England UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1418029,00.html

Magic mushroom dealers face new test cases

Mark Honigsbaum
Saturday February 19, 2005
The Guardian

The Crown Prosecution Service is to bring new test cases against magic mushroom
dealers despite a court ruling that Home Office regulations governing the sale
of the psychedelic fungi are a "fudge" and that prosecutions under the present
flawed drug laws are an "abuse of process".

The Guardian has discovered that despite the ruling by the court last December
and government moves to tighten the loopholes on magic mushrooms in the new
drugs bill before parliament, the CPS is proceeding with prosecutions against
retailers and wholesalers in Birmingham, Canterbury and Guildford.

On Thursday, lawyers acting for the owners of a shop in Derby, raided by police
last October, told a court they would be writing to the CPS to ask for charges
against their clients to be withdrawn on the grounds that the prosecution was
"not in the public interest".

Last week police charged Andrew and Karen Bruce, and two of their former
employees at Salamander, the shop in Derby, with supplying 25 grams of fresh
magic mushrooms to a man identified only as Phil. The Bruces and their
employees were also charged with "supplying items which might be used in
administering controlled drugs" - a reference to pipes and other paraphernalia.

The case against the Bruces mirrors that being brought against Patrick and
Kashi Francis, the owners of a shop in Canterbury, who are jointly charged with
possessing 700 grams of magic mushrooms with intent to supply following a raid
on their shop in 2003. Kashi Francis is also charged with offering to supply
pipes, bongs and other articles seized in the police raid.

The case was due to be heard at Canterbury crown court in December but counsel
acting for the Francises, who have pleaded not guilty, argued that the
prosecution should be stayed; the case has been postponed until April for
pre-trial legal arguments. Similar legal arguments are pending in the cases in
Guildford and Birmingham, where the CPS has decided to join a prosecution
against a ticketing agency and a magic mushroom wholesaler whose premises were
raided in different parts of the city on the same day last July.

Michael J Reed solicitors, who are representing both sets of defendants,
described the CPS's decision to link the prosecutions as "odd" since to their
knowledge the businesses are unconnected.

Reed, which also represents the Bruces in Derby, argues that the crown's
decision to proceed against retailers in provincial cities and towns is absurd
given the Gloucester court ruling and the imminent change in the law.

In December, the firm successfully defended two men who had been arrested for
selling magic mushrooms at their record shop in Gloucester despite being
advised by the Home Office that the trade was legal.

On that occasion, a crown court judge stayed the indictment, ruling that under
the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act only the "products" of magic mushrooms - psilocin
and psilocybin - were controlled and that prosecuting people for dealing in
fresh mushrooms was both an abuse of the legal process and their human rights.

Two days after that decision, the government announced it was introducing a new
clause to the drugs bill classifying magic mushrooms as a Class A drug
alongside heroin and crack cocaine.

"It does seem absurd to continue these prosecutions when the government is
seeking to change the law," said Mr Reed. "That is why we are today writing to
the CPS to stay the Derby prosecution. If and when the law is changed, the Home
Office could then write to retailers warning them that if they continue to sell
magic mushrooms they do so at their peril. At the moment such prosecutions are
unfair."

The Magic Mushroom Retailers Group, which represents more than 400 outlets in
Britain, condemned the new test cases a "waste of police time and taxpayers'
money".

However, a CPS spokeswoman pointed out that the Gloucester case had hinged on
the issue of refrigeration and whether by "cooling" the mushrooms the
Gloucester shop owners had converted them into a drug "product."

In the Derby case, she indicated that the crown would be bringing new evidence,
relating to the "weighing and bagging" of the mushrooms before sale. "Just
because one particular case has fallen to an abuse of process that does not
mean we will not pursue other cases," she said.

Dr Brian Iddon, an organic chemist who sits on the parliamentary committee
scrutinising the new bill, said: "As far as I know, magic mushrooms are a mild
psychedelic - they do not cause people to jump out of windows. We need much
more research before deciding whether or not we should outlaw them."

But Caroline Flint, the Home Office minister spearheading the passage of the
drugs bill through parliament, told committee members she had received several
letters from MPs whose constituents were concerned both about the mushrooms'
"negative effects" and their sale to minors.

"The name 'magic mushrooms' makes them sound quite harmless but they are
hallucinogenic," said Ms Flint. "They can trigger psychosis and are very
harmful to those with mental illness."


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