Magic Mushroom Ban a fact in UK!

[Alfa]

Magic mushroom case judge tells prosecutor: chill out

Mark Honigsbaum
Wednesday December 15, 2004
The Guardian

The law on the distribution and sale of magic mushrooms was thrown into disarray yesterday after a court decision to stay the prosecution of two men accused of illegally selling the hallucinogenic fungi at a record shop in Gloucester.

Arguing that Home Office advice to importers and distributors was "fudged", the crown court recorder Claire Miskin told Dennis Mardle and Colin Evans that the law was so ambiguous that to put them on trial amounted to an "abuse of process". She recommended that parliament consider new legislation to clarify the legal position.


It is the first time the issue of magic mushrooms has reached the crown court, though potential court actions are pending in Birmingham and Canterbury.

Mr Mardle, 52, and Mr Evans, 57, both from Gloucester, began selling magic mushrooms after reading an article in the Guardian last November which cited Home Office advice that while psilocin and psilocybin, the psychoactive constituents of the mushrooms, were illegal, it was "not illegal to sell or give away a freshly picked mushroom".

But earlier this year the Home Office wrote to mushroom importers saying that hallucinogenic mushrooms might constitute a "product" under the Misuse of Drugs Act if they had been "cultivated, transported to the marketplace, packaged, weighed and labelled".

Although the courts had previously ruled that it was legal to possess magic mushrooms except where they had been "altered by the hand of man", the Home Office also advised that merely chilling the mushrooms might constitute alteration.

It was on this basis that Gloucester police raided Mr Mardle's and Mr Evans's shop, Collectors Choice, in March, seizing four bags of mushrooms and one punnet from a fridge and six further punnets stored in a cool bag behind the counter.

The local prosecutor, Phillip Warren, told the court that while the law prohibited the freezing of the mushrooms, the legality of cooling or storing them in a fridge had never been tested and the case should go to trial in order to clarify the situation.

However, after hearing from experts that chilling did not alter the chemical makeup of the mushrooms, Ms Miskin ruled that to bring the case to trial would be a breach of the men's rights.


The case turned on the ambiguity of a Home Office advice letter
Two men accused of selling chilled magic mushrooms from their shop have been told the current law is too "fudged" to put them on trial.

Colin Evans, 57, of Kingston Road, Slimbridge, and Dennis Mardle, 52, of Southgate Street, Gloucester, were arrested in March.

Recorder Claire Miskin said: "I take the view that the Home Office circular is fudged."
She said to put them on trial amounted to a breach of their human rights.

The two men were arrested on suspicion of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply from Collector's Choice record shop in Southgate Street in Gloucester.

Selling fresh hallucinogenic mushrooms is not illegal. They can be sold in an 'as-picked state'.

Chemical make-up

Prosecuting, Phillip Warren told Recorder Miskin that it was because the defendants were found with mushrooms chilling in a fridge that they were facing trial for selling 'prepared' - and therefore illegal - mushrooms.

This is a case where Parliament has left a gap and that gap ought really to be filled by Parliament and not by the decision of the courts Recorder Claire Miskin

The legality of cooling, or storing the fungi in a fridge has not been tested.
A Home Office circular tells potential vendors: "In the light of earlier cases it would be for the courts to determine whether chilling mushrooms in a fridge would constitute altering them in any way."

Susan Evans, defending, said the case turned on the ambiguity of the Home Office letter, adding that experts agree chilling the mushrooms "in no way altered the chemical make-up of the mushrooms".

Recorder Miskin said: "I decide that this is a case where Parliament has left a gap and it seems to me that that gap ought really to be filled by Parliament and not by the decision of the courts."

[djryand]

Haha awesome! Wish the land of the "free" had some cool judges like that. What's a punnet?

[Alfa]

A bag of mushrooms.

[Micklemouse]

A punnet is a deep tray or shallow basket, usually
containing mushrooms, strawberries or other fruits or
flowers.

And yeah, there are times when having a legal system
based on statute and precedent rather than dictate
works rather well! Gotta love it!Edited by: micklemouse

[Alfa]

From the website of the defence solicitors:


On 13th and 14th December 2004 at Gloucester Crown Court Recorder Miskin heard the abuse of process arguments put forward by the defence and the counter arguments of the prosecution, and made an important ruling.


