6 minute read
DIY: Pollen collection
from 2005 05 UK
by SoftSecrets
Column
Bemused and Bemushroomed
By Dr. John Dee
By the time you read this, July 18th will have been and gone and magic mushrooms will be illegal in the UK. That’s right: as of 12.00 noon on Monday 18th of July possession and/or dealing in not only the good old native Liberty Cap, but any fungi containing psilocybin effectively carries the same legal penalties as possession and/or dealing in heroin or crack.
But don’t take my word for it; ass or not, here’s the word of the law:
“Section 21 of the Drugs Act 2005 amends Part I of Schedule 2 to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 by inserting “Fungus (of any kind) which contains psilocin [a Class A drug] or an ester of psilocin”. It is an offence to import, export, produce, supply, possess or possess with intent to supply magic mushrooms whatever form they are in.”
The Home Office has said that the change in the law is because there’s a need to protect people “with existing heart conditions or a mental illness or with an underlying mental health problem and can precipitate psychosis”. Very laudable, but the same can be said of tobacco (incredibly bad for people with heart problems, as are chips, pies and lack of exercise, come to that) and alcohol (ditto for mental illness) and we don’t see any moves to make either of these Class A drugs. Ach, I don’t know why the hypocrisy of the government still surprises me.
At any rate, as usual, the law has fallen foul of halfassed thinking and so there are the usual loopholes. The law focuses solely on fungi containing psilocybin (a widely used drug and – let’s be honest – not one that’s associated with many fatalities; kids picking the wrong ones and poisoning themselves don’t really count as that’s more of an education issue), while simultaneously ignoring other types of psychoactive mushrooms, in particular those of the Amanita family. The most famous of these is arguably the Fly Agaric and contains the (supposedly) far more powerful and (supposedly) far more dangerous compounds muscamol and ibotenic acid.
This in turn has raised fears in some circles that rather than the sale and use of the familiar - and therefore understood and relatively “safe” - psilocybin mushrooms, we’ll see a marked increase in the trade and use of fungus such as the allegedly potentially lethal Amanitas. Maybe yes, maybe no: the biggest problem it seems to me is one of availability. I’ve never seen Fly Agaric mushrooms in the wild growing in anything more than clusters of three or four (maybe I’ve just been unlucky), and I understand that growing them domestically isn’t very feasible as they require a rather unique micro climate/culture. Growing them indoors is, I’m told on good authority, virtually impossible. But of course, where there’s a will there’s a way.
What concerns me more about all this “war on plants” guff is that it may well be the thin end of the wedge. As I write this, in America something called “House Bill 20” is being debated. This is targeting some 40 plants and if successful, possession of these would carry a term of up to five years and a fine of up to $5,000. Among the plants on the hit list are our chums psilocybin and Amanita mushrooms, together with various exotics such as Salvia Divinorum, Iboga, and various Ayahuasca mixtures. But also in there are a load of plants that grow everywhere and are generally considered to be weeds, such as henbane, deadly nightshade and all the different strains of Datura. How on earth will this be enforced? You’d think the police would have other, better things to do with their time.
It’s absurd, but so often American absurdity has a habit of creeping over the Atlantic. And this particularly applies when the subject is drugs. Be afraid.
Dr. John Dee
dimethyltryptamine777@hotmail.com
Highlife Fair Barcelona, second edition
When: 14, 15 & 16 October 2005 Where: La Farga, Barcelona
After the magnificent success of the first international Highlife Fair in Barcelona last year (with 15,000 visitors, by far the best attended cannabis fair in the world!), a follow-up could obviously not be left too long before being organised. The second edition of the Highlife BCN fair will be held between the 14th and 16th of October inclusive, in La Farga in Barcelona, with a total floor area of 8000 m2.
Many international companies will be presenting themselves there for the first time to a Spanish and French public. As well as the business fair there will be a lot of space reserved for seminars, political discussions and entertainment. That’s because as well as being a trade fair the Highlife Fair Barcelona is above a real lifestyle fair, that aims to fully engage a cannabisfriendly public.
The Highlife Fair has been an institution in the Netherlands for more than a decade. Springing originally from the bi-monthly, glossy cannabis magazine Highlife, the Fair was an answer to the ever-growing demand from both the public and the cannabis-related business world. At the time, nowhere else in the world could grow shops, coffeeshops, head shops and other supplier businesses present themselves to the public at large. And nowhere else could the public acquaint themselves so thoroughly with the wide range of services and products emerging on to the ever-more sophisticated cannabis market. The first Highlife Fair was held in 1994 in the Ahoy complex in Rotterdam, where well-known bands like Cypress Hill ensured the event was a real sensation, with excellent live performances. At the first fair, music formed the core of the event and the fair itself was more of an after-thought. In successive years this changed more and more; the music faded into the background while the fair itself became bigger and more international in character. At the last Dutch fair held, at the end of January 2005, the success of this formula was underlined with a new record number of visitors. No fewer than 14,000 (international) members of the public made their way to the Highlife Fair, where they were welcomed by more than 100 stand holders from various countries.
One of the added values of the Highlife Fair Barcelona is for many visitors the legendary Highlife Cup, the presentation of the awards for the best weed and hash submitted by Spanish grow shops and seed companies. The Highlife Cup has in the course of its life become an internationally recognised honour, serving as a benchmark of professionalism, with a breadth of participation that stands head and shoulders above the only rival to speak of, the much smaller and primarily oriented towards the American market High Times Cup.
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