Reading Crown Court, April 1976

The judgement of Judge P.M. Blomefield

Possession of, growing, and taking any mushrooms is not illegal within the UK. This is due to a legal point highlighted by Judge P.M. Blomefield during his summing up at the end of a mushroom case at Reading Crown Court in April 1976, when he drew the jury's attention to the following points:

"Therefore the question before us is whether or not the possession of the Psilocybin mushroom, from which the drugs is extracted, and the fact that it contains the drug, amount to an offence.

"In this section, two natural vegetable substances are mentioned, coca-leaf and poppy straw. Also listed are the products of these substances, cocaine, opium, morphine etc. In these instances Parliment thought it necessary to specify the vegetable matter as well as the derived drug, suggesting that if you want to make possession of a substance, albeit a natural vegetable substance, an offence, it must be included specifically in the schedule."

Judge Blomefield also pointed out that Morning Glory seeds, which contain lysergamide derivatives, and some species of toad which contain other class A drugs (the "most" serious category), are not listed either. From this he concluded that as Psilocybin mushrooms are not listed in the schedule, it is not an offence to possess them. This precedent was strengthened when in September 1977 the Law Lords ammended the drug laws to include the leaves and roots of Cannabis Sativa as controlled substances, in addition to other parts of the plant except the seeds.