Psychedelics
Psychedelic drugs appeared relatively early in Reggie’s life. His writings describe experimenting with magic mushrooms while still in school, and mushrooms later became part of his early involvement in selling drugs. Years later, his personal timeline records periods of frequent LSD use.
Psychedelics differ from stimulants, opioids and many other drugs because their characteristic effects involve changes in perception, thought, mood and a person’s experience of reality. This page focuses on the two psychedelics that appear most clearly in Reggie’s story: magic mushrooms and LSD.
On This Page:
Part 1 — Understanding Psychedelics ·
Part 2 — Psychedelics in Reggie’s Life ·
Part 3 — Selected Stories & Writings
Part 1 — Understanding Psychedelics
Psychedelics, sometimes called hallucinogens, are drugs that can significantly alter perception, thoughts, emotions and a person’s experience of their surroundings.
People may experience changes in colours, shapes, patterns, time and space, as well as unusually intense thoughts or emotions. Experiences can vary considerably depending on the drug, amount taken, surroundings and individual.
Magic Mushrooms
“Magic mushrooms” are mushrooms containing psychedelic compounds, principally psilocybin.
Their effects can include changes in visual perception, distorted shapes or patterns, altered perception of time, changes in mood and unusual or intensified thoughts. Reggie’s writings describe some of these effects from his own early experiences with mushrooms.
Because Reggie gathered wild mushrooms himself, an additional distinction is important: some poisonous mushrooms can be mistaken for edible or psychoactive species. Historical accounts of Reggie gathering mushrooms should not be interpreted as guidance for identifying or collecting them.
LSD
LSD—short for lysergic acid diethylamide—is a powerful psychedelic drug commonly known as acid, the name Reggie generally used in his own writings.
Very small amounts can produce effects lasting for many hours. These can include visual distortions or hallucinations, altered perception of time, intensified colours and patterns, changes in thoughts and emotions, confusion, anxiety or panic.
Reggie’s personal timeline records periods of frequent acid use during his years in Toronto.
Artist’s reconstruction: AI-generated image illustrating psychedelic imagery and forms historically associated with LSD.
Effects and Risks
Psychedelic experiences can be highly unpredictable. A person’s mental state and surroundings can influence an experience, and even the same person can react very differently on different occasions.
A frightening or distressing psychedelic experience is sometimes called a “bad trip.” It can involve intense fear, panic, paranoia, confusion or disturbing hallucinations.
Because perception and judgment can be altered, psychedelics can also increase the risk of accidents or dangerous behaviour. Combining them with other substances can make their effects still more unpredictable.
Someone experiencing severe agitation, dangerous behaviour, loss of consciousness, seizures, significant physical symptoms or another apparent medical emergency should receive immediate medical assistance.
Part 2 — Psychedelics in Reggie’s Life
Psychedelics entered Reggie’s life at a remarkably young age. His own writings describe experimenting with magic mushrooms while still in school. What began as experimentation developed into regular mushroom use and eventually became connected with his early involvement in selling drugs.
Years later, LSD became another significant psychedelic in his life. In his personal timeline, Reggie described periods of frequent acid use during his years in Toronto.
Reggie Discovers Magic Mushrooms
Reggie wrote that he first tried magic mushrooms while he was in Grade 7.
He took the mushrooms during lunch on a school day and then returned to class while experiencing their effects. Reggie described powerful changes in his visual perception and, rather than being frightened by the experience, wrote that he enjoyed it.
According to his account, mushrooms soon became something he and his friends were taking on weekends.
Read: How I Got Into Selling Drugs
Mushrooms Become Part of Everyday Life
Reggie’s mushroom use did not remain an occasional experiment.
His brother remembers Reggie getting up before dawn during mushroom season and walking throughout the community looking for mushrooms. He searched lawns, parks, graveyards and pastures, and family recollection includes occasions when he picked mushrooms from the grounds of his high school and then attended classes while experiencing their effects.
Reggie’s own account shows that mushroom picking soon became about more than obtaining drugs for himself and his friends. He wrote that during his first year of picking mushrooms he sold approximately three ounces. In subsequent years, the quantities increased substantially, eventually reaching approximately two pounds.
The scale of the activity was visible at home. His brother remembers newspaper spread across the family’s warm furnace room with freshly picked mushrooms laid out to dry before being stored.
Mushrooms also became part of Reggie’s developing drug relationship with his older cousin in Montreal. Reggie wrote that he eventually traded mushrooms for hash obtained through his cousin. Family recollections also place the cousin on Prince Edward Island during mushroom season while Reggie was still in high school.
What had begun as experimentation had become connected with collecting, storing, selling and exchanging substantial quantities of mushrooms.
From Mushrooms to LSD
Mushrooms were especially prominent during Reggie’s teenage years, but psychedelics remained part of his drug history as he grew older.
After his 1986 arrest for selling hash, Reggie moved to Toronto. His description of his psychedelic use during this period was characteristically brief.
For 1986, he wrote that he “took acid a lot.”
For the following year, he recorded “more acid.”
Reggie did not leave the same detailed descriptions of his LSD experiences that he left about his early experiences with mushrooms. We therefore do not know what individual LSD experiences were like for him or precisely how frequently he used it.
What his own timeline does establish is that acid use was significant enough for him to mention it when summarizing two successive years of his life.
Part 3 — Selected Stories & Writings
The following stories and writings provide additional context for Reggie’s experiences with psychedelics and the place they occupied in his life.
How I Got Into Selling Drugs
Reggie’s own account
Reggie describes trying magic mushrooms while still in Grade 7 and how mushrooms soon became connected with his early involvement in selling and trading drugs.
Read: How I Got Into Selling Drugs
The History of Me
Reggie’s own timeline
Reggie’s year-by-year chronology records the later transition from mushrooms to LSD, including his descriptions of taking acid frequently during his years in Toronto.
How I Ended Up Here
Reggie’s own writing
Years later, while writing from jail, Reggie humorously imagined inmates picking magic mushrooms from the grounds—a small reference connecting his circumstances in jail with an activity that had been familiar during his youth.
A First Experience with Magic Mushrooms
Personal recollection
Years ago, a teenager from the community told me about his first experience with magic mushrooms.
After taking a large quantity, he arrived home while still experiencing their effects. His father immediately realized something was wrong, but the teenager remembered the situation very differently. Looking at his father, he recalled seeing what appeared to be two electrodes rising from his head, with electricity passing between them.
His pockets were also stuffed with grass. He later explained that the grass had appeared purple, and he had tried to collect as much of it as possible.
Nothing about his father or the grass had actually changed. What had changed was his perception of them. The story provides a vivid personal example of how dramatically psychedelics can alter someone’s perception of otherwise familiar surroundings.
Explore More in the Archive
This page highlights selected material from the archive. Additional references may appear throughout Reggie’s writings, family recollections, documents and other stories. Use Search the Archive to explore this subject further.