They must be high
Shopping for Christmas presents at Spitalfields last year, Armin and I were surprised to find a stall selling magic mushrooms. Nice suburban saffers that we are, we couldn't quite believe this was legal. Apparently, neither can the police.
Since then I've noticed these sellers, well, mushrooming all over town. (It seemed even more surprising than having someone quite casually and openly offering us grass on Clapham Common; there's a special leniency policy in Lambeth, apparently.) The rule is, the Spitalfields guy kindly explained to us, selling fresh mushrooms is okay; selling them dried is not. Do you have to dry them to get an effect? No, he says. (I confess to never having bothered to try shrooms, so whatever I say here may be a load of bollox.)
In any case, the Guardian tells us this is no longer a reliable rule. It's true that the law allows fresh mushrooms to be gathered and sold, but not 'prepared' mushrooms; but it's all in the interpretation. So does gathering, packaging and transporting fresh mushrooms turn them into a prepared product? And then there's the VAT issue...
These policemen are crazy.
1 comment:
not that i'm an expert (being a fan of mushrooms in general, but not the psychadelic kind in particular), but having had a lengthy conversation with a very tall andrew about it, i have concluded:
it's not illegal to grow them, or sell'em, but it's illegal to cut them.
that's processing, see?
the above-mentioned andrew, of course was in no way involved in illegally cutting any such legal mushrooms. right? right.
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