What's the deal with Polka Dot Chocolate Bars?

October 7, 2023 6:59 PM

Basically shroom bars. It's clearly shady/grey-market. Tons of differently styled sites. URLs are all variants on the company name (some more legit looking than others).

The first one I saw on their about "claims" to be 100% legal in CA (and the "only" company allowed to legally produce said product. But mentioning getting ready for the expanded market when it busts open in more states) - Is it independent producers making their own product with a general recipe and printing shit, is there an actual authentic "supplier"/supply-chain? Is this like the grey-market THC vapes that caused the lung issues a while back?

posted by symbioid to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

Best answer: The Guardian, June 2023: Cartoon packaging and an ‘inconsolable’ high: when magic mushroom chocolate gets into the wrong hands

"...

For adults taking them intentionally, the biggest issue (beyond illegality, being caught with one of these bars would, most everywhere in the US, merit the harshest criminal penalties under current drug laws) is quality. Because these products are illegal and unregulated, it can be difficult to verify their authenticity, or if they even contain psilocybin. Knock-offs of Polkadot’s trademark wrappers are sold in bulk, on Amazon and elsewhere, alongside foil wrapping, chocolate molds and other tools for the at-home confectioner.


As one YouTuber put it: “Polkas are the Dank Vapes of shrooms.” For readers who lack fluency in head shop lingo, Dank Vapes are weed vape cartridges with wrappers that are frequently doctored or counterfeited and sold online to unsuspecting customers. Branded packages are bought by sketchy dealers, who load the vape cartridges with, well, whatever. One critic called it “the biggest conspiracy in pot”.


The blooming – or sprouting? – market of grey market psychedelics relies on a similar degree of shadiness. The fungal-curious may trust certain brands, precisely because they seem legit: with commercially printed packaging outlining dosage guidelines and even nutritional information (a standard Polkadot bar boasts 800mg of “Magic Blend”). Even this metric is confusing. Elsewhere, the standard packaging boasts that each bar contains 4 grams (or 4,000mg) of mushrooms. (The disparity may be accounted for by the larger number representing the weight of ground, dried mushrooms, where the smaller “magic blend” number refers to the approximate amount of psychoactive psilocybin, specifically.)

Due to the criminalized status of these products, customers in the marketplace are naturally uneducated, and may (just as naturally) confuse the appearance of legitimacy with legitimacy itself.

Of late, reports have popped about “fake bars”. One user, a psychedelic veteran who purchased from someone they considered a trusted dealer, tells of a friend who had a seizure after eating two whole bars, in an attempt to exceed even god mode.


“We hear a loud thud and turn around and see my best friend laying on his back,” they tell me. “After 15 seconds of seizing, he stops and his eyes open wide, and he asks who I am, and where he is, and backs into the corner like a scared puppy.” His friend stabilised after a few minutes, and there were no lingering effects. After doing some research, the user was convinced the bar was fake and was filled with designer drugs, or so-called “research chemicals”: synthesised psychoactive analogues commonly sold over the internet.

The average, psychedelically curious individual would probably have their anxiety mitigated by knowing the exact ingredients of their bar. For their part, Polkadot (or someone anonymously speaking for them via their Telegram channel) assures me the bars contain “natural shrooms” and not compounds like 4-AcO-DMT, a research chemical that provides a psilocybin-like effect and is sometimes called “synthetic shrooms”.

“Genuine” Polkadot bars include QR codes on the wrapper, which authenticate the product by linking to their official Telegram presence. But this level of authentication may well elude the average consumer who might just want to, well, get a little high and watch the walls melt.

..."

posted by sebastienbailard at 9:04 PM on October 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: CA was only legalising possession of psilocybin, not retail sale, and in any case has not succeeded. So I don't think they're legal even in CA, but of course, you can 'claim' anything.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 10:51 PM on October 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you live in Oregon, there might be ways for this to be legal; ref. https://covidblog.oregon.gov/psilocybin-101-what-to-know-about-oregons-psilocybin-services/

What form will the psilocybin be administered in?

There will be numerous ways to consume psilocybin, all of which rely on natural cultivation and processing.

Clients may eat dried, whole mushrooms.
Clients may drink tea.
Clients may consume edible food products, such as chocolate. (emph. added)
Clients may swallow capsules that contain ground homogenized fungi.
Clients may consume an extract.

I'm not your lawyer, but even if I was, I wouldn't even rely on laws these days, unless I was Trump or rich. YMMV.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:52 AM on October 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Is this like the grey-market THC vapes that caused the lung issues a while back?

In the sense that they’re completely unregulated and heavily counterfeited and you have no idea what’s in them? Yes, they’re very, very similar. Steer clear. If you want mushrooms, just buy mushrooms (or locally made edibles from someone you trust).
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 11:07 AM on October 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: is there an actual authentic "supplier"/supply-chain?

And just to be clear on this point: there’s no “real” Polkadot. It’s all independent producers buying packaging from China and adding whatever research chemicals that they can get their hands on (or nothing at all) to crappy chocolate. Anyone that’s actually producing black-market mushroom chocolate is doing their own branding at this point; Polkadot exists purely to scam the rubes.
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 11:56 AM on October 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I haven't taken this "brand," but I have eaten another chocolate psilocybin infused chocolate bar, and I got the distinct impression that it was not actual psilocybin but rather a chemical analog of some kind. It didn't feel the same, and I didn't like it as much as regular old shrooms. I don't recommend it, until it's actually legal and regulated.
posted by RedEmma at 6:19 PM on October 8, 2023 [1 favorite]