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Microdosing candies finally recalled after psychoactive muscimol found

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Finally —

Muscimol, found in the candy, is from hallucinogenic Amanita muscaria mushrooms.

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Microdosing candies finally recalled after psychoactive muscimol found

After weeks of reports of severe illnesses across the country, the maker of Diamond Shruumz microdosing chocolates, gummies, and candy cones has finally issued a recall. It covers all lots and all flavors of all the brand’s products.

The illnesses have been marked by several severe symptoms, which notably include seizures, loss of consciousness, and the need for intubation and intensive care. To date, there have been 39 people sickened, including 23 hospitalizations across 20 states, according to the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA first issued a warning on the brand’s chocolate bars on June 7, when there were reports of eight cases, including six hospitalizations, in four states.

Diamond Shruumz’s parent company, Prophet Premium Blends, said in the recall notice that it had received only two complaints about the products to date and, upon receiving those complaints, reviewed recent laboratory analyses (Certificates of Analysis) of its products. According to the company, those CoAs noted “higher than normal amounts of muscimol,” which is one of two key compounds found in hallucinogenic Amanita mushrooms. Muscimol “could be a potential cause of symptoms consistent with those observed in persons who became ill after eating Diamond Shruumz products,” the company said in the recall notice.

In a statement posted on Diamond Shruumz’s website, Prophet Premium Blends announced the recall and added that it has also ceased production and distribution of all of the brand’s products.

“Due to consumers becoming ill after consuming the entire chocolate bar and some products containing higher levels of Muscimol than normal, it is crucial that all of our consumers refrain from ingesting this product while we, alongside the FDA, continue our investigation as to what is the cause of the serious adverse effects,” Prophet Premium Blends wrote on its website.

Diamond Shruumz has not responded to multiple requests for comment from Ars. Prophet Premium Blends did not respond to a request for comment and a list of questions.

What’s normal?

It’s unclear what amounts of muscimol were found in the company’s products and which products were affected. While the company reported only “higher than normal” amounts, it’s also unclear what the “normal” amount is. Diamond Shruumz posts third-party lab reports on its website, most of which indicate that the products are tested for muscimol. For instance, the reports show muscimol testing for all flavors of Cones and Extreme Gummies. For the brand’s chocolate bars, which the FDA first linked to the illnesses, all the bars except for the dark chocolate flavor showed muscimol results. For the gummies, only the report for the Hawaiian Punch flavor shows muscimol results. Of all the reports that include results for muscimol, all indicate that the amounts are lower than the limit of quantitation, which suggests that they are not supposed to contain any amount of muscimol. All of the reports reviewed by Ars were dated at various times throughout 2023.

Muscimol, along with related ibotenic acid, are both key psychoactive components of some Amanita mushrooms. That includes the hallucinogenic toadstool mushroom A. muscaria var. muscaria, which is notable for its unique bright red-orange caps with white warts. Both muscimol and ibotenic acid resemble neurotransmitters, namely GABA and glutamate, respectively. Muscimol is associated with depression of the central nervous system, while Ibotenic acid is associated with excitation of the central nervous system.

Fuzzy findings

According to the recall notice, it’s possible that the muscimol could cause some of the symptoms in people sickened, which included seizures, agitation, involuntary muscle contractions, loss of consciousness, confusion, sleepiness, nausea and vomiting, abnormal heart rates, and hyper/hypotension. The FDA said in its own update that it was “evaluating this information.”

The agency had previously identified the undisclosed synthetic psychedelic compound 4-AcO-DMT in the company’s chocolates, as well as undisclosed compounds found in a potentially toxic Kava plant (Piper methysticum). It remains unclear if any of those compounds explain the illnesses.

The totality of the ingredients in Diamond Shruumz’s products remains unclear. The company does not list the ingredients on its website, selling the products only with terms indicating they contain psychedelic compounds and the vague, buzzword-loaded description of having a “primo proprietary blend of nootropic and functional mushrooms.”

The CDC warns that such “edibles” are often sold as candies and snack food and might contain undisclosed ingredients, including illicit substances, adulterants, or potentially harmful contaminants. Common marketing terms to look out for include “microdosing,” “adaptogens,” “nootropics,” and “functional mushrooms,” the CDC warns.