The case was listed for the trial of the two defendants who were charged with intent to supply a Class A drug, namely psilocin. Before the trial was to begin, the Court heard legal arguments, and then the Court ruled that the defendants should be discharged as the proceedings in themselves were an abuse of the process of the Court. There was therefore no trial of the main issue in the case, namely whether chilled or refrigerated magic mushrooms were either a preparation or a product containing a Class A drug.
Recorder Miskin indicated that in her view it was up to Parliament to legislate on this issue, and not the courts who should be asked to clarify matters.She was persuaded by many of the defence points in the abuse argument that it was not fair to try these two defendants.
We are awaiting the full transcript of the ruling, and do not wish to mis-quote, and so will include more details when the transcript has been received.

[Alfa]

Shit! Read this:


Full Home Office press release..

393/2004 17 December 2004 020 7273 2072


BREAKING THE LINK BETWEEN DRUGS AND CRIME:
HOME OFFICE PUBLISHES DRUGS BILL

Proposals for a tough package of anti-drugs measures, including new powers for police to order ultrasounds or x-rays of dealers who swallow their drugs to conceal the evidence, were set out today as the Home Office published the Drugs Bill.

At the heart of new legislation are measures aimed at building on existing work to break the link between drug addiction and crime by getting more drug users into treatment at an early stage and taking tougher action against dealers.

Proposals in the Bill include:

· giving police powers to test for class A drugs on arrest and require those who test positive to attend an assessment and follow-up appointment;
· making dealing near a school, or using children as couriers for drugs or drug-related money an aggravating factor in sentencing;
· introducing a new presumption that those caught with more drugs than reasonable for personal use intend to supply, which carries tougher penalties;
· tougher powers to deal with dealers who swallow their drugs or hide them in body cavities – the police would be able to order a drug or ultrasound and magistrates would be able to remand suspected swallowers in custody for up to eight days;
· dealing with the open selling of magic mushrooms by clarifying in law that fresh mushrooms, as well as prepared ones, are illegal; and
· a new drug intervention order to run alongside anti-social behaviour orders to address drug misuse by people committing anti-social acts.

Home Office Minister, Caroline Flint, said:

“The damage caused to individuals, families and society by drugs is enormous. Drug misuse can ruin individual lives, tear open families and blight whole communities with the menace of dealers and crime driven by drug abuse.





“The Government is determined to tackle this by putting more drug dealers – people who profit in the misery of others – behind bars and getting more addicts into treatment. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill already contains powers for Community Support Officers to search suspects for drugs. The Drugs Bill will introduce further powers for police to drug test suspected addicts on arrest so our Drug Intervention Programme can get more people off drugs and away from crime. And dealers will face harsher sentences where they prey on children or attempt to escape justice by swallowing the evidence.

“Measures in the Drugs Bill will help us break the vicious circle of drugs and crime, to create a safer, more secure society. The Government has already invested unprecedented resources to tackle the harm of drugs. And we have made some great strides – we have 54 per cent more users in treatment compared to 1998 and have taken 37,000 kilos of cocaine and heroin off the streets, and busted 330 gangs dealing in class A drugs between April 2002 and December 2003. In the areas where the Drug Interventions Programme is in place crime is falling faster than in other areas. But of course there is more to be done.

“Underpinning everything is continued work to stem the flow of drugs to this country and tackle the organised crime networks responsible – powers in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill currently going through Parliament will build on this. Drugs are a scourge on the world, and enforcement agencies here in the UK are working closely with their counterparts abroad – in Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans - to pursue organised criminals, disrupt their shipments, bring them to justice, and ultimately make our communities safer.”

Notes to Editors:
1. The Drugs Bill was introduced to the House on 16 December 2004 and published today (17 December 2004).

2. The Drugs Bill and Explanatory Notes are available online at www.parliament.uk, or from the Home Office press office on 020 7273 4545.

3. The Home Office published a progress paper on drugs, ‘Tackling Drugs – Changing Lives: Keeping Communities safe from Drugs’ on 24 November 2004 (Home Office press notice 370/2004).

[Alfa]

Magic mushrooms face ban

THE government today announced it was making raw magic mushrooms an illegal drug in the UK for the first time.

Currently it is legal to pick and eat the fungi but not to prepare them, by drying them out or brewing them as a drink.

