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Anonymous #1
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Hypotheticly speaking
#10876238 - 08/17/09 02:28 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Say you found a mushroom and your 50% sure it's a psilocybe. But there's no way for you to know, without a microscope. Is it illegal to have a specimen of this to send out to somewhere for proper identification?
Where could you send a specimen to have it examined if you weren't sure?
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ABC
Stranger



Registered: 11/16/08
Posts: 1,439
Last seen: 2 years, 29 days
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If you had it because you thought it might be a drug-containing mushroom, i'm pretty sure that's illegal. But if you can prove that you had no idea, i think there was a case in Florida where someone argued this and didn't get punished.
It's generally not safe to send drugs through the mail to people. You could post pictures in the mushroom hunting and identification forum
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Anonymous #1
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Re: Hypotheticly speaking [Re: ABC]
#10876639 - 08/17/09 03:30 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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I didn't mean to like some person but maybe like a laboratory where they would/could ID it. I was just curious. Thanks for answering my questions though.
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Green_T


Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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Try to find a local mycology club or a mycology professor at a university. They aren't going to rat you out if you ask them what kind it is.
Also, check out the hunting and identification forum, there are some experts there too.
--------------------
"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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Plastered marble
All posts fictional

Registered: 12/28/08
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Re: Hypotheticly speaking [Re: Green_T]
#10877121 - 08/17/09 05:02 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Strongly dependent on state, prosecutor and judge.
If you have previously submitted other specimens for identification, it should be easy to illustrate that your intentions were completely benign in regards to the law.
Make of that what you wish.
-------------------- I survived operation midnight climax and all I got was really, really high. (older sigs)
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ABC
Stranger



Registered: 11/16/08
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Also, it might be argued that some mushrooms do not require a microscope for identification
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smaerd


Registered: 03/11/08
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Re: Hypotheticly speaking [Re: ABC]
#10878096 - 08/17/09 07:48 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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I think what the op is getting at is he's saying he definatly found some psilocybes and was wondering if it would be a viable defense to say "I have no idea what kind it was". But why beat around the bush on this forum lol.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Quote:
Anonymous said: Say you found a mushroom and your 50% sure it's a psilocybe. But there's no way for you to know, without a microscope. Is it illegal to have a specimen of this to send out to somewhere for proper identification?
Where could you send a specimen to have it examined if you weren't sure?
Only dealing with teh possesion/dealing (their may not be an intent element in mailing this stuf), it would depend on wheather the intent must be to possess some substance where that substance turns out to be a drug, or whether the intenet must be to posses a drug.
Under the law's general favoring of the defendant in unclear provisions, the later should be the case, but I've never seen any case answering this question.
Ie, if you buy marijuana that turns out to be oregano sprayed with crack, do you commit the offense of possesing crack/cocaine/whatever under US law?
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist


Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,392
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Quote:
Say you found a mushroom and your 50% sure it's a psilocybe. But there's no way for you to know, without a microscope. Is it illegal to have a specimen of this to send out to somewhere for proper identification?
Probably vaguely illegal, especially if you hope it is a Psilocybe and are trying to get high. But people do it all the time and I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble for it.
Only a very small bit of mushroom is needed to put it under the scope and see what it is. If the post office happened to open your package and found one tiny mushroom or a bit of the cap of a larger mushroom, they aren't going to test it for psilocybin and bust you for it. If it was a whole bag of mushrooms, that would be different.
Its best to label the mushroom "Unknown species - Please identify" and package it well, make sure its addressed properly and follows all the rules in this post.
Microscopic identification is not necessary to find out if a mushroom contains Psilocybin or not - That can be determined with a spore print and good pictures. All mushrooms with purple-brown or black spores that bruise blue contain psilocybin and are not toxic. Microscopic identification is extremely useful when attempting to put a name on your mushroom. Many species of Psilocybe look the same unless you look at it with a microscope.
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ABC
Stranger



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It would be good to include pictures of the habitat. Also maybe ship the mushroom fresh? since it's difficult to identify dried mushrooms
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
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Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: Hypotheticly speaking [Re: ABC]
#10896307 - 08/20/09 09:37 AM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Just post a picture already. You'll have an answer in about 10 minutes.
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po0dingles
0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Registered: 08/20/09
Posts: 419
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Re: Hypotheticly speaking [Re: fastfred]
#10937754 - 08/25/09 09:28 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Why don't you just get a spore print from it and mail it out for analysis. It's not illegal to have a spore print unless you're in California or GA or 1 other state...
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