Free Magic Mushrooms—In a Garden Near YOU!

[ArthurASCII]

A couple of unrelated sources have told me the same story recently....

Apparantly, the bags of bark chippings that one sprinkles on ones garden to restrict weed growth etc, are contaminated with magic mushroom spores. These spores will soon begin to grow, so keep an eye on any local gardens that incorporate said chippings and prepare for a bumper harvest of free mind expanding fungi.

Has anyone else heard this rumour?

 

[eyepod]

Fairly old news, but definitely not an urban legend. They're not as all over the place as your sources may think, though. I've never spotted any.

Magic mushrooms thrive as weeds wane

Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Guardian
Wednesday January 3, 2001


Hippies would have thought they were hallucinating. The horses would have failed a dope test. Geoffrey Kibb was amazed but stone cold sober and knew a scientific phenomenon when he saw one.

Mr Kibb discovered the holy grail of the 1960s hippie culture, the most potent magic mushrooms known to science, growing in a vast carpet on a racetrack in the south of England. He estimated there were 100,000 of them, enough to blow the mind of an entire town.

He reported his findings to fellow researcher Peter Shaw, an expert in fungi. To him the field of wavy-capped magic mushroom (Psilocybe cyanes-cens) was confirmation of an astonishing colonisation of Britain by exotic species of mushroom - an invasion innocently caused by gardeners anxious to keep weeds at bay.

Dr Shaw says that by spreading wood chips over the ground gardeners create the perfect habitat for fungi of all sorts. The wavy-capped magic mushroom, "a particularly aggressive species" and a native of the Pacific north-west of America, is now firmly established in gardens, parks and any other place where wood chips are used for weed control.

About 10 species of mushroom are eaten for their hallucinogenic qualities. Psilocybe cyanescens is identified by its wavy cap, purple brown spore print and rapid blueing of stem and cap on bruising, although there are poisonous species of similar appearance.

The blueing reflects the high psilocin/psilocybin content of the fungus (which as any old hippie will tell you is the bit that makes you fly). Dr Shaw is presenting his findings today at the British Ecological Society meeting in Birmingham where he is inviting amateur mycologists to hunt down other rare species.

On his way to work at the University of Surrey Dr Shaw passes a roundabout in Leatherhead. "The roundabout was mulched in 1999 and in May 2000 a flush of creamy-yellow fungi came up."

They turned out to be four different exotic varieties growing in the wood chips - one of which, Agrocybe putaminium, had only been recorded once before in Britain, at Kew gardens. "The wood chips were bought from a commercial supplier in Essex, but how they acquired their strange fungal flora is still unclear."

The bad news for magic mushroom hunters - deliberate growing of magic mushrooms for use is illegal but mere possession is not - is that this is not the time of year for fruiting.

But out of sight the roots from which they grow are spreading rapidly. Dr Shaw's theory is that suppliers keep vast heaps of wood chips in nurseries, allowing aggressive fungi to colonise..

Wood chips and bark chips make a better habitat than the original decaying wood on which the fungi grow. This is because the root structure does not have to force its way through a hard surface but glides between the chips.

Because of his Leatherhead experience and other discoveries Dr Shaw says there are bound to be exotic species not thought to exist in Britain growing happily in gardens, and some have already transferred to the wild - the magic mushroom has been been found growing on trees in Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Artic ... 82,00.html

 

[Anonymous]

Not quite, "Let a thousand flowers bloom!" :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

deliberate growing of magic mushrooms for use is illegal but mere possession is not

That baffles me!

On a slightly different note, a stall in Camden Lock was offering 'Fresh Magic Mushrooms' for sale, which prmpted my son to comment that he hoped that they were not for 'the bad use'. I had to tell him that it was, and that the law is very strange in this arena.

 

[Yithian]

deliberate growing of magic mushrooms for use is illegal but mere possession is not

That baffles me!