Consumers should not eat, sell, or serve any Diamond Shruumz product. For those who have already purchased the products, they can be returned for a full refund to 1019 Arlington St., Orlando, Florida, 32805, according to Diamond Shruumz’s website.

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Microdosing candy-linked illnesses double; possible recall in “discussions”

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No recall —

Of the 26 cases identified so far, 25 sought medical care and 16 were hospitalized.

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Microdosing candy-linked illnesses double; possible recall in “discussions”

Cases of illnesses linked to microdosing candies have more than doubled, with reports of seizures and the need for intubation, mechanical ventilation, and intensive care stays. But, there remains no recall of the products—microdosing chocolates, gummies, and candy cones by Diamond Shruumz—linked to the severe and life-threatening illnesses. In the latest update from the Food and Drug Administration late Tuesday, the agency said that it “has been in contact with the firm about a possible voluntary recall, but these discussions are still ongoing.”

In the update, the FDA reported 26 cases across 16 states, up from 12 cases in eight states last week. Of the 26 reported cases, 25 sought medical care and 16 were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a health alert about the candies. The agency noted that as of June 11, the people sickened after eating Diamond Shruumz candies presented to health care providers with a host of severe symptoms. Those include: central nervous system depression with sedation, seizures, muscle rigidity, clonus (abnormal reflex responses), tremor, abnormal heart rate (bradycardia or tachycardia), abnormal blood pressure (hypotension or hypertension), gastrointestinal effects (nausea, vomiting, or abdominal pain), skin flushing, diaphoresis (excessive sweating), and metabolic acidosis with increased anion gap (an acid-based disorder linked to poisonings).

At the time of the CDC alert, 10 patients had been hospitalized, and “several required intubation, mechanical ventilation, and admission to an intensive care unit,” the agency reported.

It remains unclear what ingredient in the candies could be causing the poisonings. The FDA reports that it has worked with state partners to collect multiple samples of Diamond Shruumz products so they can be analyzed for potential toxic components. That analysis is still ongoing, the agency said.

Diamond Shruumz has not responded to multiple requests for comment from Ars.

Untold toxic ingredients

Diamond Shruumz does not list the ingredients of its products on its website. They are sold as “microdosing” candies, a term that typically suggests a small amount of a psychedelic compound is present. The company describes its chocolates, gummies, and cones as “trippy,” “psychedelic,” and “hallucinogenic,” and also claims they contain a “primo proprietary blend of nootropic and functional mushrooms.” But, it’s unclear what, if any, psychoactive compound is present in the candies.

The CDC notes that products like these “might contain undisclosed ingredients, including illicit substances, other adulterants, or potentially harmful contaminants that are not approved for use in food.”

Diamond Shruumz posted documents on its website from third-party laboratories claiming to indicate that the candies do not contain the most notable mushroom-derived psychedelic compound, psilocybin. The reports also indicate that some of the products do not contain cannabinoids or compounds from the hallucinogenic Amanita muscaria mushroom. Additionally, the company said in a blog post that its products contain a blend of Lion’s mane, Reishi, and Chaga mushrooms, but these are all non-hallucinogenic mushrooms used in herbal and traditional medicines and supplements.

In recent decades, hundreds of new synthetic psychoactive substances have hit the market in such products, including many new phenethylamines and tryptamines, which are chemically related to LSD and psilocybin. Some experts and members of the psychedelic community have speculated that Diamond Shruumz products could potentially contain one of the more popular tryptamines, 4-AcO-DMT, often pronounced  “4-akko-DMT,” and also known as 4- acetoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, O-acetylpsilocin, or psilacetin. According to a qualitative 2020 study, users describe 4-AcO-DMT as producing effects similar to psilocybin, but without some of the unpleasant side effects noted with natural mushrooms, such as nausea. Animal experiments have confirmed that 4-AcO-DMT appears to produce psilocybin-like effects.

