source.

2. Be respectful

Treat all members with basic respect. Disagreement is welcome; contempt is not. Do not attack people personally when you disagree with their position. This applies to disagreements about therapeutic approaches, cultivation methods, legal strategy, and everything else.

People arrive here from very different starting points — veterans dealing with PTSD, people with no prior drug experience researching therapy options, experienced psychonauts, clinicians. Adjust your tone accordingly. What's obvious to you may be new information to someone else.

3. Stay on topic

Each category has a defined scope. Post in the relevant category. Cultivation questions go in Cultivation; therapy questions go in Therapy & Integration; legal questions go in Legal & Policy. Off-topic posts will be moved or removed.

General discussion about psilocybin-adjacent topics (psychedelic research broadly, complementary approaches to mental health) is fine in General. Unrelated content is not.

4. No commercial promotion

Do not post promotional content for products, services, or vendors without disclosure. If you have a commercial relationship with something you're recommending, disclose it. Spam and undisclosed affiliate content will be removed and may result in a ban.

Genuine discussion of vendors, products, and services — including criticism — is welcome under the sourcing guidelines below.

5. Protect privacy

Do not share other people's personal information. Do not out people regarding their psilocybin use, medical history, or legal situation. Be thoughtful about what you share about yourself — forum content is publicly accessible.

Harm reduction standards

The community maintains specific standards for harm reduction content. These are not optional.

Drug interaction information

Do not provide reassurance that a drug combination is "probably fine" without substantive basis. Psilocybin interactions with lithium (seizure risk), MAOIs (serotonin syndrome), and SSRIs (serotonin syndrome; unpredictable effect modification) are serious. When someone asks about a contraindicated combination, provide accurate information about the risk — do not minimise it to make someone feel better about a decision they've already made.

Direct people to the drug interaction checker and recommend they consult a healthcare provider for personal medical questions.

Dosage advice

Encourage conservative starting doses, especially for people with limited experience. Discouraging high-dose heroic sessions for inexperienced users is appropriate; encouraging them is not. Acknowledge that potency varies significantly between strains, batches, and individual sensitivity.

Mental health contraindications

Personal or family history of psychosis, schizophrenia, or bipolar I disorder are serious contraindications for psilocybin use. Do not provide reassurance to people disclosing these histories that psilocybin is likely safe for them. Direct them to the therapy pathway finder and to consult a qualified clinician.

Sourcing and vendor discussion

Psilocybin remains federally illegal in the United States. The sourcing guidelines below reflect that reality.

What is not allowed

  • Requests for sourcing or referrals to illegal psilocybin suppliers
  • Responding to sourcing requests with specific vendors, contacts, or methods
  • Discussion of how to access psilocybin outside of legal channels in a way that could be read as a guide or referral
  • Marketplace-style posts offering to sell anything

What is allowed

  • Discussion of legal access pathways: Oregon and Colorado service centers, clinical trials, international retreat programs
  • Discussion of Psilocybe spore vendors for microscopy research (legal in most US states)
  • Discussion of mushroom cultivation supply vendors (substrate, equipment, grain spawn)
  • General discussion of the legal landscape, decriminalisation status, and personal risk assessment
  • Honest reviews of legal service centers and vendors listed in the directory

Psilocybin is a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law. Possession, cultivation, and distribution are federal crimes regardless of state law.

Some states and cities have decriminalised personal possession. Oregon and Colorado have created regulated psilocybin service frameworks. A small number of US jurisdictions have no specific spore prohibition. These differences are real and discussed extensively in our legal map and forum, but they do not change the federal legal status.

The forum does not provide legal advice. When discussing legal risk, be accurate about what decriminalisation means (enforcement deprioritisation, not legal protection) and what state programs cover (supervised consumption at licensed centers, not home use).

Mental health and crisis

Some members of this community are dealing with serious mental health conditions — PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, grief, trauma. Engage with these disclosures with care.

If someone appears to be in acute distress or crisis, prioritise directing them to appropriate support over discussing psilocybin:

  • Psychedelic crisis support: Fireside Project — call or text 62-FIRESIDE (623-473-7433), daily 11am–11pm PT
  • Mental health crisis: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988
  • Emergency: 911

Do not provide therapy or act as a therapist in the forum. Share experience and information; recommend professional support for clinical questions.

Moderation

Moderation actions include: post removal, post editing (with notice), thread locking, temporary suspension, and permanent ban.

What triggers immediate removal

  • Sourcing requests or responses
  • Personal attacks, harassment, or hate speech
  • Doxxing or sharing private information
  • Spam or undisclosed commercial promotion
  • Content that a reasonable person would interpret as encouraging serious harm

What triggers a warning first

  • Off-topic posts (moved, not removed)
  • Inaccurate medical or safety claims
  • Dismissing or minimising documented drug interaction risks
  • Repeated minor rule violations

Bans

Repeated violations after warnings, or single severe violations (sourcing facilitation, harassment, doxxing), result in a ban. Bans are at moderator discretion. Accounts created to evade bans will be removed immediately.

Reporting and appeals

Use the report function on any post that appears to violate these guidelines. Moderators review reports and aim to respond within 48 hours.

If you believe a moderation decision was in error, you may appeal through the contact form. Include the specific post or action and the reason you believe the decision was incorrect. Appeals are reviewed by a different moderator than the one who took the original action.

These guidelines may be updated as the community evolves. Significant changes will be announced in the News & Current Events category.

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