Legal Sales of Magic Mushrooms Threatened in the Netherlands
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:44 PM

Tourists have been coming to Amsterdam, ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms, and ending up in the hospital, with some frequency. The national government is considering a prohibition on sales, but the mayor of Amsterdam is being more creative. He has proposed a three-day waiting period between the time you order the mushrooms and when you can pick them up. This would put a barrier in the way of mushroom overconsumption by the (often British) weekend tourists, while maintaining fungi availability to the sensible Dutch. The Times has the story.

Labels: mushrooms, Netherlands, robustness

 
British Drug Developments
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:35 AM

2006 has been a busy year for drug developments, at least in the pages of the Guardian. January 1 brought into the legal code some tough new measures -- now why hadn't anyone thought of that before? If the government thinks you might be one of those drug-swallowing mules, they can now hold you for 192 hours, just to see what might pass through your system. (What sort of half-hearted crackdown is this, anyway? The 192 hours in closely-supervised detention should be mandatory for all travellers arriving in Britain. It's a small price to pay for the children.)

The government says the tougher measures are part of a clampdown on those selling illegal drugs on the streets of Britain. "The damage caused to individuals and families by drugs can be devastating," said Paul Goggins, the Home Office minister responsible for drugs policy.

"Drug misuse can ruin lives and we're determined to tackle this by putting more drug dealers behind bars and getting more addicts into treatment..."

That should take care of it then.

More sound drug policy reform is on its way, as the Home Secretary continues to position himself to raise the classification of cannabis. The previous Home Secretary allowed cannabis to become a Class C drug, where possessors could only be imprisoned for two years and sellers for 14 years. This sort of leniency towards consensual adult behavior cannot be tolerated, of course.

These hopeful developments come on the heels of the tremendous success last summer of closing the loophole that allowed psilocybin mushroom buyers and sellers to avoid jail. Oddly, though, people seem to be finding other means by which to become high. Well, at least that provides some space for future crackdowns. Everyone likes a good crackdown.

Labels: Britain, drugs, mushrooms

 
Britain Takes the Magic Out of Mushrooms
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:29 PM

Those links to the Guardian in the previous post yielded this story on a new British law that makes magic mushrooms a Class A drug. Readers of Vice Squad will recall that prior to this new law, the legal status of magic mushrooms was unclear, and despite some prosecutions, they were openly sold in some parts of Britain. Now, according to the Guardian article, even possession of the frowned-upon fungi could bring, uh, up to life in prison. But not to fear: "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." Why not? That is the sort of compromise with drugs that we have come to expect from those Labour Party liberals. Maybe a visit from a clear-thinking American official will get our allies back in line.

Labels: Britain, mushrooms

 
'Abuse of Process'
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 8:24 AM

That's what a British crown court recorder said would occur if the charges against two Gloucester magic mushroom purveyors were allowed to go to trial. So there will be no trial. Given the ambiguity in the rules (as noted yesterday) a trial, the court recorder found, according to the linked Guardian article, "would be a breach of the men's rights." There's a slippery slope for you -- once you start respecting rights in adult vice policy, all sorts of changes would be required.

Labels: Britain, mushrooms

 
Quasi-Legal (or Quasi-Illegal) British Mushrooms
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:34 AM

Vice Squad has noted before (here and here) the odd legal position of 'magic' mushrooms in Great Britain. They are legal to possess, to grow, and (less certainly) to sell as long as they are not 'prepared'. Why? The reasoning is that they are 'natural', so possession or consumption alone can't be illegal. But any 'preparation' might convert a mushroom seller into a supplier of a class A drug, for which life imprisonment is a possibility. (Perhaps this is why the mushrooms are magic -- they lead the law to hallucinate.) So now there are lives at stake with respect to precisely what it means to 'prepare' the mushrooms. If any packaging or weighing or cultivation is deemed to be preparation, then the mushrooms will effectively be illegal.

