SEATTLE — An Alaska Airline pilot pleaded not guilty Tuesday after he was accused of trying to shut off the engines of a plane leaving Everett, mid-flight.
New court documents show he told investigators that he took psychedelic mushrooms two days before the scare, making it the second high-profile crime this year where a suspect in the Pacific Northwest said he took psychedelic mushrooms in the days and hours before the alleged crimes.
According to federal documents, Joseph Emerson, 44, threw his headset across the cockpit and said, "I am not okay" before grabbing both red engine shutoff handles.
The documents go on to say, "After a brief physical struggle with the pilots, Emerson exited the cockpit." The entire ordeal, pilots said, lasted 90 seconds.
Oregon state documents show that Emerson told police he was "in a mental crisis and had not slept in over 40 hours," and that he said he'd eaten magic mushrooms about 48 hours prior.
"It acts on a kind of serotonin receptor," said Dr. Anthony Back, professor of medicine at the University of Washington.
Back in June, suspect James Kelly in the Beyond Wonderland shooting at the Gorge also said that he had taken magic mushrooms. Prosecuting attorney documents said, "As Kelly's hallucination 'trip' got going, he began to believe that the world was ending." Prosecutors stated that he proceeded to shoot four people, killing two.
How exactly can psychedelic mushrooms affect a person's behaviors? KING 5 checked in with medical experts.
"People tend to have a sense of oneness, or connectedness to the world, to the natural world to other individuals," said David Dadiomov, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy. He also serves as a director of a Psychiatric Pharmacy residence program at the University of Southern California.
"Extreme paranoia and panic is not really one of the adverse reactions that has been reported in clinical trials," added Back.
But can mushrooms make a person violent?
"You can still have scary experiences, you can have really sad experiences," said Back.
Both experts said a bad trip is possible, however, as Dadiomov put it: "those tend to be in the minority."
Back said, "Violence is not part of the picture in the big, big studies that have been done."
Back and Dadiomov both said high-profile headlines like these, involving crime and mushrooms, do little to lessen the stigma surrounding mushrooms as medicine, specifically as they're being studied for their therapeutic benefits.
"It's demonstrated, so far, great effects in helping to treat refractory depression," said Dadiomov.
The FDA even recently gave mushrooms "breakthrough therapy" status.
"Which means that the early trials look very promising," noted Back.
This year, Oregon became the first state to allow adult use of magic mushrooms under the supervision of a state-certified facilitator.
So how long can you feel the effects? Researchers said the majority of the compounds are released in your body in the first three hours after eating them, but they also said it depends on the person, the strength of the mushroom, and the dose.