Authorities warn of their dangers.

Story by Dave Elias Email | Bio

WEIRTON -- Four people have been arrested for picking hallucinogenic Psilocybin mushrooms.

These mushrooms could harm or even kill someone if used improperly, police said.

WTRF's news cameras went into the woods with authorities and spotted the mushrooms right away.

Police warn if you get caught picking them you will be arrested.

The mushrooms are narcotics and considered the same as heroin or LSD, according to police.

Dear Dave Elias,

Concerning your typical sensationalistic journalism over responsible reporting, I would like to inform you of a few comments in your report on the finding of Psilocybe ovideocystidiata, the species in question in your article on hallucinogenic mushrooms.

As usual, you, like most journalists and reporters, seem to take the word of the police as fact. And you appear to take for granted statements presented to you by your local law enforcement officials as fact. Well it is not and they are full of it.

Officials who have no knowledge of mycology (the study of mushrooms) or mushrooms of any kind, including edibles, toxic or hallucinogenic, often provide fear and misrepresentation of what they are talking about in the matter of most drugs, mushrooms included..

One. Ppilocybine containing mushrooms are nothing like heroin or LSD, the only similarity is that they have been placed in the same class of those drugs as listed in schedule I of the controlled Substances Act, which include heroin, lsd, mescaline, etc..

two: They do not cause death. To die one would have to consume their body weight in mushrooms. Something any person would be impossible to eat that many mushrooms or even more than a few pounds or more of food.

third. They have never been a. substance of abuse or hold a high risk of abuse because if one consumes them on a daily basis for two or three days, the effects disappear due to tolerance which is highly developed in a person who eats said mushrooms.

Four: The mushrooms are completely out of your system within 24 hours.

five, the mushrooms found in West Vitginia, including those recently a few years ago from Wheeler and Bethany, are a newly named species called, Psilocybe ovoideocystidia.

I am currently legally studying those mushrooms in Bangkok at a University there for DNA sequencing, chemical analysis, SEM photography and cultivation and we are doing comparative analysis between the species P. ovoideocystidiata, the ones featured in your news cast and a sister species also found form North Carolina to Maine and southern Ontario to Michigan named, Psilocybe caerulipes.

There are more than 200 specoes of magic mushrooms belonging to 11 families of which the majority are of the genus Psilocybe. And there are 25 known species of psilocybian mushrooms in the United States. And 18 alone in the Pacific Northwest of America. They grow everywhere.

And I should also remind you that police could actually accidentally arrest people picking edible mushrooms which grow in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virgina and Michigan, all states with mycology clubs and with hundreds of people who love to pick morels and chantrelles and other edible species found in similar habitats other than along streams and river banks.

Those mushrooms in your video are also common in major cities in landscaped gardens and/or mulch beds in the hearts of most communities and suburbs. By the tens of thousands in some locations.

There area at least 5-7 different varieties in West Virginia and all do not grow in the woods.

One last point Dave Elias, Your quote from your article is incorrect also in this following matter:

[quote]The mushrooms are narcotics and considered the same as heroin or LSD, according to police.[/quote]

For a journalist, I am surprised that you do not understand the word narcotic.

It comes from the Greek word, 'narcos' which means numbness or narcotic or narcoleptic. Neither mushrooms nor LSD put people into such a state as to sleep or to be put into a stupor as in to put to sleep or drugged..

Mushrooms do not put anyone to sleep. It keeps them awake from four to six hours, and generally causes people to laugh. No one has died directly ever from eating hallucinogenic mushrooms, yet many mushrooms in the woods contain toxins which could kill someone if improperly picked and served as a source of food.

The chemicals in the mushrooms are directly related to serotonine (5-hydroxytryptamine, a neurotransmitter which is also common in the magic mushrooms as this chemical is also in the human brain.

Hallucinogeic mushroom use dates back as far as 9,000-years B.P., in Africa to 3,000-years of use in Mesoamerica, as they are used in divination and healing in Mexico.

If you would like to read up on some of the nature of these mushrooms than visit my website, which has over 13,000 photos and histories and distribution of species.

http://www.mushroomjohn.org

I have several of my books posted there and a few dozen of articles published in prestigious scientific journals of my peers.

Best regards

John W. Allen

I hope you find the time to put some corrections into your next story regarding these mushrooms.

I will post at my site your errors and name for references regarding your article so others may now that again, a news story has been falsely reporting information to the public.

WTOV9.COM

Weirton, West Virginia

May 20,2007

POSTED: 9:52 pm EDT May 20, 2007

WEIRTON, W.Va. -- Panhandle Trail is a quiet, peaceful trail where many families enjoy walking or even biking. But there is something growing near the trail that's not so family friendly -- wild mushrooms containing psilocybin, a drug that causes hallucinations. For the second time in one month police have arrested a group of people they said were trying to pick them.

"I don't understand why people would want to do that to themselves. I mean I don't even like being on cold medicine. I can't imagine people wanting to be out of control with their mind," said trail walker R.J. Cooke.

Weirton police took five people into custody along the trail on charges of possession of marijuana and possession of illegal mushrooms around four o’clock Sunday afternoon. Police would not release their names, but said they got a tip from a trail walker who said they saw suspicious activity.

"I'm not exactly sure what they do with the mushrooms, but I've heard that they come out there and gather them," said trail walker Jim Virtue.

Police said they will not tolerate anyone picking the mushrooms. Currently, the five people arrested are facing misdemeanor charges, but could face felony charges in the future.

"I have a lot of friends that live in Weirton and they are concerned about it for their kids, themselves, and the criminal aspect," said Cooke.

Most of the people on the trail said it won't stop them from enjoying a weekly stroll , but they said they will report seeing any suspicious activity to police.