Heroin fear after mushroom ban

Skyline_GTR

Skyline_GTR

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Aug 28, 2002
Messages
4,326
Location
UK
Scotsman
20 August 2005

Link

Heroin fear after ban on mushrooms

JOANNA VALLELY

THE ban on magic mushrooms will increase hard drugs use, the head of a leading city drug agency warned today.

Magic mushrooms were until recently sold legally from many shops in the Capital.

But the Drugs Act 2005 reclassified magic mushrooms as a class A drug and their sale became illegal on July 18.

And now the head of drug agency Crew 2000, which provides advice on drugs and sexual health to thousands of people across the Capital, has condemned the ban as "bonkers", saying it will lead to users turning to hard drugs instead.

He believes people will want to experience the same highs they were able to get through magic mushrooms but will now be forced to buy illegal drugs from dealers.

Anyone caught buying, selling or possessing magic mushrooms could face jail after the Government put them into the same class as heroin and cocaine.

Supporters claim that psycolin-containing fungi are harmless and have warned that drug dealers will now benefit as users turn to them for supplies rather than to previously legitimate traders.

John Arthur, manager of Crew 2000, said that the legislation was ill thought out.

He said: "This is clearly bonkers and out of touch with reality."

Mr Arthur, whose organisation has helped more than 12,000 people in the last year, said he had done extensive work with young drug users on the streets and found that mushrooms were not fatal nor did they cause significant public order offences.

He said: "Users will go on to harder drugs now. They'll go to drug dealers to get them, but they won't sell mushrooms because they have little retail value and are more interested in selling lucrative drugs like LSD."

Mr Arthur argued that if people were forced to go and pick mushrooms themselves in the wild this could increase the danger of picking poisonous types.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Drugs Forum, a national drugs policy and information charity, agreed that removing mushrooms from public sale may be a "gateway to harder drugs".

The Pipe Shop on Leith Walk was one of a handful of shops in the Capital which sold magic mushrooms prior to the ban.

The shop has started selling wristbands saying "save our mushrooms" to raise money to fund a judicial review to get the ban overturned.

Pipe Shop owner Alan Myerthall said: "They are trying to make mushrooms out to be like crack, but people have been using them since biblical times."
 
^^^

Teen who wants to try shrooms (TWWTTS) finds a dealer.

TWWTTS: "Hey, ummm I heard something about mushrooms that they were fund and stuff and would like some..."

Dealer: "Yeah they are fun. Just give me £10 and you can have some."

TWWTTS: "Thankyou."

Dealer: "No problem. Here, have some heroin to go with that. If you need more just come to me."

TWWTTS: "Wow, thanks!"
 
I think it's more likely that the educated mushy user will turn to the more extravagent psychadelics in order to achieve their high. LSD isn't exactly common in the UK but I'm sure it's popularity will grow, besides, there's plenty more illegal psychadelics one can use to find a similar experience. I'm more worried about first-timers going mushy-picking and dropping dead.
 
Limpet Chicken said:
^^I only wish.
Click to expand...
Hehe, me too ;). But the fact remains that criminalizing mushrooms forces users to buy them from dealers who most likely have other and harder drugs than mushrooms.
 
i'm:

a) like tamb-man, worried about first-timers getting deadinated from various toadstools

b) concerned that party kids - remember, young'uns were doing shrooms as well - will happen upon some 5meo or DMT and be completely unprepared

c) pissed off that the stupid brainless bitch caroline flint MP has yet to respond to my follow up letter regarding this ludicrous ban
 
The only real danger from shrooms is picking the wrong ones and poisoning yourself. Legalised shrooms negate this very real (if minimisable) risk since they are all farmed artificially.
 
I had no luck getting a response from that bag of shit caroline flint either. New labour to her core.
 
Well we don't have P.cubensis here, we have Psilocybe Semilanceata, which can be mistaken for a couple of Panaeolus species, but nothing containing amatoxins, although I GUESS some REAL morons might mistake them for tiny Inocybes.

The ones we have to worry about are P.Crobula, a non-distinct small brown mushroom, and the worst (and best hehe), P.Cyanescens, very potent, but can be mistaken for Galerina species, which do contain enough amatoxin-a to kill a would-be shroomer.

I have some Galerinas, in my Cyanescens patch, and spend much of winter weeding them out, the little bastards, but I can tell the two apart no problem, then again, I have been hunting for fungi since 3-4-5yo, and a new hunter, might well run into nastiness.
 
Supporters claim that [/b]psycolin[/b]-containing fungi are harmless and have warned that drug dealers will now benefit as users turn to them for supplies rather than to previously legitimate traders.


What the fuck is psycolin? ;)
 
He believes people will want to experience the same highs they were able to get through magic mushrooms but will now be forced to buy illegal drugs from dealers.


well no shit.. even if they bought the same magic mushrooms it would now be an illegal drug

it's great to see someone calling for legalization, but this guy is taking it a bit too far lol.. he obviously doesn't understand people who want to take shrooms might not like other drugs, and vice versa. If shrooms were legal and they banned alcohol it's not like all of the sudden everyone would be shrooming haha
 
While there are certainly people who enjoy doing drugs simply to get high, and there are certainly people who will just take whatever drug is available... but the "drug scene" is generally broken down into sub-scenes. People who prefer psychedelics such as mushrooms are generally not interested in heroin and aren't usually inclined to try heroin or other hard drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine - regardless of whether or not they can obtain mushrooms.

Moreso... drugs like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine are already illegal. People use them. If mushrooms are illegal, why won't people who use them just seek out illicit sources for them or other psychedelic drugs?

You can also look at it this way... did the use of hard drugs dramatically decline while mushrooms were being sold legally? No. The legal status of drugs doesn't deter users. It just turns a large number of otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals when the use of recreational drugs is outlawed.

I'm sorry, but fearing that a significant percentage of mushroom users will turn to hard drugs if they no longer have easy and legal access to mushrooms is ridiculous.
 
Prior to the ban, LSD was a fairly rare commodity... you could get it, but it was few and far between. One look at EDD these days, and the availability of LSD would appear to have increased.

I know that's anecdotal evidence at best, but from a drug scheduling perspective, the ban has only really led to dedicated shroomers either growing their own or otherwise using stronger psychadelics.

Ah well, Tony got to look 'tough on drugs' for fifteen minutes.
 
I can easily beleive that people who would previously take shrooms might migrate to something else like pills (MDMA). Yeah, you can buy shrooms illegally but the market is nowhere near as established as pills.
 
If that would increase LSD popularity as they say it would, then hurray.
Mushrooms are so easy to grow yourself or order over the internet. LSD isn't :o
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top