Are you free to eat magic mushrooms? Is your parang an offensive weapon? Let the New Statesman's legal expert solve your civil liberties dilemmas
I very much enjoy picking mushrooms, and occasionally come upon varieties which turn out to have hallucinogenic properties. Am I within my rights to eat what I find?
A troubled reader, Gloucester
As you suspect, eating wild mushrooms is fraught with risk. Psilocin and psilocybin are controlled substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and it is a serious criminal offence to possess a "preparation" of either compound. That used to require a positive act - such as drying or infusing - but matters have been considerably simplified by the Drugs Act 2005, which deems that a mushroom itself can amount to a preparation. If you stumble upon an offending fungus - one that is magic, for example - you must therefore proceed with great caution.
Picking it makes you liable to seven years in jail; if you hand it over to a friend, you are eligible for a life sentence.
In view of the possible consequences, it is well worth knowing the defences available to you. No offence is committed if you had no idea that you were harvesting a hallucinogen, as might be the case if, for example, you were picking fungi simply because they looked pretty.
The Home Office has also stipulated that people should not be prosecuted if their reason for gathering psilocin-containing mushrooms was to hand them over to an authorised person for destruction. If a police officer finds you with an incriminating haul, it might be prudent to demand that he burn it.
Notwithstanding the changes introduced by the 2005 act, there are still several mind-bending fungi which are not outlawed, because they contain neither psilocybin nor psilocin. Eating fly agaric, for example, apparently promotes euphoria and out-of-body experiences, but it is legally risk-free. For the sake of completeness, however, it should be noted that it can cause organ failure and death.
While serving in the Malayan jungle during the Emergency, I acquired a parang. It has followed me from house to house, and I have been using it on my allotment for years. But while clearing the ground this spring, I happened to damage the adjacent plot's sprinklers, which, lacking spectacles, I mistook for hardy weeds. The allotment manager now tells me that my parang is an offensive weapon. Is he right?
B K, Leicester
Your knife is probably not an offensive weapon (on the assumption that you do not intend to injure anyone with it), but it is still a crime to have any bladed or sharply pointed object in a public place, unless it is a folding pocket knife less than three inches long. Although you are at liberty to brandish your parang in private, your allotment is arguably a public place, and the streets around it certainly are. If you were charged, the crucial legal issue would be whether you had "good reason" to be carrying a large slashing blade. The answer would depend ultimately on the sympathies of the magistrates or jurors. All I would predict is that the denser your allotment's undergrowth, the better your chances.
In order to weigh your options rationally, you should probably know that conviction is punishable by up to two years' imprisonment. John Reid, inspired by popular outrage, has recently let it be known that the maximum may rise to five. It is hard to say whether he will maintain that stance, however, given that he - along with Hazel Blears, David Blunkett, Jack Straw and 273 other MPs - voted against the same limit when it was proposed by the Conservatives last November.
Sadakat Kadri is a barrister and author of "The Trial: a history from Socrates to O J Simpson" (HarperCollins, 2005). Send your civil liberties and human-rights dilemmas to: Changing the Rules, New Statesman, 52 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0AU. This column appears fortnightly
*"The rules of the game have changed" Tony Blair, August 2005
Post this article to
We want to encourage people to comment on our content and to exchange views with other readers and hope this will be done on a courteous basis. However, if you encounter posts which are offensive please let us know by emailing comments@newstatesman.co.uk and we will take swift action where necessary.