On a slightly different note, a stall in Camden Lock was offering 'Fresh Magic Mushrooms' for sale, which prmpted my son to comment that he hoped that they were not for 'the bad use'. I had to tell him that it was, and that the law is very strange in this arena.

I'm not sure the Grauniad has it 100% right here. Posession is legal but preparation for use is not. The law cannot infer the purpose behind a cultivation effectively. Hence, these 'fresh' mushies Lutzman spied are acceptable to sell as the usual practice is to dry them before ingestion. The current problem, however, is the huge boom in imported South-American Mushrooms which are quite potent enough, thank-you-kindly, without any preparation whatsoever.

 

[Dingo667]

Yes, they grow in a certain place in Knebworth park [near Stevenage] and often on path edges or on greens where people walk. Season is from September to October. Been there, picked them, eaten them and yes they work very well... 8)

 

[TheQuixote]

One of my first jobs was working at a large Park. I started in the September and one of my first tasks along with making tea was to ride shotgun with one of the Rangers and lean out of the Land Rover's window screaming "Don't pick them!!" or "Put 'em f*cking down!!" at the multitude of people picking 'shrooms.

There was a particular problem with a small Silver Birch plantation in the Park where it was said that magic mushrooms apparently grew in abundance along with fly agaric mushrooms (which was very apparent- it was everywhere). We were finding on our travels that people, from grey-haired OAP's with Waitrose carrier bags to students from a local college, were picking up any fungus in sight and of course the local Council were concerned that there would be casualties if not deaths by such a lack of knowledge.

So I really, really would advise people not to pick any mushroom/fungus/whatever whilst out on your travels unless you are extremely confident of what it is, or it is an edible variety and you have been trained or advised it is safe to do so.

 

[Yithian]

So I really, really would advise people not to pick any mushroom/fungus/whatever whilst out on your travels unless you are extremely confident of what it is, or it is an edible variety and you have been trained or advised it is safe to do so.

I've heard this said a lot and yes, it's not bad advice in general. However, both liberty cap and fly-ags are really quite distinctive. The former are tiny and cute with distingushing 'nipples' on top, while the latter look truly like smurfs could live in them.

They both feature in the Collins Observer Book of Fungus (or whatever it's called), and a quick flick through will show you two things:

a) They are distinctive enough to be easily recognisable except to the hard-of-thinking.

b) All the fungus that will harm you looks as though it will harm you! Things like Destroying Angels and the like have been conveniently designed to look bloody dangerous. Some of the things drip blue ichor!

I do recall an early trip out of town in Durham, where we were exploring fields in the early morning. Despite the time, we were soon confronted by the landowner, a gruff-looking farmer who loomed out of the gloom with a large dog at his heel and a scowl on his face:

"You're here looking for the mushrooms, aren't you?" he asks accusingly.

"Err, yes, sorry--but we'll be on our way now," we reply, backing away rather sheepishly.

"Well, you won't find any here... Next field, near the tree-line. Close the gate after you and don't bother my cows," he mutters with a sweep of his hand to usher us away.

Top Chap

 

[fluffle9]

boss farmer yith.

When i moved to uni i noticed that there were LOADS of fungi around the halls of residence. how conveniently placed! i'm not personally interested in the hallucinogens (worried that my sensitive stomach won't take too well to them), but i keep meaning to go have a look around to see if there's anything edible i can cook for dinner.

b) All the fungus that will harm you looks as though it will hurt you! Things like destroying angels and the like have been conveniently designed to look dangerous. Some of the things drip damned blue ichor!

This is not quite true - i've just had a quick look through a book i've got and seen some pretty innocent looking ones that sound quite poisonous, for example inocybe patouillardii which looks nothing special but causes death by heart failure or asphyxiation. :shock: however there don't actually seem to be that many species which will do you any lasting harm; most seem to fall on a continuum somewhere between "won't do you any harm but tastes revolting" and "will make you throw up a lot"

i'm no expert mycologist but i can't imagine that if you knew what they looked like and didn't just go around picking anything you saw, that you'd be in that much danger. People talk a lot about the risk of picking the wrong shroom, but i would be interested to know -
Does anyone actually know anyone who has become ill by picking something poisonous that they thought was a magic mushroom?