Still, it’s unclear if such ingredients could explain the symptoms seen in the current outbreak. Though clinical data on 4-AcO-DMT is scant, it has not been linked to such severe symptoms. On the other hand, some novel synthetic compounds, such as Dox and NBOMe, often misrepresented as LSD, are considered dangerous. For instance, NBOMe compounds (N-methoxybenzyl, also called N-bombs or 251), first discovered in 2003, have been linked to overdoses and deaths. In the scientific literature, they’ve been linked to “unpleasant hallucinations, panic, agitation, hypertension, seizures, acute psychosis, and/or excited delirium that can result in cardiac arrest,” according to the 2020 study.

Microdosing candy-linked illnesses double; possible recall in “discussions” Read More »

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Microsoft delays Recall again, won’t debut it with new Copilot+ PCs after all

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another setback —

Recall will go through Windows Insider pipeline like any other Windows feature.

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Recall is part of Microsoft's Copilot+ PC program.

Enlarge / Recall is part of Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC program.

Microsoft

Microsoft will be delaying its controversial Recall feature again, according to an updated blog post by Windows and Devices VP Pavan Davuluri. And when the feature does return “in the coming weeks,” Davuluri writes, it will be as a preview available to PCs in the Windows Insider Program, the same public testing and validation pipeline that all other Windows features usually go through before being released to the general populace.

Recall is a new Windows 11 AI feature that will be available on PCs that meet the company’s requirements for its “Copilot+ PC” program. Copilot+ PCs need at least 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS). The first (and for a few months, only) PCs that will meet this requirement are all using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite Arm chips, with compatible Intel and AMD processors following later this year. Copilot+ PCs ship with other generative AI features, too, but Recall’s widely publicized security problems have sucked most of the oxygen out of the room so far.

The Windows Insider preview of Recall will still require a PC that meets the Copilot+ requirements, though third-party scripts may be able to turn on Recall for PCs without the necessary hardware. We’ll know more when Recall makes its reappearance.

Why Recall was recalled

Recall works by periodically capturing screenshots of your PC and saving them to disk, and scanning those screenshots with OCR to make a big searchable text database that can help you find anything you had previously viewed on your PC.

The main problem, as we confirmed with our own testing, was that all of this was saved to disk with no additional encryption or other protection and was easily viewable and copyable by pretty much any user (or attacker) with access to the PC. Recall was also going to be enabled by default on Copilot+ PCs despite being a “preview,” meaning that users who didn’t touch the default settings were going to have all of this data recorded by default.

This was the version of Recall that was initially meant to ship out to reviewers this week on the first wave of Copilot+ PCs from Microsoft and other PC companies. After security researcher Kevin Beaumont publicized these security holes in that version of Recall, the company promised to add additional encryption and authentication protections and to disable Recall by default. These tweaks would have gone out as an update to the first shipments of Copilot+ PCs on June 18 (reviewers also wouldn’t get systems before June 18, a sign of how much Microsoft was rushing behind the scenes to implement these changes). Now Recall is being pushed back again.

A report from Windows Central claims that Recall was developed “in secret” and that it wasn’t even distributed widely within Microsoft before it was announced, which could explain why these security issues weren’t flagged and fixed before the feature showed up in a publicly available version of Windows.

Microsoft’s Recall delay follows Microsoft President Brad Smith’s testimony to Congress during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing about the company’s “cascade of security failures” in recent months. Among other things, Smith said that Microsoft would commit to prioritizing security issues over new AI-powered features as part of the company’s recently announced Secure Future Initiative (SFI). Microsoft has also hired additional security personnel and tied executive pay to meeting security goals.

“If you’re faced with the tradeoff between security and another priority, your answer is clear: Do security,” wrote Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in an internal memo about the SFI announcement. “In some cases, this will mean prioritizing security above other things we do, such as releasing new features or providing ongoing support for legacy systems.”

Recall has managed to tie together all the big Windows and Microsoft stories from the last year or two: the company’s all-consuming push to quickly release generative AI features, its security failures and subsequent promises to do better, and the general degradation of the Windows 11 user interface with unwanted apps, ads, reminders, account sign-in requirements, and other cruft.

Microsoft delays Recall again, won’t debut it with new Copilot+ PCs after all Read More »