Hello and welcome to our News archives. In this section you will find
a wide variety of newspaper clippings regarding the visionary mushrooms.
I Started to catalogue these clippings back in 1976. They are arranged alphabetically by countries and newspapers and then Chronologically by dates. |
HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN Friday March 19, 1982. Page 4 Psychedelic Mushrooms Found By Firefighters. OAKLAND (AP). Firefighters battling an apartment house blaze stumbled onto a psychedelic mushrooms factory jammed with about 2,000 jars of spore cultures, police said yesterday. "The whole apartment was turned into a mushroom growing factory. There was no room to sit or sleep in the place," said Oakland vice officer Chuck Holland. He estimated that the 8 to 10 pounds of dehydrated mushrooms were worth aabout $100 an ounce. But he said Oakland police haven't had much experienc dealing with the "magic mushrooms." |
(10) SIXTIES DRUG IS IN AGAIN Crime: ‘Magic Mushrooms’ have made a comeback
and police say they can be addictive or even deadly. Ben Thomas put hallucinogenic mushrooms on
his pepperoni pizza. He mixed them into Lipton tea, or ate the
nasty-tasting drugs with loads of potato chips. Source: Orange County Register. Contact: letters@link.freedom.com. Website: http://www.ocregister.com. Copyright: 1999. The Orange County Register. Pubdate: Thursday, January 7, 1999. Author: Mai Tran – OCR URL: http://www,mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n046.a01.html.
http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/1999/ds99.n82.html#art10 |
![]() |
![]() |
Telegraph.co.uk. 5-3-2003. TV writer held over 'magic mushroom'By Hugh Davies, Entertainment
Correspondent AARON SORKIN, creator of the Channel 4 series, The West Wing, has been arrested at a Los Angeles airport for allegedly trying to take hallucinogenic "magic" mushrooms on to a plane bound for Las Vegas. Sorkin, 39, writes most of the episodes of The West Wing, a drama about White House intrigues. The hard-working perfectionist had just finished the last of this season's 22 shows, which are being filmed this week for NBC. The producer used his own experiences with drug addiction to shape the White House chief-of-staff character, Leo McGarry, as a recovering alcoholic. |
March 1, 2007 - Daily Nexus Hippie Hill Is a Haven S.F. Park Is a Secular Progressive Experiment Published Thursday, March 1, 2007 Issue 85
/ Volume |
Daily Nexus of the U of California at Berkleley.
UC BriefsNews from campuses throughout the UC systemPublished Monday, March 5, 2007 UCPD Says Hallucinogenic Mushrooms May Have Had Role in Freshman’s Fall From Window UC Berkeley Daily Californian: March 2, 2007 - Police are currently investigating whether controlled substances contributed to an incident Wednesday night when a student fell from a third-story residential hall room. UCPD Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya said four students were examined by Berkeley Fire Dept. officials, who suspected the students may have ingested psilocybin - a hallucinogen found in some mushrooms. Witnesses said they found freshman Jesus Aguilar was naked and covered in blood after his fall shortly before 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Several other students covered him with clothing and a sleeping bag while awaiting paramedics. Celaya said the student was transported to Highland Hospital in Oakland, and that the facial and head injuries he sustained are not life-threatening. According to Celaya, three other students were also examined by Berkeley fire officials and are also suspected to have ingested mushrooms. Two were transported to Alta Bates Hospital for treatment while the other student sought medical care independently. Police are not releasing the students’ names because of the ongoing investigation. Celaya said he did not know whether any of the students were still hospitalized. Police suspect that Aguilar was alone in the room at the time of the incident, Celaya said. |
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_6129516 Man had half-pound of 'shrooms, cops say Concord suspect, 40, faces seven felony drug charges; cops had been looking for marijuana By Malaika Fraley, MEDIANEWS STAFF Sidney Wayne Bishop, 40, was loudly strumming his electric guitar in his Colfax Street home on April 21 when he was surprised by a search warrant from officers looking for marijuana. In addition to 86 marijuana plants, Lt. Keith Whitaker said Bishop was growing psilocybin mushrooms in short Mason jars stacked like strawberry preserves in a dark, temperature-controlled room. Officers seized 46 jars containing psilocybin mushrooms weighing, in total, two pounds wet and a half-pound dry, Whitaker said. Over 300 more jars seized were either empty or contained mushroom spores in early stages of cultivation. One-eighth of an ounce of psilocybin mushrooms, enough for multiple users, has a street value of about $40, according to online sites. "It's not shocking to occasionally come across psilocybin mushrooms, people possessing them in small quantities for use," Whitaker said. "I can't remember if we've ever come across mushrooms for cultivation. It was unusual, and we stumbled across it." It was so atypical in Contra Costa County, drug crimes prosecutor Dana Filkowski said she had to manually enter the charge for psilocybin mushroom cultivation, which indicates no such cases in years. "It's not like medical marijuana, where it's found a place in mainstream society," Filkowski said. "I think it's still associated with a counterculture, or alternative lifestyle." Bishop faces seven felony drug charges of cultivation and possession for sale that, if convicted, could result in more than six years in prison, Filkowski said. An articulate new grandfather with multiple facial piercings and an abundance of colorful body art, Bishop pleaded not guilty before a Contra Costa judge on Monday dressed in a tan suit. His hair, which falls below his shoulders, was pulled back in a low ponytail. Outside the Martinez courthouse, Bishop, who is being represented by a public defender, declined to comment on the charges against him in light of the early stages of the case. He said he's back at home, where neighbors who heard of his legal troubles gave him $200 cash to support him after he was freed from county jail in lieu of $95,000 bail last month after serving several days. Bishop said he served 66 months in a federal prison after he was convicted in his native Iowa in 1988 for distributing LSD. Bishop challenged federal sentencing guidelines that combines the weight of the LSD with its carrier medium (in that case, blotter paper) in the calculation of the total weight of the drug. The conviction was affirmed by an appeals court before it was denied consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court, records show. Bishop said Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote a scathing argument of why it should be heard. Under the federal schedule of controlled substances, psilocybin mushrooms are in the same class as marijuana, LSD and peyote. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's San Francisco field office, which polices California from Bakersfield to Redding, sees about one to two mushroom cultivation cases a year, said Special Agent Casey McEnry. Typically, it's found in the possession of mid- to low-level poly-drug traffickers who are selling other drugs such as ecstasy and marijuana, McEnry said. It's difficult to seek out cultivators, because mushrooms can be grown so discreetly. "It's still out there, but on a much smaller scale as it was 40 years ago," McEnry said. "But if we're still seizing them, it's still being used, and there's still a market for it in the Bay Area." David Campbell, president of the Mycological Society of San Francisco, a nonprofit group since the 1950s that hunts and studies mushrooms for research and hobby, said the history of psilocybin mushrooms dates back thousands of years to shamans, and other religious leaders would ingest them for spiritual reasons. Psilocybin mushrooms grow naturally all over the world. In urban areas, they are commonly found in landscaping. In nature, they grow on animal dung. While the general consensus is they are not addictive, they are illegal almost everywhere and can be dangerous to people predisposed to mental conditions, Campbell said. He stressed that many kinds of wild mushrooms are poisonous and can result in death. "(Psilocybin mushrooms) aren't for casual identification. If you don't know what you're eating, you should not be eating it," Campbell said. "It's like a game of Russian Roulette." "No government or drug enforcement agency could rid the world of them," he said. "They would have to destroy the ecosystem to get rid of the mushrooms, because mushrooms are an integral part of the ecosystem, and they occur naturally." |
1st Response to Above Post Article: 6-13-2007 The reporter wrote on advice from police that:
![]() ![]() Also, another comment which is incorrect is this one from Special Agent McEnry [of what?] who does not know what he is talking about
![]() ![]() This agent does not know what he is talking about, so I am going to write them as I usually do when they aremisinformed and/or misrepresent the truth. mj 2nd Response to Post Article. Cube-it quoted from the article:
![]() ![]() David Cambell, as a head of a local mycological society group is providing false information to the press abnout the dangers in identifying psilocybine containing mushrooms, because as such, his position in a local mycological society, he is well aware that the psilocybian species stain blue when damgaed or witrh age, thus making their identification easy for those looking for them. For someone that prominent to misrepresent the truth of the matter to the reporters about the dangers is not good mycology. mj Thus another letter I will send off to him too. Subsequent emails, both to the reporter and to David Campbell, resulted in no responses to my inquiries about their comments in the above news item. |
Californiashroom8-19-2007 Hallucinogenic mushroom use, transport on the rise in Shasta CountyMANY PICS IN LINK ![]() CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLAGE ![]() ![]() Photo by Mike Greener / Record Searchlight SHROOM IN HAND: Josh Rodine, who manages seized property at
the Shasta County sheriff’s evidence lockup, holds a handful of hallucinogenic
mushrooms seized in a traffic stop last month. Drug enforcement officers say
more people are eating the illegal fungus. Photo by Mike Greener / Record Searchlight HEAPS OF FUNGUS: Shasta County sheriff’s Sgt. Alan Gilman
and Josh Rodine, who manages seized property at the sheriff’s evidence lockup,
on Thursday lay out 18, 1-gallon bags of hallucinogenic mushrooms, seized last
month during a traffic stop. |
Oroville Mercury-Register Online Oroville, California November 2, 2007 http://www.orovillemr.com/news/ci_7334800 Teen gets nine years for naked assault on Berry Creek woman By TERRY VAU DELL/MediaNews Group Article Launched: 10/31/2007 08:23:46 PM PDT Calling the crime "vicious and callous," a judge Wednesday handed down the maximum nine-year, prison term to a young man who while naked broke into an elderly woman's Berry Creek home and beat her into unconsciousness. The 84-year-old victim, who was hospitalized two months due to the extent of her injuries, told a judge that at one point her suffering was so great, she asked her doctors to let her die. The victim reportedly got off two pistol shots before she was tackled into a wall and her face "pounded" into the floor by her admitted attacker, Logan Duane Hursh, then 18. In urging a lesser sentence, his attorney argued Wednesday the teen was in a "disassociate state" due to the ingestion of some hallucinatory mushrooms, which Hursh claims he was induced to take with an abusive family member as part of a "spiritual cleansing" process. When police responded to the victim's 9-1-1 call, they found the naked intruder in a back bedroom, watching TV, as the elderly victim lay unconscious in a pool of blood on the floor of a front room. The prosecutor Wednesday submitted photos of the woman's bloody face and the extensive damage to her home caused by the assailant. Reading from a prepared statement, the frail woman recounted how she was awakened about 4 a.m. on the morning of April 3 by her two dogs barking. She said she was confronted by a large naked man breaking through her window. She fired her gun at the suspect, but as not experienced with firearms, and both shots went into the ceiling. The next thing she remembered was waking up in an ambulance in a great amount of pain. During her lengthy hospitalization, she contracted pneumonia and a blood clot to one lung and experienced a loss of hearing, and double vision. Though her health has improved, she still has a surgical plate implanted in her jaw. Once a capable and independent woman, she told Judge James Reilley Wednesday she still has nightmares of the attack, and now has to ask others to help her do chores which she used to perform herself. In her prepared statement, which she was unable to finish — so overcome with emotion and tears— she thanked several neighbors who took care of her animals and property while she was in the hospital. The victim told Hursh Wednesday he's lucky he didn't break into the mobile home of three neighbor men more experienced with firearms, who likely would have killed him. "This man violated the sanctity of her home and terrified this victim and the entire community of Berry Creek," deputy district attorney Kelly Maloy said at the teenager's sentencing. Calling it a "particularly heinous crime," the prosecutor told the judge the maximum sentence, if nothing else, would ensure the victim "nine years of peace." Though it did not amount to a complete mental defense to the charges, Hursh's attorney Jodea Foster, pointed out that a doctor who examined the assailant, concluded he likely was "suffering from a psychotic or disassociate state" from a drug which he had never taken before. That was borne out, Foster argued, by the fact Hursh stood looking at his hands instead of fleeing when the victim fired the gun at him. Citing the "horrendous nature of the crime," Reilley imposed the maximum sentence. Reilley found the victim was "particularly vulnerable" and that the crime involved a high-degree of viciousness and callousness. |
Alton raid nets psychedelic mushrooms By Cutter Mitchell jmitchekk@citizen.com Article Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Alton raid nets psychedelic mushrooms December 5, 2007 - citizen.com ALTON — Local police have seized material relating to what they call a large-scale psychedelic mushroom-growing operation with an estimated street value of $200,000 per growing cycle. The seizure of evidence at 70 Bay Hill Road was the second raid at that residence in a week. Last Friday, after having received a tip from the California Department of Justice about a package containing four pounds of marijuana heading to the Alton home, police seized 70 marijuana plants capable of producing a pound of the contraband each, eight counterfeit bills of U.S. currency, 1,000 rounds of ammunition, 24 firearms, a small bag of what was believed to be cocaine, two knives, and a pair of nun-chucks. Police obtained a second search warrant two days ago after reviewing photographs taken at the original raid. Chief Philip Smith explained there were a number of items that caught the attention of his officers. "These were plain-view items; nothing was hidden," said Smith. Instead of seizing the suspected mushroom-growing operation at that time, officers took time to review the photographs then obtain a second search warrant.< In the second raid, police seized more than 70 cases of canning jars with each case containing 850 individual jars, brown rice flour, 114 syringes containing what is believed to be psychedelic mushroom spores, two large pressure cookers, and a seedling grow mat. The Alton Police Department has issued an arrest warrant for Aaron Diamond, 24, of Alton, thought he has yet to be located. Diamond is the second tenant of 70 Bay Hill Road. Diamond is wanted on four felony charges, including possession of controlled drug/narcotic, sale of controlled drug/narcotic, manufacturing of a controlled drug, conspiracy to commit forgery. Diamond's roommate, Glenn Mallon, 32, of Alton and his female acquaintance, Kristen Campos, 23, were arrested in the initial raid last week and are facing similar charges. ![]() RAY MONGEAU/CITIZENPHOTO Alton Police officer Kurt Driscoll, left, and Patrolman Kirt Hart, right, with equipment and material that is used to produce mushrooms that contains psilocybins, which were seized in a raid as a result of an on going investigation. ![]() RAY MONGEAU/CITIZENPHOTO Material and equipment seized by the Alton Police department that is used to produce psilocybin mushrooms also known as the magic mushroom. The equipment and material was estimated to have the ability to produce a street value of $200,000.00 worth of mushrooms. |
Red Bluff Daily News Online, Red Bluff California. 1-30-2008. Man's death leads to 'massive' drug discovery Search of home turns up $500,000 in mushrooms, arrest By KAREN McINTYRE-DN Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 01/30/2008 08:39:26 AM PST
CORNING - The body of 52-year-old Allen Joseph Milanowski found on Loleta Avenue just outside of Corning Monday morning led to one of Tehama County's biggest drug busts. Inside the residence where Milanowski's vehicle was found, Tehama Inter-agency Drug Enforcement agents found 160 pounds of processed psilocybin, or hallucinogenic, mushrooms with a street value in excess of $500,000, TIDE commander Vic Lacey said. They were packaged in about 340 individually vacuumed bags. Agents also found 10 pounds of marijuana, $5,000 in cash and multiple scales, packaging materials, dishes, glassware and a ventilation system to process the mushrooms, Lacey said. "It's pretty massive," he said. One man is in custody for the mushroom growing operation. "He knew what he was doing," Lacey said. "He's obviously been doing this for a while." TIDE agents discovered the operation by serving a search warrant on the house after discovering four marijuana plants at the residence Tuesday morning while investigating Milanowski's death. Milanowski is not believed to be a homicide victim, Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker said. An autopsy is scheduled for the man at 10 a.m. today in Woodland. --------- Staff writer Karen McIntyre can be reached at 527-2153, extension 109 or kmcintyre@redbluffdailynews.com. |
http://www.redding.com/news/2008/jan/30/magic-mushroom-bust-may-be-largest-north-state-his/ Redding.com "Magic mushroom" bust may be largest in north state historyCORNING - Calling it the biggest hallucinogenic mushroom bust in the history of the north state, drug agents announced today that they seized more than 160 pounds of the fungus from a home near where a body was found earlier this week. "We get small quantities (of mushrooms) from time to time - a couple grams here or there, at the most maybe an ounce," said Vic Lacey, the special agent supervisor of the Tehama Inter-Agency Drug Enforcement Team (TIDE). "We don't see large quantities like this." The bust came Tuesday, when Tehama County Sheriff's investigators requested TIDE agents' help after they found a car belonging to Allen Joseph Milanowski, 52, parked at an Oren Avenue home. Milanowski's partially clothed and bruised body had been found a day earlier on the side of Loleta Avenue in Corning near Oren Avenue, investigators have said. The death wasn't immediately classified as suspicious - there were no gunshot or stab wounds - and an autopsy on the Lake County man was set for today, Undersheriff Dennis Garton said Tuesday. In a press conference today, officials said Milanowski had health problems and hypothermia may have contributed to his death. Toxicology results are expected in two weeks. Officials also said he had a history of arrests for marijuana cultivation. When deputies arrived and interviewed the home's owner, Robert Crane Rawhouser, 57, they noticed marijuana plants and evidence of psilosybin mushrooms being grown and processed on the property, Lacey said. TIDE teams obtained a search warrant for Rawhouser's home and found the 160 pounds of mushrooms, as well as 10 pounds of processed pot, digital scales, large quantities of shipping and packing materials, Lacey said. A hundred and 10 pounds of the fungus was dried, vacuum sealed in plastic bags and ready to be shipped, Lacey said. "This guy had been in operation for a long time," Lacey said. Investigators said Rawhouser was a federal fugitive wanted for not appearing in Wisconsin in 1993 on mushroom growing charges, said Sheriff Clay Parker. He is being held without bail at the Tehama County Jail. This isn't the first time a north state man was arrested in recent months for being in possession of large quantities of mushrooms. On July 2, when Kenneth Ian Rosner, 40, of Carlsbad was pulled over in a traffic stop on Interstate 5 near the Fawndale exit, investigators found more than 18 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms wrapped in sealed 1-gallon baggies. Rosner pleaded guilty in August to transporting or attempting to sell a controlled substance. Lacey said he's unsure if the two alleged crimes are related. Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at 225-8344 or at rsabalow@redding.com. |
Chico Enterprise Record 1-31-2008 160 pounds of hallucinogenic
mushrooms seized in Corning drug bust Quote:
|
theunion.com North San Juan, Nevada County, California Friday, July 18, 2008 By Spumitro Sen |
Pro Skater goes crazy climbs on roof and strips naked on shrooms By Larry Altman Staff Writer Posted: 06/03/2009 06:18:36 PM PDT http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_12514063 ![]() Jereme Rogers Professional skateboarder Jereme Rogers said Wednesday he was sorry for disturbing his Redondo Beach neighbors this week when he "ate some `mushrooms' and bugged out," preaching naked on his rooftop. Rogers, a high school dropout who attributes his skateboarding skills to God, was eventually grabbed by police officers and brought down from his precarious perch. "It obviously was not an everyday experience," the 24-year-old athlete said. "It was a very out-of-body experience. I've never had an experience like that." Rogers pulled off his boxer shorts about 6:40 a.m. Monday and climbed onto the roof of the two-story house he shares with roommates on Havemeyer Lane and Goodman Avenue. "It was obviously something I shouldn't have done," Rogers said as he rolled a marijuana joint in his bedroom. "It was just something that happened." Redondo Beach police Lt. Jim Acquarelli climbed about 20 to 30 feet to the roof, where he found Rogers yelling and screaming. Acquarelli said Rogers' roommates told him that he had ingested the hallucinogenic drug. Rogers ran back and forth around the roof's perimeter, sitting down at the edge with his back to the street. "He would have fragmented, interrupted conversations with people that weren't there," Acquarelli said. Rogers never tried to jump or talked of suicide, but he came very close to falling. "He never lost his balance," the lieutenant said. "The potential Advertisement was there for it. If he had taken a few negligible steps to the right, that would have impeded his balance and would have led to his demise." Rogers, who is religious and often talks about spirituality, said in the interview that he was preaching to the neighbors and talking about God. "I literally was walking on the edge," he said. "They said my balance was amazing." Acquarelli said he read some of the tattoos on Rogers' body and used the words to try to draw his interest. Rogers has "In God I Trust" tattooed on his neck and similar tattoos on his body and arms. The police officer told Rogers he was a Catholic high school teacher, talked about spirituality and success, and drew Rogers' attention. He got closer to Rogers and two other officers moved in and grabbed him. Rogers was taken to County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for 72-hour observation. He was not arrested but possibly could face charges later. Rogers, a native of Boston, was voted TransWorld Skateboarding's 2006 Rookie of the Year. His sponsors include Billabong, DVS, Royal Diamond, Modern Wheels, Monster Energy Drink and Boost Mobile, according to a profile on about.com's skateboarding page. "Jereme Rogers is a self-taught, highly driven skateboarder," wrote the author, Steve Cave. "He pushed himself into being good enough to ride with the pros, and he still pushes himself today to become the best park rider around. And he's doing it. Jereme Rogers' style is strong and fluid, and loads of switch tricks mixed in." The article said Rogers dropped out of high school to pursue skateboarding, and is a very outspoken Christian. "In interviews he has no problem talking about how he got his skill in skateboarding from God, and then dropping an F-bomb. Jereme Rogers has a clean image and is a role model to skaters all over the planet." Rogers did not smoke the joint in front of a reporter. He said it is well known among his fans that he is a user. "Yeah, I'm rolling weed," he said. "I have a medical card. I'm a weed |