Magazine Mistakenly Advises Eating Dangerous Mushroom

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A magazine in Arizona has decided to pull its October issue from newsstands, after mistakenly advising that a mushroom that can cause hallucinations is edible.

Arizona Highways Magazine announced Friday that in its October 2013 issue, it mistakenly included an item advising that the fly agaric mushroom is edible.

"The fly agaric mushroom should not be consumed in its raw form because of its unpredictable psychotropic and physical effects," the magazine said in a correction posted in its WordPress blog.

The advice appeared in a "Nature's Factoid" feature, according to published reports.

"This issue will not be sold on newsstands, and we are alerting our subscribers to the mistake. We regret the error," Win Holden, publisher of Arizona Highways magazine, said on the WordPress blog.

The fly agaric mushroom, or Amanita muscaria, typically appears as a red toadstool with white spots. Within the U.S., varieties of the mushroom are seen most often in the southeastern states, but have also been spotted in New York and New Jersey, according to experts.

The mushroom is considered toxic and hallucinatory, but several sources have said it can, in fact, be eaten if parboiled so as to remove the toxic substances.

Fly agaric mushrooms are different from "magic mushrooms," a description given to several species of mushrooms containing the potent hallucinogens psilocybin and psilocin.

While there are no laws concerning fly agaric mushrooms, "magic mushrooms" are illegal to possess or sell under federal law. In the Tri-State Area, they are also illegal under New York, New Jersey and Connecticut state law.

In every state except New Mexico, growing psilocybin-containing mushrooms can result in prosecution for manufacture of a controlled substance.

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