 

[gordonrutter]

So I really, really would advise people not to pick any mushroom/fungus/whatever whilst out on your travels unless you are extremely confident of what it is, or it is an edible variety and you have been trained or advised it is safe to do so.

a) They are distinctive enough to be easily recognisable except to the hard-of-thinking.
b) All the fungus that will harm you looks as though it will hurt you! Things like destroying angels and the like have been conveniently designed to look dangerous. Some of the things drip damned blue ichor!

Fly agaric in a totally fresh condition is indeed ver distinctive but after rain it can look like a number of Russula species and the magic mushroom itself is not as distinctive as you make out - for example it can be easily confused with a number of (for example) Cortinarius species some of which can have rather nasty effects. It might look as if from the Observer book there is little to confuse these with but it covers only 200 species - a tiny amount of the total that could be potentially found. It is easy to learn the characteristics of these mushrooms and identify them but it is also easy to misidentify other things as these as well - you must be 100% sure of what you are collecting.

Gordon

 

[TheQuixote]

So I really, really would advise people not to pick any mushroom/fungus/whatever whilst out on your travels unless you are extremely confident of what it is, or it is an edible variety and you have been trained or advised it is safe to do so.

I've heard this said a lot and, yes, it's not bad advice in general. However, both liberty cap and fly-ags are really quite distinctive. The former are tiny and cute with distingushing 'nipples' on top, while the latter look truly like smurfs could live in them!

You can also prepare a hallucinogenic from both mushrooms that I mention in my post.

Having a jumble of picked mushrooms as in the cases that we saw isn't a good idea if you don't know what you are looking at. Hence my advice to anyone going on the hunt for mushrooms or indeed any hedgerow fare, only pick what you know to be safe.

b) All the fungus that will harm you looks as though it will hurt you! Things like destroying angels and the like have been conveniently designed to look dangerous. Some of the things drip damned blue ichor!

Umm... I wouldn't say that in all cases but I would agree that some poisonous mushrooms etc. can be distinctive in appearance.

Anyway, here's some more advice about picking mushrooms

[...]Finally, the most important thing to remember is that if you have any doubts at all about the identity of a mushroom that might be edible then THROW IT OUT - don't take any risks.

I have a small brown mushroom like thingy growing in my lawn (Meadow Grass) several in fact with thin stems and a thin rounded top. Are these poisonous to my children or can they be eaten?

No, don't eat any mushrooms unless you are one hundred percent sure of their identity. Some small mushrooms that grow in lawns are deadly poisonous.

Advice from fungus.org

Does anyone actually know anyone who has become ill by picking something poisonous that they thought was a magic mushroom?

I don't know anyone who has ended up in hospital because of mushrooms per se, although I have had a few friends have to drink the charcoal mixture down at A&E because of a bad acid trip!

That being said I do know someone who picked a bunch of some sort of field mushroom from a golf course and brewed them into tea from fresh. The chap thought they would be the magic kind (which they weren't, both myself and my friends told him this but he wouldn't listen). He ended up being violently sick some time after taking only a mouthful of the liquor. He thankfully had chickened out of drinking the whole cup but he didn't seek medical treatment for it.

 

[gordonrutter]

i'm no expert mycologist but i can't imagine that if you knew what they looked like and didn't just go around picking anything you saw, that you'd be in that much danger. People talk a lot about the risk of picking the wrong shroom, but i would be interested to know -
Does anyone actually know anyone who has become ill by picking something poisonous that they thought was a magic mushroom?

I am a mycologist and I agree - if you know what you're lookign for and pick it you're going to get the effects you were looking for.

We have dealt with cases at (former) work of people who have become very ill from picking what they thought were magic mushrooms, so yes.

