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Chatting in ArsTechnica #macintosh channel today, we drifted from the subject of North Korean insanity into McDonald's food profit margins into food aversions. I mentioned my conviction that mushrooms are foul, to which irish replied that he only likes one kind of mushroom. This lead to a discussion of the merits, benefits, and all around wonderous nature of psilocybe mushrooms. It made me think of PFTek and I popped over to the Psilocybe Fanaticus website for a reminder of the ease of growing this truly magic mushroom.
When the website refused to load, I had a sense that Fanaticus had been devored by the recent federal smackdown on head shops and paraphernalia vendors.. Indeed, Google informed me that the worst had happened.
Irish mentioned that he found a report that mentioned there was a mushroom growing operation at the PF guy's house that he used to harvest the spores. The news reports mistaken reported that he was actually selling mushrooms, but he only sold legal spores in legal syringes in a mixture of legal water. The instructions for how to grow mushrooms using the spores made him guilty of something, I guess. Probably a terrahist. (Edit: I found the DOJ press release that explains in more detail here.)
I did kind of like the investigators' idea about selling ready made meth kits. Could call it Krank'it (Crank Kit, get it?) and make millions!
I link to another news story and provide its text in the rest of this entry.
Investigators: Magic mushrooms via the Web Note: This link may redirect you to a login/signup page, but on my browser the whole news story loaded, then redirected. If you stop the page loading at the right spot, you can probably view the story with pictures. I've reposted the story in its entirety here though.
02/19/2003
By CHRIS INGALLS / KING 5 Investigators
They're called "magic mushrooms" and they produce an illegal high. Tuesday, federal agents raided a local company that made tens of thousands of dollars a month selling them on the Internet.
The KING 5 Investigators have been looking into this company for weeks now. The company is known as Fanaticus and they sell syringes, filled with a solution with countless spores. With these and a little know-how, just about anyone can grow potent psychedelic mushrooms. KING 5 was there when drug agents brought in one of two men suspected of putting a high-tech twist on the sale of an old-time drug by operating Fanaticus, the Web site that sells the magic mushrooms via the Internet.
Agents say the men operated out of a home near Lake Quinault in the remote rain-forest country of the Olympic Peninsula ? the perfect climate for growing mushrooms. Authorities say they first heard about Fanaticus in phone calls coming in from across the country. The KING 5 Investigators obtained some syringes from Fanaticus. A close look shows the tiny black spores floating in a solution.
Prosecutors say the spores themselves are not illegal. They don't contain the hallucinogenic properties of a full-grown mushroom, but the Web site contains specific instructions on how to inject the spores into a jar and grow a potent magic mushroom.
"It's the equivalent of selling somebody the ingredients to make meth and telling them how to mix it up, and getting paid for it. You'd be guilty of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine," said Doug Whalley, federal prosecutor.
At $10 per syringe, it appears the suspects? worldwide sales were making them rich. At a court hearing Tuesday, suspected ringleader Robert McPherson admitted earning $30,000 per month and authorities say his only source of income comes from his thriving mail-order mushrooms.
DEA and the postal inspector?s office have been investigating Fanaticus for years. They actually planted some of these spores and grew mushrooms in a DEA lab to make sure the process works. And it did.