Pubdate: Sat, 25 Jun 2005
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author:  Mark Honigsbaum

LAST ORDERS FOR MAGIC MUSHROOM ENTHUSIASTS

Last Orders For Magic Mushroom Enthusiasts

Bad news for psychedelic fungi fans. There are just 24 more shopping days 
before magic mushrooms are declared illegal - and that's official.

Ignoring pleas from mushroom retailers and consumers, the government 
yesterday announced that clause 21 of the Drugs Act 2005, reclassifying 
psilocybe mushrooms as a class A drug alongside heroin and crack cocaine, 
will come into force on July 18.

 From that date, importation, possession or sale of magic mushrooms will be 
punishable by a life sentence, effectively outlawing sales via market 
stalls, head shops and the internet.

Laying the statutory instrument before parliament, the Home Office said the 
only exception would be for wild mushrooms, growing on uncultivated land.

Landowners who are unaware they have a controlled substance, or who pick 
the mushrooms with the intention of delivering them to the police, will 
also be exempted.

Transform, the drug policy group which has been a vocal critic of clause 
21, immediately condemned the Home Office's decision, saying the exemptions 
did little to clarify what it considered flawed legislation.

"How is someone supposed to know what is uncultivated?" asked Transform's 
director, Danny Kushnick. "This has nothing to do with clarifying the law 
or goods drugs policy. It's simply about shutting down vendors who have 
been selling mushrooms."

The Entheogen Defence Fund, a group set up to protect the interests of 
mushroom retailers and consumers, said the announcement would make no 
difference to its campaign to have clause 21 overturned through judicial 
review.

Declaring criminalisation of magic mushrooms a retrograde step, it 
predicted the reclassification would simply encourage more youngsters to 
try ecstasy, LSD, heroin and cocaine.

"The sale of 100,000 kilos of magic mushrooms per annum has had a big 
impact on the reduction of the illegal use of soft and hard drugs," said 
EDF's chairman, Mike Bashall. "Expect more crime and more deaths related to 
illegal drugs."

Backed by Dutch wholesalers, for whom the UK has become a lucrative export 
market for psychedelic fungi, the EDF has raised UKP10,000 to challenge the 
British legislation. It points out that in the Netherlands the sale of 
magic mushrooms is legal and says that clause 21 could be in breach of 
European Union law making it illegal to place restrictions on free trade 
except in specific circumstances, such as for the protection of health and 
life.

Caroline Flint, the Home Office minister, who spearheaded the legislation 
through parliament shortly before the general election, said mushrooms 
could trigger psychosis and there was evidence users could be at risk of 
self-harm.

However, a Dutch study found no evidence to link magic mushrooms with 
psychosis and said that mushrooms did not lower users' violence threshold.

Since consumption usually took place at home or in the open air, "there is 
no inconvenience to other people," it concluded.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom