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Energysausage
Mr Legs
Registered: 01/06/16
Posts: 23
Last seen: 6 years, 8 months
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If you want to import spores into Australia - Read this!
#22750144 - 01/07/16 08:55 PM (8 years, 22 days ago) |
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Hi guys, I joined this site mainly to ask about importing spores in Australia. But with so little information around, I decided to do some research of my own to find out the risks involved with importing in Australia. I think I've roughly figured out how the law works with respect to importing spores into Australia.
Firstly, there's the question of whether spores are illegal in Australia. Unfortunately, the answer appears to be yes.
The Australian Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 outlaws: “Psilocybin and its derivatives being those derivatives having hallucinogenic properties” (under schedule 1). Spores aren't expressly prohibited, but they would most likely be regarded as a 'derivative'. This is because although spores typically don't contain psilocybin, they are capable of generating the mushrooms, which do. See ‘derivative’ definition in Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 (Cth) section 5(20).
As for importing spores, the law seems to be this (sources are below) …
If you import spores (or any prohibited substance) and attempt to conceal them, and customs finds the spores, you will be liable to face criminal prosecution. This could mean fines of more than $60000 and up to 10-year prison sentence (though very very doubtful you would get such a penalty for some spores alone). An example of attempting to ‘conceal’ is this: ‘Requesting the supplier to pack goods in a manner designed to hide or make them difficult to identify’.
However, if you declare the good (ie, label what it is on the packaging), you will not face a criminal penalty. Customs may still seize the spores and destroy them, but you won’t get in trouble.
So basically, Australia is a total asshole for wannabe mushroom cultivators. You can attempt to import spores discreetly, but if Customs finds them, you’re probably fucked. And if you decide to go the other route and label the spores, there’s probably a very good chance they’ll just seize and destroy them.
I am very curious about whether you could import properly labelled spores without getting them confiscated. If anyone has any knowledge on this, it would be greatly appreciated.
Anyway, hopefully this information is useful for other Australians out there in a similar position to myself.
______ Here are the government sources for my importation discussion above.
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/travelling/internet
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/travelling/to-australia/arriving-in-australia-declare-it#live-animals-and-animal-products
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Energysausage
Mr Legs
Registered: 01/06/16
Posts: 23
Last seen: 6 years, 8 months
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Re: If you want to import spores into Australia - Read this! [Re: Vitalux]
#22773186 - 01/13/16 03:57 AM (8 years, 16 days ago) |
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Hi Vitalux,
I'm not sure about actual convictions, but I can tell you that the government certainly seizes imported psilocybin spore prints/syringes every year. For example, a report by the Crime Commission reveals that in 2013-14, the government seized 72 psilocybin 'samples' at the border, 99.0% of which were detected in the international mail: See the Australian Crime Commission drug report, pp. 120-121.
A bit worrying, but I do agree with you, this is probably only a small percentage of the real amount of prints successfully imported. I have heard a decent amount of anecdotal evidence of successful imports (even with a syringe) from online users - not on this site though.
I totally and absolutely agree with you about there being bad laws. Drug laws - particularly those outlawing largely benign drugs like psilocybin - being a prime example. It makes me furious that some individuals are allowed to impose their biased morality systems onto the entire populace and thus restrict the freedom of adults who are capable of making decisions about their own well-being. Totally fucked if you ask me. And it makes me mad that we who think like this are the odd ones out in society most of the time. Really makes you wonder about sayings like 'land of the free'.
Back to the point though... I'm not sure what the law is in Canada, but in Australia the argument that you didn't know you were breaking the law ('mistake of law') typically won't fly in the courts. Particularly in drug importation cases, which are often strict liability - meaning you don't need to prove mens rea (ie that you knew you were doing something guilty), only that you physically broke the law in question.
You could argue a 'mistake of fact' though. For example, you could argue that you didn't know the spores were capable of producing psilocybin mushrooms.
Yeah from what I hear, things are a lot more tolerant and progressive in Canada. Australia is a pretty decent country for the most part. But it is often surprisingly conservative on social/civil matters, particularly where drug laws are concerned. I reckon it will be a long time before we even get medical marijuana here, let alone any other toning down of our draconian drug laws.
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