Gordon

 

[Yithian]

It might look as if from the Observer book there is little to confuse these with but it covers only 200 species - a tiny amount of the total that could be potentially found.

Ok, perhaps my language was too loose. Though I'm happy to assert that, in general, with half a brain you'll be fine.

As to the misidentification, I'm not sure how many species liable to mistaken for liberty caps are native to the UK. The key, in my experience, is to check not just appearance but size. The odd one or two rogues will do nothing bad to you either.

Happy hunting, folks.

 

[Anonymous]

We were finding on our travels that people, from grey-haired OAP's with Waitrose carrier bags to students from a local college, were picking up any fungus in sight and of course the local Council were concerned that there would be casualties if not deaths by such a lack of knowledge.

The OAP's bit tickles me

Tea at Ethels always does leave me so much happier

Anyway, you should have put up posters warning people that some mushrooms were very poisonous, especially these <pic of magic mushroom> which must be handed into the staff office if picked :lol:

 

[gordonrutter]

It might look as if from the Observer book there is little to confuse these with but it covers only 200 species - a tiny amount of the total that could be potentially found.

Ok, perhaps my language was too loose. Though i'm happy to assert that in general, with half a brain you'll be fine.

With a reasonable amount of knowledge and inteligence and familiarity you should not have too much problem. However

As to the misidentification, i'm not sure how many liable to mistaken for liberty caps are native to the UK. The key, in mye experience, is to check not just appearance but size. The odd one or two rogues will do nothing bad to you either.

Quite a lot are native to the UK, size is important as is appearance, agreed, however the phrase the odd one or two rogues will do nothing bad to you either is something I must take great exception, some (a tiny monority admittedly) species are deadly and less than one fruiting body will prove fatal. I am talking worse case scenarios but it can happen. With appropriate care and attention there should be little cause for confusion however mycology is a case where a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Gordon

[Emp edit: Hope you don't mind - i added in another set of quote tags to help clarify who said what.

 

[Mal_Adjusted]

eers and MPs join furore over 'rushed' ban on magic mushroom

greets

Peers and MPs join furore over 'rushed' ban on magic mushrooms

Retailers to challenge class A classification amid claims that new law will drive trade underground

Mark Honigsbaum
Saturday April 16, 2005
The Guardian

Peers, MPs and drug advocacy groups have rounded on a new law reclassifying magic mushrooms as a class A drug, saying the legislation was rushed through parliament in last week's "wash-up" without adequate debate and will criminalise a group of people who were doing no harm to themselves or others.

Home Office sources have indicated that clause 21 of the new drug bill could come into effect in time for the Glastonbury festival in June. Magic mushroom retailers have vowed to challenge the ban, saying the statute contravenes European free trade regulations and is deeply flawed.

Article continues
They also point out that the bill would create a grey area for other naturally occurring hallucinogens, many of which are traded on the internet and just as hallucinogenic as the banned cubensis mushrooms. Mescaline, for instance, like psilocin and pscilocybin, the active constituents of cubensis mushrooms, is identified as a class A drug under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. But the drug bill says nothing about the peyote cactus from which it is derived.

The bill also makes no reference to the fly agaric toadstool, a highly poisonous red and white spotted fungus which the Home Office warns about on its drug education website, Talk to Frank, and which grows wild in British forests. It also makes no mention of Salvia divinorum, a hallucinogenic plant from Mexico which Potseeds, a Totnes-based internet retailer, advertises as "the legal high our politicians forgot to ban."

But opponents of clause 21 say the main objection is that it would be unenforceable and would drive the trade in cubensis mushrooms - which, because of a loophole in the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, are considered legal - underground.

"By no stretch of the imagination can you equate magic mushrooms with heroin or cocaine," said Lord Mancroft, a member of the all-party group on the misuse of drugs and chairman of Mentor UK, which aims to prevent drug misuse by young people. "There's no evidence magic mushrooms are addictive, cause harm to people or are a public order problem. The bill is completely disproportionate.'

