The mum of a student who died after taking magic mushrooms wants changes to the law to ban them from being produced.
The mushrooms are illegal to buy but the spores needed to grow them can be readily purchased across the UK, reports the Daily Mirror.
Antoine Vesterinen-Maury was studying at Edinburgh Music College when he died in 2016 after drinking mushroom tea with a friend and was found dead in Duddingston Loch five weeks later. His mum Laura is disgusted that no action can be taken against firms who supply the microscopic cells because until they are cultivated they do not contain any banned substance.
One man who grows super-strength spores describes the loophole as “a nice little grey area”.
The active ingredient in the mushrooms that produces hallucinogenic effects, is a Class A drug called Psilocin.
People can face up to seven years in jail for possession – or life imprisonment for supplying or producing them.
Antoine’s friend Scott Mckerral, who gave him the concoction, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of a fungus containing psilocin and was given an 18-month supervision order and 210 hours of community work.
Laura said: “I want to prevent another family going through what I’ve gone through – I want people to know how dangerous these drugs are. I can’t believe it’s legal.
“I know what can happen. People can become vulnerable when they take them and can lose control. That is the way my son died. The sellers of these spores are putting people in danger.
“To them it’s just a business. The government needs to change the law.”
Harry Sumnall, professor in substance use at Liverpool John Moores University, explained: “Spore kits don’t contain any fungus with these chemicals. This means that sale or possession of spore kits is not against the law.
“However, once people start to use the kit and grow magic mushrooms they are committing drug production and possession offences.”
The owner of one websites selling the spores, said: “We neither sell nor grow, nor would we advocate our customers to sell or grow, magic mushrooms.”
Daniel Quick, 41, who runs Cornwall based Orangutan Trading markets his spores with names such as Penis Envy, Aztec, and Jedi Mind F***.
He added: “Just to be clear, Orangutan Trading Co sells mushroom spores imported to the UK for mycological [scientific] use. This is perfectly legal.
“Whilst it is true that on our website I describe the law on magic mushroom spores as a ‘grey area’ and that the law is ‘dumb’, we abide by the law and respect the law in everything we do and we would always advocate our customers to do the same.”
The firm sells syringes of spores for £13. They can be bought by bank transfer or using crypto-currency, with no age checks.
On his website, Mr Quick states: “Magic mushroom spores (like the ones I sell) currently occupy a nice little grey area, much like cannabis seeds, where they’re totally legal to own and legal to do whatever you like with as long as you don’t grow the f***ers.”
Punters have posted on Reddit boasting about magic mushrooms they have grown using their spores.
One wrote: “They turned out great. Ended up with about 70g of dried very potent shrooms.”
Another said: “I grew some of em from orangutan.
“Be careful as they’re strong AF [very strong].”
On his site, Mr Quick says making the mushrooms illegal is “a dumb law, made by some old-fashioned dudes, and it flies in the face of all available research”.
He adds: “Personally I think growing magic mushrooms is cool and good, but I won’t sell anyone spores to break the law with or I’d be part of your evil nature crimes.”
The Home Office said: “This Government’s approach is to prevent drug misuse and support people through treatment and recovery.”
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