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-- No fun for fungus fans: Home Office rethink could drive magic mushrooms underground
No fun for fungus fans: Home Office rethink could drive magic mushrooms underground
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/le...sp?story=543758
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| No fun for fungus fans: Home Office rethink could drive magic mushrooms underground By Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent 23 July 2004 Timothy Leary, the intellectual cheerleader of chemical transcendence, said that when he ate magic mushrooms in Mexico in 1960 he learnt more in four hours than in all his years as a psychologist. Forty-four years later, seekers of knowledge need only take a stroll along one of London's famous high streets and visit one of the many "shroom shops" to test his theory. Furthermore, they can do it without breaking the law. To prove the point, many of the shop owners display copies of a letter written by a Home Office official which makes it clear that there is nothing illegal in the trade of freshly picked magic mushrooms. But their legal sale appears to be about to end after ministers moved to tighten the loophole. Under the current law the psilocybe mushroom, or magic mushroom is not a controlled substance but the hallucinogen, psilocin, that it contains, is classified as Class A drug. Provided the gatherer does not commercially "prepare" the mushroom - by freezing them, drying them or using them to make tea - before selling them they are not committing a criminal offence. But the shift in policy signals a new zero-tolerance, meaning the sale of unprepared mushrooms could now be illegal. The Home Office minister, Caroline Flint, has told shop owners that if they are selling magic mushrooms they are probably breaking the law. Anti-drug groups have long warned that this legal loophole encourages young people to experiment with an hallucinogenic substance that can lead to nightmarish trips, stomach pains, sickness and, in some case, psychiatric problems. In a letter to the Labour MP Paul Flynn, the minister advises: "In the Home Office's view, a form of preparation and production has occurred by the sale of magic mushrooms in market places and shops or at other premises or at other sale points. Accordingly, those selling, or seeking to sell, the mushrooms at such premises are unlawfully supplying a product containing psilocin and/ or psilocybin." She adds: "My officials are in contact with the enforcement agencies about how the law can be more effectively enforced." Her words have been backed up by action. On 7 July police raided three "shroom shops" in Birmingham and one in Guildford, Surrey. Other cases are already being prepared for court. In Canterbury, Kent, two defendants are facing the first ever Crown Court trial for intent to supply psilocin. Celia Strange, the solicitor representing the defendants in the Canterbury case, detects a hardening of policy. "It seems that it depends which police force you are dealing with. Some of the arrests have led to no further action even after the police have sent the mushrooms off for forensic tests. Others, however, appear to be going further." The Home Office letter displayed by owners of "shroom shops", which was sent by the drug licensing section, spells out the long-accepted liberal position. It says: "The courts have held that a person is not in possession of a controlled drug solely by reason of him being in possession of a naturally occurring substance - the mushroom ... It is not illegal to sell or give away a freshly picked mushroom provided it has not been prepared in any way." The magic mushroom industry understandably interpreted that as a green light to step-up trading. Advertising hoardings have sprung up across the capital promising a 24-hour door-to-door delivery service. There are now estimated to be between 200 to 300 shops selling mushrooms and many other businesses trading online. Some of the mushrooms are home-grown but the bulk of the produce is imported from Holland. The BBC Radio 4 programme, Law in Action, has reported that Customs and Excise makes hundreds of thousands profit in duty and VAT payable on the import and sale of the magic mushroom. The new shift in policy has led magic mushroom shop owners to detect a whiff of government hypocrisy. "How can one arm of government be criminalising the trade of mushroom and another be making thousands of pounds in revenues?" asked one shroom shop owner yesterday. Paul Flynn describes the legal position as irrational: "As far as I understand, it's legal to graze for mushrooms and go down on your hands and knees and eat them. But the key to the letter seems to be that the hand of man must not be involved. So does that mean it would be OK for chimpanzees or women and children to collect them?" A HALLUCINOGENIC HISTORY A group of mushroom statues found in Guatemala and thought to date as far back as 500BC has been interpreted as evidence that ancient people once worshipped the mushroom. The first documented hallucinogenic mushroom experience in Britain took place in Green Park in London on 3 October 1799. A man identified only as "JS" picked and ate a magic mushroom for his breakfast. It was reported that he found odd flashes of colour bursting across his vision. But it wasn't until the 1960s that Western cultures began to use mushrooms recreationally as an alternative to LSD. The banker and amateur mycologist R Gordon Wasson journeyed around Mexico and South America in a quest for magic mushrooms and spent a "wondrous" evening after ingesting them in a shamanic ritual. He was later disgusted by the popularity and misuse of his "discovery". |
wewll considering there is a guy that will deliver them to yopur door anytime of the week and they arnt going to be grown in my garden I do see where they are coming from. And you say mushrooms driven underground its not as if you can buy the magic variety with some portabela
rediculous 
good, stuffs lethal 
More mainstream media mushroom news, tonight on Channel 4 news at seven!
I was going to post a link to the article on the Channel 4 News website, but they don�t seem to have put it up there. Not much new reported to be honest. Just generic shots of shops selling them in Camden, sellers moaning, anti-drug campaigners moaning and the like.
