Escape from reality

There was unanimous support in Leinster House, and not a single dissenting voice in the national press, when Tanaiste Mary Harney rushed through emergency legislation to criminalise the sale or possession of magic mushrooms.

The ban, which came into immediate effect at 4pm on January 31st, places ‘mushies’ in the same Class A legal category as crack and heroin.
It appears to have been a knee-jerk reaction to the tragic suicide of 33-year-old Dun Laoghaire man Colm Hodginson, who jumped off an apartment building after consuming a quantity of the mushrooms, as well as alcohol (all the literature on hallucinogenic fungi cautions against mixing them with any alcohol whatsoever).
While the pain caused to Hodginson’s loved ones can only be imagined, and the mushrooms may have played a part in the tragedy, there is no available evidence to suggest that magic-mushroom consumption per se increases the likelihood of someone doing themselves serious harm.
Like any mind-altering substance, alcohol included, it’s sensible for anyone experiencing psychological problems to avoid their use.
Thousands of people die each year from smoking or alcohol-related illnesses, yet no-one seriously advocates that tobacconists and off-licenses have their merchandise seized.
According to Jim McDonald, owner of Capel Street’s Hemp Shop, Dublin: “The legislation was passed with extraordinary haste. The way the decision was made completely overnight, without careful consideration of any of the issues, reeks of fascism to me. Mary Harney and Bertie Ahern don’t seem to have any equivalent problem with the alcohol industry. I seem to recall her flying to Donegal in a government helicopter to open an off-licence belonging to a friend of hers. It’s known that quite a few young people have been killed as a direct consequence of consuming alcohol. What’s going on? Where’s the consistency? We have very mature, sensible customers coming in here who are extremely pissed off that their option to take mushrooms has been taken away.”
McDonald’s observations were borne out by a visit to Irish Head Stores on Crow Street, Dublin where a thoroughly normal and apparently well-adjusted Italian couple looked crestfallen on being informed that the mushrooms were no longer legally available. Shane O’Connor, the store’s managing director, confirms that their premises have been subject to repeated Garda attention over the past year.
On one occasion, shoppers on a busy Friday afternoon were astonished when the Gardai walked in: “We’d only just started selling them, and the shop was raided. They made a massive show of marching one of our employees out into the street – they actually wanted to handcuff him – and arrested him under Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, although it was perfectly legal at the time. There’s a prosecution. I’m apparently going to face charges for possession, intent to supply, and importation – like I was some sort of drug baron. The case is still pending, so I can’t say more.’
“Since then,” continues O’Connor, “we’ve had a year of stock seizures by the police, stock seizures by customs, and the press making things up as they go along. Then the ban – the government never informed the shops in advance, they never told us what to do with the stock. We only found out from the press. It took my colleague two hours on the phone to convince the Department of Health to actually give us a copy of the press release. This is despite the fact that the UN has done a toxicity report, which concluded that they’re safe. The Dutch government investigated the issue and concluded that they don’t pose a danger to public health, or to society.”
Not that such considerations have been taken into account by the tabloids. O’Connor was both amused and irritated when a fearlessly intrepid Evening Herald reporter, braving the undoubted dangers, legally bought a packet of cannabis seeds and then allowed himself to be pictured outside the shop in a revelatory ‘DRUGS FREELY AVAILABLE’ scoop.
O’Connor’s diagnosis of the situation is that the Government have been “swayed by The Sun” and excessively influenced by Grainne Kenny, leader of EURAD (Europe Against Drugs), whom he castigates as a ‘self-righteous White House type’. Kenny’s latest target is Trinity College, who conducted a survey of ecstasy users in order to ascertain more details on its long-term effects, and paid the participants for their time. Kenny appears to have formed the opinion that the university was actually paying people to take ecstasy, and was quoted as saying “people are putting their lives at risk for e30.”
According to O’Connor: “The woman seems to think she’s Batman or something. She gets up in the morning and goes out to ‘fight drugs’. Is this the kind of person that the Government is taking seriously, that has influence on the laws that apply to grown adults?”
Despite the ban, the proprietors of Head Store, Fun Guy, The Hemp Shop and related outlets remain fully confident that the legislation can be overturned.
Following consultations between the various shop owners, it has been decided to mount a legal resistance. Helen Stone, who runs the Funky Skunk shop in Cork, has sought a High Court injunction to prevent the Revenue Commissioners from seizing her imports.
In the meantime, mushie enthusiasts are in a legal limbo. The immediate effect of the ban on users is that their hallucinogenic of choice is now unavailable until the ‘mushie season’ commences in September, when the fungi will again be consumed in vast quantities by their devotees.
Those who don’t wish to wait that long, of course, have the option of using the black market, as many undoubtedly will.