A UK Magic Mushroom Flashback

At a time when we're being encouraged to have our say politically, it seems appropriate to have a little Magic Mushroom flashback. The active ingredients of Psilocybe mushrooms (psilocybin and psilocin) were made schedule 1 drugs in the UK, in 1971, meaning possession and supply could land you a very long prison sentence, on a par with cocaine and heroin. Due to a legal loophole however, possession of the fresh mushroom remained legal and soon after the turn of the millennia head shops across the UK had begun selling them in earnest.

Picking the native UK shroom, the Psilocybe semilanceata (better known as the Liberty Cap), largely remained the preserve of the aficionado, and it was the Psilocybe cubensis species (Mexican, Thai and Colombian strains amongst others) that took pride of place in the fridges of the head shops. It was estimated that the annual turnover of this legal trade was 1,000,000 pounds sterling per annum, raking in a cool 175,000 pounds over the same period in VAT for the government (RAND, 53).