Lord Mancroft, one of three backbench peers who opposed the bill on its second reading in the Lords last week, also condemned the way government whips had rushed the the legislation back to the Commons before it could be properly scrutinised, claiming the process smacked of an election deal between the three main parties.

His comments were echoed by Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West and an advocate of the legalisation of magic mushrooms and cannabis, who on the bill's return to the Commons on April 7 condemned the law as having been "conceived in prejudice, written in ignorance and ... enacted with incompetence."

"We are banning psilocybin, a natural product that will disappear from the market, possibly to be replaced by drugs such as fly agaric, a far more dangerous drug," he said.

Mr Flynn contrasted the government's decision to ban magic mushrooms with its decision to reclassify cannabis from class B to class C and then refer the matter to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, because of concerns about the dangers that powerful new strains of "skunk" posed to people with schizophrenia and those with a history of mental health problems.

No such reference to the advisory council occurred in the case of cubensis mushrooms. "It's election politics pure and simple," Mr Flynn said.

The ban, which makes the importation, possession or sale of magic mushrooms pun ishable by a life sentence, comes as lawyers prepare to defend retailers in Canterbury and Birmingham from prosecution under the 1971 law.

Barristers are seeking to have the prosecutions thrown out as an abuse of process on the grounds that the retailers were advised by the Home Office that the 1971 act only applied to the sale of dried mushrooms or their "preparations", not fresh mushrooms.

Yesterday Celia Strange of MJ Reed solicitors, representing the Canterbury and Birmingham retailers, urged the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the cases, saying it was clear from the statute change that parliament considered the previous law flawed. The firm also pointed out the new act had serious implications for people who may be unaware they have a class A drug growing on their property.

Yesterday a Home Office spokeswoman said people would not be considered to have committed an offence merely for having magic mushrooms growing on their land.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1461072,00.html

mal

 

[drjbrennan]

My ancient recollections of my Mycology lectures, the Psilocybes are very easily confused with the Inocybes which could prove fatal.
Also. there are only a few truly deadly Basidiomycetes, the majority of them don't taste very nice and some are delicious.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldnt know what the hell I was looking for

 

[hedgewizard1]

Actually, the Destroying Angel ( Amanita bisporigera) and it's cousin the Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) don't look dangerous at all. The latter rather resembles a Crimini mushroon. Bottom line, don't pick it if you're not dead positive it's the right one.

 

[Stormkhan]

I've had some pretty good mushroom trips ... years and years ago. To be honest, while I enjoyed it, I've had no compulsion to try to re-live my misspent youth.
Frankly, I'd hesitate to give any money to some of the herberts who try to sell drugs in Camden; their customer service department leaves a lot to be desired if re-payment for a stomach pump is needed.

 

[Anonymous]

Even to people who know what they are looking at it can be difficult to identify mushrooms, spore prints looked at under a microscope helps a lot but there are poisonous things out there that look completely innocuous.
Something like 98% of mushroom poisoning deaths occur from people mistaking the poisonous Amanitas for field mushrooms.
The active ingredients (psilocybin and psilocin) in the Psilocybes produces a blueing reaction on bruising however there is another mushroom that also blues on bruising but I can't remember what it was called or if it was poisonous.
All that said I had some in Bali and Thailand. Isn't nature wonderful

 

[Yithian]

It just sprung to mind when re-reading this that there's a VW camper on a drive-way near here with the entire roof turfed over and growing happily.

I'd love to distribute some mushies on top and see if I can give the chap a pleasant suprise if they spore.

 

[Bokononist]

Once you know what Liberty Caps look like, you won't really have any problem distinguishing them again. They're quite distinctive. You just have to make sure you're with someone who knows about them the first time you pick them.

 

[eyepod]

I'm wondering how many of the ban-it-brigade have actually tried it?

If they sold mushrooms at football matches instead of alcohol... etc etc.