This concentrates the hallucinogenic agent in the mushrooms and therefore renders them illegal. The move in today’s Drugs Bill published by new Home Secretary Charles Clarke will affect Scotland, officials confirmed.

It follows growing concern over shops and small businesses farming, harvesting and selling the mushrooms as a small-scale commercial operation.

[Micklemouse]

And shit again! It's only a Bill and not law yet, but with christmas coming up My Little Tony and the boys get a chance to push whatever the fuck they like through Parliament, so watch this space... Oh, shit!

[Alfa]

This file needs to get some media attention:


2004-12-02_004925_On_the_legality_of_Magic_Mushrooms_21-9-20 04.pdf


Especially the new research study on psilocibin that's in there. To anyone in the UK: send this to the media, your local mp or anywhere else you feel would do good, before it's to late and magic mushrooms will become illegal in the UK. As the file says, feel free to place it on any website you´d like.Edited by: Alfa

[Alfa]

Crackdown looms for magic mushrooms

Fresh magic mushrooms are currently legal to sell

In recent months there has been an explosion in the availability of magic mushrooms available for sale in Britain.

The hallucinogens have been appearing in ever greater numbers in High Streets and market stalls across the country, after it became known that their sale was legal if they were fresh.
Now the Home Office has moved to close what it sees as a loophole that has allowed huge quantities of a Class A drug to be openly sold on city streets.
Until now only the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocin, had been banned.
There's a huge market out there and this will just drive it underground Chris Territt, Director, The Psyche Deli

Drug dealers face X-ray
That had been interpreted to mean that "prepared" mushrooms, such as those that had been dried or put in products such as tea, were Class A drugs while fresh magic mushrooms were perfectly legal.

But the Home Office's new Drugs Bill, published on Friday, includes a provision for all magic mushrooms to be considered Class A controlled drugs.
The law would be amended to include "fungus (of any kind) which contains Psilocin or an Ester of Psilocin".

Prison threat

It would mean anyone selling fresh mushrooms could face a life prison sentence. And it would bring to a halt a booming industry.
The Home Office estimates that there are now more than 400 stores or stalls selling fresh magic mushrooms in Britain, up from less than 20 only 18 months ago.
Independent research group DrugScope said some are well-organised distributors, while others were just opportunists set up on a roadside.
Chris Territt, one of the directors of The Psyche Deli, a company which distributes fresh magic mushrooms, said customers could be put in danger if reputable wholesalers and retailers - the type who would actually adhere to a change in the law - were forced to stop selling the product.

Availability at market stalls has exploded in recent months. "The people who are buying magic mushrooms these days are teachers, doctors, lawyers. There are 60-year-old customers who said they were scared to try it in the past because they thought it was illegal but now they know it's not.

"This is just yet another example of the government criminalising a section of the community who never considered themselves to be law-breakers.

"There's a huge market out there and this will just drive it underground and into the arms of shady operators," he said.

Self-regulation
DrugScope said most retailers had been self-regulating by refusing to sell magic mushrooms to under-18s, advising customers on safe doses and warning against mixing them with other drugs such as alcohol.
Mr Territt said: "Everyone who is currently selling magic mushrooms [in places like market stalls] has a stamp of legitimacy because distributors won't sell to them otherwise."

The hallucinogen psilocin is a Class A drug

He dismissed the Home Office's suggestion that the bill would give greater clarity on the legality of magic mushrooms.
"It's just one line. They haven't sought to bring about any debate on whether they think it should be illegal," he said, adding that he was pleased such a debate would be forced by the bill's passage through Parliament.
Such a debate, he said, should focus on whether magic mushrooms should be considered Class A drugs at all.
DrugScope's Petra Maxwell agreed. She said that while the hallucinogenic nature of the fungus posed a danger to people with pre-existing mental problems, they should not be treated the same as other Class A drugs such as heroin.

"You'd really have to weigh up whether it should be a priority for overstretched police forces."

[Alfa]

X-rays for dealers in Drugs Bill

Selling fresh mushrooms will be outlawed under the new measures

Suspected dealers who swallow drugs to hide them from police could face X-rays or ultrasounds to detect them, under measures unveiled on Friday.

The Home Office's new Drugs Bill would also bring tougher penalties for those caught dealing drugs near a school or using children as couriers.
The bill also includes a crackdown on the sale of fresh magic mushrooms.
Drugs Minister Caroline Flint said the measures would get "more people off drugs and away from crime".