In wasn�t nearly as revealing as the email they send out a few hours before the show, where Jon Snow admitted to �accidentally� taking acid. lmao. 
Pah! I knew some do-gooder mother****** would attempt to ban em. After all they are getting insanly popular. Not to worry theres loads of them grow in the wild, usually in areas where the land has been built around (old country roads leading to woods, pasture lands & even gardens). Psilocybe semilanceata anyone?
Ste: The area where you flat is should be a perfect area to pick come fall. Especially that up that hill from the view at your door.
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| Originally posted by decode Pah! I knew some do-gooder mother****** would attempt to ban em. After all they are getting insanly popular. Not to worry theres loads of them grow in the wild, usually in areas where the land has been built around (old country roads leading to woods, pasture lands & even gardens). Psilocybe semilanceata anyone? Ste: The area where you flat is should be a perfect area to pick come fall. Especially that up that hill from the view at your door. |
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| Originally posted by Ste yeh i thought about that, there tonnes of sheep shit and its very moist, there will be a bumper harvest of liberty caps come october time we should go on a mission |
Thats a fine idea. A mission it is 
just an update:
now illegal as of monday gone 
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| Originally posted by Ste just an update: now illegal as of monday gone |
sesame street 
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| Originally posted by Cru54d3r though who needs mushrooms with "bbc2" !! |
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| Originally posted by Ste sesame street |
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| Originally posted by Cru54d3r you got some episodes on dvd somewhere? lol |
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| Originally posted by Ste i wish, i could do with 10 episodes or so right now |
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Magic mushrooms ban becomes law How UK's love of mushrooms grew A law banning magic mushrooms and making them a class A drug has come into force. The Drugs Act 2005 ends the situation in which fresh magic mushrooms were legal but those which were dried or prepared for use were not. Sellers have condemned the move, saying mushrooms are not harmful and accusing ministers of a knee-jerk reaction. But the Home Office said the drug was harmful to some users and added the move clarified the existing law. Home Office Minister Paul Goggins said in a statement: "Magic mushrooms are a powerful hallucinogen and can cause real harm, especially to vulnerable people and those with mental health problems. Psychedelic qualities "The law has not been clear with regard to the status of fresh magic mushrooms and some have tried to exploit this apparent loophole." Magic mushrooms, more properly known as psilocybe, contain the psychedelic chemicals psilocybin and psilocin. These chemicals were already class A but previously the law did not apply to fresh or raw magic mushrooms which contain far less of the drug gram-for-gram than when dried. Fresh magic mushrooms had been legal to sell Under Clause 21 of the Drugs Act 2005, it is now an offence to import, export, produce, supply, possess or possess with intent to supply magic mushrooms, including in the form of grow kits. Exceptions will be made for people who unknowingly pick the mushrooms in the wild or find them growing in their garden, and critics have argued the act will be difficult to police. Magic mushrooms have risen in popularity dramatically in recent years, especially since becoming openly available over the internet or at about 400 "headshops" around the country. According to Home Office figures, use of the fungi has risen 40% in a year, with more than quarter of a million people estimated to have taken them in 2003/04, compared with 180,000 in 2002/03. However, they still represent a tiny proportion of all drug use. Although some psilocybe mushrooms do grow in the wild, the vast majority of mushrooms sold on the open market come from mushroom farms in Holland. Users of fresh mushrooms experience effects ranging from giggling fits and intensification of colours, lights and sounds to, more rarely, hallucinations. Negative effects can include vomiting, and anxiety. 'Patronising' Critics of the ban say that the mushrooms are harmless to physical health and would only be bad for people with existing mental health problems. "Obviously I would not suggest someone with schizophrenia took magic mushrooms but nor should they probably take alcohol," said Chris Bovey, owner of online retailer Potseeds, based in Totnes, Devon. "Our customers feel patronised by the government, victimising them for doing something harmless and enjoyable in their own homes, just because they need to sound tough on drugs." To see magic mushrooms alongside crack cocaine and heroin doesn't seem proportionate Petra Maxwell Drugscope Others fear that the ban could mean an increase in accidental poisonings as people go foraging for mushrooms in the wild and mistakenly pick a toxic variety. Mushroom retailers have formed the Entheogen Defence Fund and plan to launch a legal challenge to the change in the law, saying it contravenes European trade rules and the 1971 Vienna convention. Mike Bashall, chairman of the EDF said: "We would have welcomed regulation because through regulation you do get control - as with alcohol. 'Seven years' jail' "This is a badly-drafted piece of legislation that was pushed through the House of Lords without proper scrutiny or discussion." A spokeswoman for drugs information body Drugscope said the government did need to clarify the law on magic mushrooms but should not have made them class A. "To see magic mushrooms alongside crack cocaine and heroin doesn't seem proportionate," said Petra Maxwell. "Now that they're class A if people are found in possession the ultimate, if unlikely, sanction is seven years in prison and a fine." The law change does not affect another, much more rarely used magic mushroom: Amanita muscaria - more commonly known as Fly Agaric. |
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