And I'm wondering about the logistics of making illegal a plant which grows naturally all over the country. Are they going to treat every field/meadow/roadside verge/private garden etc with fungicide? What happens to all the non-illegal fungus in that case? And if my bag of bark chips starts sprouting psilocybes will B&Q get done for selling me Category A's or will I just get done for possession?

 

[Anonymous]

I think all drugs should be legal, the reason I dont take heroin is because I know its addictive and have seen it ruin peoples lives, the fact thats its illegal does not matter or deter me at all.

 

[Anonymous]

I think all drugs should be legal, the reason I dont take heroin is because I know its addictive and have seen it ruin peoples lives, the fact thats its illegal does not matter or deter me at all.

If governments were sincere about harm minimisation then there would be no illegal drugs. "Recreational" drugs would be manufactured by pharmaceutical companies, there would be no toxic byproducts or dirty drugs.
Drugs of serious abuse like heroin would be strictly regulated and users would not be criminals but mental health patients. Programmes to minimise the spread of viruses by IV could work and serious users would have access to councelling.
Ibogaine (drug from plant Tabernanthe iboga) would not be illegal but successfully used to treat drug addicted patients of their addiction. This works for alcoholics as well I believe.
This would have a multifold effect that the drug dealers and criminal aspect would mostly be wiped out, the court system would not be clogged with drug users whose only real crime is wanting to alter their reality with a drug that is not alcohol or tobacco.
The spread of bloodbourne infections would drop as people had access to appropriate health facilities.
The government would make a killing on licensing all these products as well as the tax collected.
The downside is, you are always going to get some numbskull who takes drugs then drives and kills people. Or the poor unfortunate who has a bad reaction that may even result in death, but look at the numbers, legal pharmaceuticals are killing plenty of people already.


As for mushrooms, when they grow all over the place for those who know what to look for how are the authorities goint to prevent it?

 

[Bokononist]

Government approved drugs? Hmm...

 

[Anonymous]

Well said Fenris.

I have some experience of heavy drug users, more than I would have liked in fact. The illegality of drugs has no impact at all on the drug problem. I dont think I have EVER heard anyone say they didnt use them because of their illegality, more that they are scared of the health and mental effects.

I imagine that maybe the big prison sentences for importing and supplying do have some deterrent effect on people thinking about dealing but for the average user or full blown junkie the legal issue does not even come into it.

I agree totally that users of heroin and crack are actually mentally ill, they do need help and it should be easy for them to access help or be forced to get help somehow.

The Ibogaine thing is a bunch of crap, I know someone thats been a serious user of pretty much every drug known to man and he has tried the Ibogaine thing at least twice, it didnt change him, maybe it works for some people, if so then im all for it.

Addiction should be seen as an illness not a crime !!

back to the topic, I only ever ate mushrooms once on a hike in the woods in Oregon, didnt enjoy it and wont be doing that again EVER, I saw the Green Man everywhere in all the ferns, wasnt too much fun

 

[eyepod]

I've never spotted any.

Until October, when I found a nice little crop of them not 10 yards away from my accommodation at one of Mr Butlin's holiday establishments.

I got pulled up by Security for laying in the flowerbed to photograph them

 

[milk23]

Those photos by eyepod don't look like any mushies I ever took.
I expect I am ignorant of these fellas. All the ones we used to get were
the nipply ones of which over a weekend me and my pals would gather
thousands. If it is the case that these fellas are halucinagenic then it would explain why I was scratching my head as to how the accounts of misidentification in this thread occured. Personally I don't know anyone who ever got ill from mushies and there have been way too many times that there should have, on average produced at least one incident of a dicky belly.

I had to laugh at the wee man on camden market asking if they were for the
'bad use'.... like if there is a bad use then surely it makes sense there is an
equal and opposite 'good use'... which the laws of this land are also 'strange' about in this arena. I think it should mandatory that all laws concerning mushrooms should make an effort to be strange.