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Are spore print legal in Australia?

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I've done a search on the forum and google and I came up with nothing, so can someone please inform me of the legalities of spore prints and syringes in Australia.

And if they are legal to have, why isn't there spore prints available for sale online just like overseas? eg like sporeworks.

Confused.. :unsure:

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It all comes down to intent if i remember correctly 0 if you had a syringe with spores in it its pretty hard to argue that you werent intending to cultivate evil and illegal mushrooms.

On the other hand if you have just a spore print you might be able to argue that you had them for microscopic purposes - research, etc. But even then if you dont have a scope then its probably pretty hard to argue that.

There used to be a spore seller in australia a while back, but he moved on and no one came to fill the void basically. WHy dont you start one?? ;)

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I've done a search on the forum and google and I came up with nothing, so can someone please inform me of the legalities of spore prints and syringes in Australia.

And if they are legal to have, why isn't there spore prints available for sale online just like overseas? eg like sporeworks.

Confused.. :unsure:

This should probably be in the legals forum.

And this is not based on legal advice from lawyers, or on test cases, but on the general consensus that the forum has reached over time by looking at the legislation.

Spore prints are not illegal. They have uses other than growing mushrooms. They are very important in identification of fungi. When you buy a sporeprint, you are obviously buying it for these reasons.

Spore syringes probably are illegal. Because it is not necessary to put spores in a syringe for their identification purposes, there is really no reason why you would put them in a syringe unless you intended to grow them. So possession of a syringe is tantamount to intent to grow mushrooms.

Which brings us to my favourite question - is growing mushrooms illegal? In all the legislation I've seen, mushrooms are considered 'plants'. And in my state they are not listed as prohibited plants. Therefore, growing them should be just like growing cacti, HBWR, Acacia, or any other plant that contains a prohibited drug but which is itself not prohibited to grow. However, there are two problems with this. Firstly, as soon as you pick them they become illegal. Secondly, there is no real tradition of ornamental mushroom growing so it would be fairly easy for a court to argue that you were indeed growing them for consumption, which would make them illegal. If you had anything else in the house it would be pretty clear why you were really growing them. So this is not a safe legal path to go down. But it could potentially call into question the belief that spore syringes are illegal.

Now the second part of your question - selling prints could draw a fair bit of unwanted attention to yourself. So you'd want to be doing it very carefully. The market in Australia probably isn't big enough to provide sufficient rewards for the kind of risks involved for most people.

Edited by creach

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I don't think customs are too favourable about them if they pick them up, but they have a peculiar set of laws and most states don't have any ban on prints themselves, but depending on the situation they are located in (if you are caught) it would not be hard for any good prosecutor to put someone found with them and any other piece of incrimintating evidence in a bit of hot water.

Best to keep low key about it!

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I just assumed that no-one in Australia sells sporeprints because cultivation and posession of the particular mushrooms we are talking about is illegal in this country. Couldn't sporeprints be possibly used as evidence of said cultivation and posession, even if only enough for a search warrant? Unless the retailer could prove that they purchased the sporeprints from a country where the mushrooms are legal, I think they could be in strife. JMHO, but it makes sense doesn't it?

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There are customs, quarantine, federal drug and state drug laws that apply to this question.

Customs - not specifically scheduled, but the community protection unit will seize spores and CAN raid & prosecute if they find evidence of conspiracy to manufacture a drug. However, this is very unlikely.

Quarantine - this is a prohibited species and blatant import can attract a substantial fine. This is not common, but becomes alwmost guaranteed if there is evidence that the prohibited import was obscured, ie if they feel or can prove that you knew it was wrong and did it anyway.

Federal drug - the possession of spores can always be used as probable cause for a search due to suspicion that there is intent to manufacture a drug. If the search does not gain anything then there is really no legal consequence as far as I can see. ie, owning spores is like owning a condensor - the equipment is legal, but you better have a bloody good reason to own one and also have your house spotless.

State drug - this is where most of the activity is. This is also where soem states are different from others. I don't know all state laws, but i am pretty familiar with Vic, NSW, Qld and ACT. Leaving the conspiracy/intent to manufature aside, the main application of the law is that in most states the possession of spores would be treated about the same as described under the federal section. In most states psilocybin is scheduled and anythign containing it is also scheduled. The spores do not contain any psilocybin (apparently!!) and hence should be legal. However, ACT is different. In the ACT the drug law covers many species of plants, including the genus Psilocybe. That means ALL PARTS of the organism are scheduled. This includes the spores. So, in the ACT the spores are illegal to possess.

There are two main problems to keep an eye on here.

One is that GC/MS technology has become much more sensitive and we may find out one day that sporesdo indeed contains traces of psilocybin. In that case they would be illegal in all states as there is no minimum limit of a drug before it becomes illegal.

The second problem is the changing of the criminal state law. The federal government is trying to get all states to adopt a criminal code similar to a draft prepared by a working group. This draft lists virtually all interesting ethnobotanicals as prohibited plants. The ACT drug law has adopted this draft and hence the list of plants. Victoria has adopted parts of the draft, but not the list - yet. We need to keep a close eye on such changes, as they can come quickly and without any notice.

I would expect that most, if not all states will have adopted the draft in the next 10 years, and with it possibly the full list of plant species.

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On 06/10/2006 at 3:20 AM, Torsten said:

The second problem is the changing of the criminal state law. The federal government is trying to get all states to adopt a criminal code similar to a draft prepared by a working group. This draft lists virtually all interesting ethnobotanicals as prohibited plants. The ACT drug law has adopted this draft and hence the list of plants. Victoria has adopted parts of the draft, but not the list - yet. We need to keep a close eye on such changes, as they can come quickly and without any notice.

I would expect that most, if not all states will have adopted the draft in the next 10 years, and with it possibly the full list of plant species.

 

any update to the NSW law situation since Torsten's excellent post above?

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Flash from the past!

 

I watched the Paul Stamets' fantastic fungi on Netflix - then I fell asleep and had a dream:
In my dream, after watching the docu-film-over-use-of-CGI brought back all those memories of dreams I had of those magically mushroom growing and experience days, when I was in Uni.

This was a dream, so I won't talk about this anymore.

 

Then it got me to thinking the same question I had back in 2006 - and Google brought me here!

15 years later, and how things have changed - but not the law, but hopefully soon, then I can stop dreaming of things to write about, and experience them first-hand instead.

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great doco though I watched it also!

 

People have them on the sales part of the site for microscopy. Aldi has some nice entry level scopes at the moment too

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23 hours ago, rottenjonny said:

great doco though I watched it also!

 

People have them on the sales part of the site for microscopy. Aldi has some nice entry level scopes at the moment too

I looked up those microscopes - they look pretty decent for the price, and would do the job just fine.

Unfortunately sold out in SEQ, but I'll keep my eyes open for others.

 

The same brand (Smithsonian is available on Amazon and Ebay, but for nearly twice price), so I'll wait for the next Aldi rounds.

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