There are apparently some 400 shops selling magic mushrooms openly in Britain -- but now some sellers are being arrested. Today's Guardian has the story. Has the law changed? Not the written law, but police behavior, in some parts of Britain, seems to be hardening. The whole situation is in a muddle. Customs and Excise declared that mushroom sales were subject to the value-added tax, but had to back away from that determination when the police were trying to make some of these sales illegal. (Vice Squad has mentioned before the possibility that taxing an illegal good can pave the way to its legalization.) One Labour MP, quoted in the Guardian article, sums up the situation this way:

"It's crazy: if you pick them, that's legal; if you keep them overnight, that's illegal because they dry out. The effect of magic mushrooms is minor compared with other drugs. There is a market for them and it would be better to allow it to operate. There are plenty of medicinal drugs that cause far more damage than magic mushrooms. But there are no signs of any intelligence in drug policy from the government. When they say the word 'drugs', you can be sure that the word 'tough' won't be far behind."

Labels: Britain, mushrooms

 
Playing Catch-Up
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 8:57 PM

During the past week of slow blogging here at Vice Squad, lots of exciting vice-related stories have appeared on blogs to which we link. We can't possibly make good the arrears, but I will mention just a few of the highlights:

(1) Mark Kleiman offers a fairly detailed post about personal alcohol licenses, which would be revoked (for some period of time) if a person is convicted of misbehavior under the influence of alcohol. Mark suggests that to be efficacious, sellers would have to do the enforcing, that is, check all potential buyers for a valid alcohol license. Related systems now in use in the US as conditions for probation or pre-trial release rely on such things as random tests to provide a modicum of enforceability.

Vice Squad has mentioned the possibility of personal licenses for drug use many times in the past, most recently, here. Such licensing, which could be used for heroin and cocaine as well as alcohol, also would create an environment conducive to some private drug policy responses: some employers might be unwilling to hire someone with who has a heroin license, while life, health, or auto insurance rates might vary based on the licenses a person holds. People might even use the license to control their consumption, perhaps by agreeing to be licensed for only limited purchases (that is, below some maximum that would be established by law) of their drug per month.

Mark also links to and comments upon this fine LA Weekly piece on the use of psilocybin (the main active ingredient in magic mushrooms) to reduce death anxiety.

(2) Tyler Cohen at Marginal Revolution brings word of the World Trade Organization decision that the US cannot legally ban Internet gambling by US residents from web-based casinos located abroad. The case pitted the nation of Antigua and Barbuda (population: under 70,000; Internet betting operations: 30) against the most powerful nation on earth, and the underdog has won the first round. Some members of Congress won't take this lying down, however, as this NY Times article (registration required) linked by Tyler makes clear. (Vice Squad occasionally comments upon the regulation of Internet gambling.)

(3) Belle at Belle de Jour offers an FAQ-style post that provides some information you probably didn't know about the call-girl business in Britain; for instance, only about one-quarter of her customers tip. (Keep in mind, as you read the linked post, that commercial sex is not illegal in Britain, though Belle's "manager" is on the wrong side of the law. ) Belle's award-winning blog has led to a book deal for her. Those of us who will never earn a dime can try to take the moral high ground: making money off of a blog? Isn't that a sort of, er, prostitution?

Labels: alcohol, Antigua, Britain, drugs, gambling, internet, Kleiman, licensing, mushrooms, prostitution, WTO

 
Selling Magic Mushrooms and Cannabis Seeds Legally, in Bath
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:17 PM

That's Bath, England, folks, where a shop that sells hallucinogenic mushrooms and cannabis seeds has opened. According to this article from the Bath Chronicle:

"Although it is illegal to buy, grow or sell cannabis, it is not against the law to sell cannabis seeds or the equipment used to grow it.

Magic mushrooms, which can be picked in fields throughout the country, can be sold as long as they are fresh and not dried out. The shop sells five types of magic mushrooms, ranging from Mexican to the strongest Hawaiian - the hallucinogenic effects of which can last for ten hours."

Cannabis itself was downgraded to "Class C" status in January, so in general, small-scale marijuana possession does not merit an arrest in the UK. (Have you noticed the collapse of British civilisation following this radical step?)

My Anglophilia is growing. The article is once again so sensible -- no hysterical reactions to the shop, even from its opponents. Here's the Home Office spokesperson (policing falls under the ambit of the Home Office in Britain): 'It is difficult to make illegal what can be found in nature, and cannabis seeds can be used for other purposes.' Just the sort of response we can expect from the Drug Czar or the DEA.

Labels: Britain, marijuana, mushrooms