Other - Magic Mushrooms are Forced Underground by Tough New Penalties (UK)

[Alfa]

Magic mushrooms are forced underground by tough new penalties
By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent
18 December 2004

Magic mushrooms are to be outlawed, with tough penalties for supplying or possessing the hallucinogenic fungi, under laws proposed by the Home Office yesterday.

Drug dealers who swallow their supplies, such as cocaine and heroin, to conceal them from police could also undergo X-rays or ultrasound scans, under the planned measures.

The Home Office published the proposals in its new Drugs Bill, which will clarify the law so that freshly picked magic mushrooms are illegal.

All forms of magic mushrooms will be treated as a class A drug, similar to heroin and cocaine, with maximum jail terms of life imprisonment for supplying, importing and exporting. Possessing them would carry a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

The move comes after a judge refused to allow the prosecution of two men caught selling bags of magic mushrooms from their shop. Recorder Claire Miskin threw out a case against Dennis Mardle and Colin Evans, at Gloucester Crown Court earlier this month, saying that the law was too ambiguous and needed to change.

Confusion in the law surrounds whether magic mushrooms constitute an illegal substance. While a fresh magic mushroom is legal, the hallucinogenic chemicals psilocin and an ester of psilocin contained in the fungi are illegal and treated as a class A drug. However, there are differing interpretations of whether dried mushrooms are against the law.

The Bill proposes amending the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act to cover "fungus (of any kind) which contains psilocin or an ester of psilocin". A Home Office spokeswoman said: "There is a need to clarify the law so that it's completely clear that fresh magic mushrooms as well as dried are illegal, to clamp down on cases where magic mushrooms have been sold openly."

With magic mushrooms now being freely sold and advertised in markets stalls and speciality shops around the country, it is estimated a clampdown on the open sale of magic mushrooms would cause up to £1m in lost trade.

The Bill will also set up a presumption that people caught with more drugs than reasonable for personal use are dealers and so will face tougher sentences. There were expectations that police might be given the power to force suspected drug dealers to undergo x-rays.

Ministers have previously hinted that they would like to see this power introduced. But the Bill stopped short of the proposal. Instead, for X-rays or ultrasounds to take place, a suspect must give consent in writing.

But if a suspect refuses to have a scan, it will count against them in court. Magistrates would be given powers already available to Customs officers to remand suspected swallowers of drug packages in police custody for up to 192 hours.

[djryand]

Such rapidly fleeting common sense. Well hope it was fun for you guys while it lasted Get your grow kits while you can

[Bodhisattva500]

This is referring to thembeing outlawed in the netherlands?

[djryand]

Correct me if I'm wrong Alfa, but I'm pretty sure it's the UK this article is speaking of.

[Alfa]

Yes, it is.


You can expect mushroom retailers to turn to amanita mushrooms now. They are legal, buthave much more side effects and toxicity. This decision will have a direct negative effect on public health.


Someone please endite the crown and others for psilocybe mushroom possession as a class A drug now grows in the wild on the land of the crown. Are the liberty caps still there in the UK?

[djryand]

I want to know who the hell ever gave anyone the right to ban anything growing in nature; fungi, plant or otherwise? I feel it is one of man's greatest sins.

[D.U.M.B]

Hey,
Liberty Caps are the main wild found shroom in ireland and great britain. I know in Ireland that you don't get done for fresh shrooms because they are grown in the wild and are a vegetable.

Everyone in the uk should complain about this new law

[pjbth]

Well i guess people in the UK will have to get them the same way everyone else does.



Mush are quite easy to find in the UK are they not? Hopefully this wont cause too many problems for you guys.

[ramjet]

Terrible news. Looks like my brief spell of experimentation with
entheogens is at an end (acid is like gold dust here in Britain,
virtually impossible to come accross). I was hoping the government
would just let this loophole slip.



When do these laws take effect?

[Alfa]

Probably before Glastenbury. BTW: there never was a loophole. Fresh mushrooms where simply legal under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

[Sick Jack]

That's how a government gives to the people the illusion that he is doing something useful for the community....

[Sklander]

Has anyone read "Food of the Gods" by Terrance McKenna? Society is condemning the very thing that gave us self reflection...

[GoldenStudent]

I sure have read "Food of the Gods".



Terrence was a very brilliant guy. Anytime you want to chat about
anything related to what he had to say, which is pretty broad, I'm up
for it.



There's a cool website that archives hours upon hours of his lectures
and guest appearances; I'll look for the site again. If you're
interested.



A conclusion I've come to is that the current state of plants as
illegal in the world is totally random; out of all the total
possibilities in the world concerning society and law, the
criminalization of these foods, etc. is an accident of history; it's
indefensible by means of logic/rationale.



If you talk to people from countries without strong biases against the
plants, or just people with broad historical/social perspective, you
will surely see that these substances aren't threatening; to the
non-schizo mind, they're nothing to raise an eyebrow at.



However, we find ourselves in a pretty strange fix .
These plants are valuable tools and allies in the human struggle;
history may prove them to be more valuable than even chemicals such as
penicillin or cacao for example. If you're from this school of
thought, then you're part of the heroic underground struggle to keep
them alive.

[fugazi32]

Thanks New Labour!!!


Tony Blair; you cunt!