'Suspected addicts'
Under the proposals, an X-ray or ultrasound could take place when a suspect gives written permission.

Dealers will face harsher sentences when they prey on children or attempt to escape justice by swallowing the evidence Caroline Flint, Drugs Minister

Mushroom sales 'boom'

However, if a suspect refused to undergo a scan it would count against them in court.

Ms Flint said: "The Drugs Bill will introduce further powers for police to drug-test suspected addicts on arrest so our drug intervention programme can get more people off drugs and away from crime.

"Dealers will face harsher sentences when they prey on children or attempt to escape justice by swallowing the evidence."

'Unsavoury and degrading'
In other measures included in the bill:
Those suspected of swallowing drugs would be allowed to be held in custody for eight days so the drugs can pass through their system Police will get powers to test suspects for some Class A drugs before they are charged with an offence
People caught with a greater amount of drugs than considered reasonable for personal use would be presumed to be dealers and face tougher sentences
A drug intervention order would be introduced to run alongside anti-social behaviour orders, if drug abuse had been a cause of the Asbo being applied

Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, said: "The proposal on X-rays is intrusive and coercive.
"We doubt the medical profession would want to be involved in such unsavoury and degrading practices."

But Dr Michael Wilks, chairman of the British Medical Association ethics committee, said he was satisfied by the provision that the procedure would only be performed after consent had been given.

He added that X-rays would not necessarily find all packages that had been swallowed.
The Home Office said X-rays were already used by Customs officers to identify smugglers.

'Unsuitable'
The law concerning magic mushrooms, a Class A drug, has not been updated for 30 years.
Recent months have seen a number of shops openly selling the drug as unprocessed mushrooms.

"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 some cases where magic mushrooms have been sold openly," the Home Office spokeswoman said.

Social care charities DrugScope and Turning Point say the bill focuses too heavily on forcing people into unsuitable treatment programmes.

Turning Point's chief executive Lord Adebowale said: "People are complex and you can't expect them to overcome dependency if they're still struggling to find a house or don't have the support they need to get back into work."

The Tories and Liberal Democrats said the bill contained "positive" measures, but said more needed to be done to target dealers and help users.

[noeticbuzz]

Life in prison for selling fuckin mushrooms, give me a fuckin break. Fuck the man, fuck him in his stupid fuckin ass!

[AdrenalineJunki]

Why cant the US be cool too

[tweakerfrommars]

adrenaline, did you read the rest of the articles? There's nothing cool about what UK is doing with mushrooms...

[bubaloo]

yeah, its not about that article. the more media coverage they get, the quicker they will get banned,

[thelizardking8945]

that is some bullshit. shrooms are one of the safest drugs ive come
across. thats odd how its legal to sell them in a freshly packed state,
but not when they were chilled. what would chilling them do?

[bubaloo]

there is a shop near where i live that sells them out of a fridge and have been for a couple of years, so i think they are allowed to be sold chilled. Its just when they have been or are being prepared to dry that they are illegal, which im just fine with. Hehe.

[Alfa]

No, that's about to change.

[gambit]

Pleased to see Lords Mancroft and Cobbold spoke out against the banning of mushrooms on Modayupon the second reading of the drugs bill.

[Iggypoop]

Really? i wonder if the house of lords like to partake in the mushroom sacriment? lol now that would be funny!! You can just imagine them in their wigs 'wiggin' out!! . Nah but seriously tho, if the house of lords doesn't want a bill to be passed they can stop it can't they? Well unless its about fox hunting....


If they did stop the mushroom ban, i for one would have a lot more respect for the lords!

[Alfa]

The drugs bill has passed. Now only the queen has to sign to fucker and just as with cocaine, heroin, it will be 7 years in jail for possesion of Magic Mushrooms, while the EU has investigated them to be not harmfull. Stupid motherfuckers! This will probably happen in two weeks. I'd say: stock up asap!

[Iggypoop]

Shit, didn't realise it had been passed already, i'm going to go out and get myself a couple of kits!! thanks alfa.

[glomp]

all these laws are so ridiculously ambivalent about the topic, it's legal but at the same time it's not...

[freakybass]

Now the dream is finish

[Alfa]

The home office says it will take a couple of weeks - monthsbefore it comes in effect.