Shroom Ban

[Slybacon]

In the bucolic pastures of Hazerswoude-Dorp, nestled in verdant fields of ruminating Holsteins, lazy windmills, and pert tulips, lies a quaint Dutch farm that functions as the world’s largest psilocybin-containing-truffle factory. To be clear, the truffles this farm produces, often called philosopher’s stones, are not technically truffles (or stones) but rather a distinct fungal propagule that serves a separate biological function from that of a mushroom.

The mushroom constitutes the reproductive body, or “fruit,” of the fungus from which spores are dispersed; upon germination these spores combine to form a fluffy network of threads called mycelium. If the conditions are not correct for the mycelium to organize itself into mushrooms, certain species will form tangled clumps of mycelial tissue called sclerotia. In 2008, the Dutch government banned virtually every known psilocybin-mushroom species but neglected to outlaw the humble hypogeal sclerotium. Overnight these scleroid nuggets of fungal flesh—truffles—became the only legal source of psilocybin in the Netherlands, and so I flew to Amsterdam to learn about their history and propagation.

When I arrived at the Magic Truffles farm, its two proprietors, known as the Truffle Brothers, were unpacking a “realistic” five-foot-tall plastic alien and making plans to dress the alien like Bob Marley and construct a large faux joint for it to smoke. We sat down for a chat.

What do Bob Marley and extraterrestrial beings have in common? They both LOVE weed.

VICE: Who are you, and what is your business?

Ali: My name is Ali. Next to me is my brother, Murat. We are known as the Truffle Brothers. You’re here at the farm of Magic Truffles. We produce sclerotia, also known as magic truffles, here in Hazerswoude-Dorp, which is approximately 30 kilometers south of Amsterdam.

How did you get into the truffle business?

Murat: I was operating a pizzeria. Above my restaurant was a crack guy who exchanged crack products with those guys who hijack… What are these people who hijack buildings called?

Squatters.

Murat: Yes, right. So these squatters exchanged mushrooms that they found in the wild for the crack products of the guy above my pizzeria. This crack guy came to me and gave me a small bag of what appeared to be white pubic hair. It was kind of gross, so I threw it in the drawer and forgot about it. A week or so later I retuned to the bag and saw that it was beginning to fruit mushrooms! So I went with this bag of mushrooms to my brother and said, “I would like to create more of these.” Ali had just finished with his mushroom project in Poland, and so we decided to start a business together.

What was your mushroom project in Poland?

Ali: I was a supervisor on an international white-button-mushroom project. This was a really large grow project with a canning factory behind it. So I was already part of the mushroom-cultivation network, though a very different part. While I was working on the white-button project, a friend of mine came up to me and showed me some spores he had collected on a petri dish. He told me, “It’s a magic mushroom.” I’d never heard of such a thing, so I took a closer look. I went to a friend of mine who owned a mycological laboratory and asked him, “Can we do something with these spores?” He said, “Well, let’s give it a try.” After several weeks there was only one mushroom in the aquarium, but it was a giant mushroom. I gave it to a friend, and he told me it was amazing. Apparently he was talking to deer and trees and flowers. That was, for me, the signal, “OK, this is good, let’s continue with this.” That’s how it all happened, that and Murat’s encounter with the, uh, crack guy upstairs.

http://www.vice.com/read/shroom-ban-0000035-v18n11

[C_T]

I talked to a mate who lives there not long ago about this, he said they are just under the table instead of in the counter display. Bit like buying water pipes over here...

[∂an]

I talked to a mate who lives there not long ago about this, he said they are just under the table instead of in the counter display. Bit like buying water pipes over here...

 

Yeah smart shops are selling fresh Psilocybe tampanensis sclerotia quite openly in Amsterdam. Technically I think they are legal, for the moment. The good strains are very potent, needing only 15 fresh grams for a strong trip. Really interesting fruits don't taste too bad either, and over 2 times more potent that cubensis is impressive. In my experience not as visual as other psilocybes, but an intense trytamine euphoria.

[Hyphal]

'The champagne of fungus'

[∂an]

So did the Dutch government really overlook sclerotia because they were advised they were weaker? This sounds pretty flimsy to me. More likely they wanted to be seen to the public as taking action against drug distribution while not turning away too many tourists from Amsterdam.

[Distracted]

I think it would more likely be a loop in the law.

(talking out my arse here) Maybe they banned all fruits from certain species, or fruits containing certain compounds, but sclerotia aren't fruits so they technically aren't banned.

Sorta like our laws with synthetic cannibinoid agonists how they weren't actual cannibinoids so they weren't automatically banned.

Again I have no real idea about dutch law, this is just my guess as to how/why.

[∂an]

I think it would more likely be a loop in the law.

(talking out my arse here) Maybe they banned all fruits from certain species, or fruits containing certain compounds, but sclerotia aren't fruits so they technically aren't banned.

Sorta like our laws with synthetic cannibinoid agonists how they weren't actual cannibinoids so they weren't automatically banned.

Again I have no real idea about dutch law, this is just my guess as to how/why.

 

true they could have made up the story about being informed they were weaker and not a problem to save face, but that still doesn't really make sense... either way I'm glad the sclerotia are still legal, and that distributors are treading more carefully in amsterdam so as not to spoil the party.

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

2nded hearing the "over the counter" became "under the counter" ...

I wonder if it was the same dude or if they all started saying that as the most efficient way to pass the info across?