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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Registered: 08/08/97
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Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms 4
#24557378 - 08/16/17 06:26 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms psymposia.com
Paul Lee Corbett of Washington, 63, is a man of great adventure with a deep love for nature. Between 1968 and 1976, he lived, studied, and traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, and Alaskan regions. He has spent most of his life in Alaska, where he supported himself and his family by utilizing the environment around them. He set gill nets and long lines for fish, dug clams, hunted his meat, grew vegetables, and foraged. His adventures include traveling in 16-foot skiffs on the open waters of the Pacific Ocean and trekking 1,600-mile round-trips between Alaska and British Columbia. “I loved nature and the secure peace of being in it,” he says.
While mastering his external terrains, Corbett simultaneously built a strong relationship with his internal landscape with the use of entheogenic drugs, such as cannabis, LSD, and psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Corbett knows quite a bit, in fact, about psilocybin mushrooms—and not just from eating them. He’s a skilled forager with knowledge of the many different species of psychedelic mushrooms—of which there are hundreds, belonging to about a dozen different genera.
He credits LSD in particular with having “changed [his] mind in every direction” and relieved him of his heroin addiction. But the lasting effects were even more profound. “I no longer felt comfortable in this society, the United States, or really any society,” he says. After his experiences with drugs, he left the U.S., traveling northward before arriving in Alaska, beginning his life in remote destinations.
Currently, Corbett is facing a potential prison sentence of five years for possession of psilocybin mushrooms. In November 2016, he was arrested for picking wild mushrooms at Cape Disappointment Park in Washington state. He glimpsed what he believed to be a yet unidentified species of psilocybin mushroom, picking specimens of it for later analysis. Corbett maintains his innocence, arguing he committed no crime and injured no one. He was only exercising his natural curiosity, he says.
He first picked wild psilocybin mushrooms outside Seattle in 1972. “That kinda opened my eyes to the early information about season and location, so I became curious about that,” he tells me. “Eventually I found other types of psilocybe. Once you find the mushroom, you learn about the other mushrooms that grow with it, what kind of trees there are, what kind of medium they grow in, whether it’s grass or bark. The mushrooms educate you about the rest of the forest and the environment, too.”
Corbett was hiking in Cape Disappointment Park when he spotted large red mushrooms in a wood chip pile, which were to his knowledge, unidentified. A sign posted nearby read: NO MUSHROOM PICKING: VIOLATORS SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL CITATION. Corbett ignored it, elated by his discovery. “Everyone that goes there thinks those mushrooms are Psilocybe azurescens, but they’re not. They’re more clean feeling like the ‘liberty cap’ [Psilocybe semilanceata], and a very, very beautiful mushroom.” Close by, in the grass, he spotted true azurescens. More of the mystery mushrooms grew by the spot where Corbett had parked his truck.
The odd mushrooms, Corbett believes, were a sub-species—if not an entirely different species—of azurescens. He picked 10 specimens from the woodchip pile, and put them in a plastic bag along with 10 of the classic azurescens. “I put them together because they were clearly different, with no mistake whatsoever. They don’t look anything alike.” After storing the bag in his truck, Corbett put ten more mushrooms in his pocket before he heard a cry: “Police! Hold it right there!” A park ranger darted out of the brush with a gun pointed at Corbett’s face.
The ranger felt in Corbett’s pocket for the mushrooms, then handcuffed him. Another park ranger soon arrived. Corbett calmly revealed where his other mushrooms were stored, and the officials searched his truck. He was arrested and taken to the local jail. After the police called a judge, they were advised to release Corbett on his own recognizance. He hitchhiked back to the Washington coast to find his partner, Joyce, whom he has never left alone for more than two hours due to her physical ailments.
After his arraignment, Corbett was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance, punishable in Washington by up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines. He was offered a plea deal of one year of felony probation with 15 days in jail, but he immediately turned it down. “Joyce uses [medical] cannabis to cut down a quarter of her narcotic pain medication,” he explains, “but on probation she couldn’t even be in the same place I’m in.”
“Plus,” he adds (with a hint of annoyance), “I didn’t commit a crime. There’s no injured party involved in any of this, only Joyce and myself. In fact, over my time of picking mushrooms, I’ve probably saved a couple hundred people who were really stupid.” