It something I hear from hippies, stoners, etc… .all the time.
“No man, you can totally buy the spores legit, because, like, the laws only say the 'shrooms are illegal. There’s no hallucinogen in the spores, so it’s a loophole! They forgot to include the spores when they wrote the law!”
It seems to me that if that were true, it would be a trivial thing to do to go back and rewrite to law to include not only fungi that contain the hallucinogenic chemical, but also the spores needed to produce them.
And if it is legal…why? Why hasn’t anyone changed the laws?
(And I realize it might vary from state to state, so I guess I should ask if it’s true for any state.)
Here you go.
Spores are explicitly illegal in Idaho and Georgia, and in California if they’re brought over state lines or “intended for use in cultivation [:smack:]”. Growing the 'shrooms is, of course, considered manufacture, but New Mexico has decriminalized growing for personal use.
ETA: Three states illegal, one state legal, 46 states ambiguous.
About 8-9 years ago, I had a friend order some Psilocybin spores off an internet site. It was some kind of laboratory, and I’m 90% sure it was based in the US (If it wasn’t based in the US, it explicity stated they were A.OK to send to the US of A.)
I had my doubts at the time, but sure enough they showed up at his doorsteps 4 weeks later. Probably not the answer you were looking for, but back around 2001-2002 they were delivered just fine.
A quick wiki search on Psilocybin says the following:
In case you think my friend was scammed by fake fungi, after weeks of growing/nurturing those spores sure did grow into pretty “Magic Mushrooms”… which were later stolen by his roommate, never to be seen again.
ETA: This was not in either of the 3 states listed by the above poster, who beat me to the punch.
Yes, depending on what state you’re in. In my younger days I ordered some and lo and behold they arrived. There’s a bunch of things like this - poppy seeds are legal, as are seeds/spores for various other plants that when grown up become illegal. I guess the idea is that if the active element isn’t present in the immature stage, then it’s legal.
I confess it: I have been tempted to buy some and try them. But my job sometimes requires a security clearance and so - even though that wouldn’t automatically rule me out - I probably never will do it.
They were legal in CA in the 80’s when my apartmentmate bought some. It turns out that they’re a major pain in the ass to grow. IIRC, he even had to get a pressure cooker as part of the process. He started them in petri dishes and kept them in a dresser drawer but they kept getting moldy. In fact tons of friends and acquaintances of mine in my college years tried to grow the fucking things and only one was successful. I remember that the paperwork that came with the spores made it out like it was a great science project for a teen along with a warning to never ever eat the final product.
In other words, as far as the U.S. federal government is concerned, pot seeds are pot, and as such are classified in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
As for mushroom spores, my own anecdotal evidence includes acquiring some P. cubensis spores online in 1998. I’ve also seen them for sale over the counter in a head shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.
Were you my roommate? I did exactly the same thing, same time-frame, same state. Got my spore prints on a glassine paper, petri dishes, inoculating loop, sterile environment hood, agar, everything. But I had better success. I ended up with an aquarium/terrarium just chock-full of the bluing mushrooms. Even kept a log of the entire process. It was quite a science project. Fun, too.
Here’s more information on the subject than you would probably care to read, however, I found it all very interesting. You might to skim most of it but read the press release from the USDOJ concerning the case in its entirety. As an aside, my sister’s ex-husband is mentioned by name in that statement. It is clearly not tolerated at the federal level.
I know that this is a zombie but I can tell you that it is no longer legal to ship them to California. A friend of mine has been growing them for the last couple of years. He had to get his spores shipped to his Mom in Arizona and she mailed them to him. Once you have the first batch, you get future spores for free.
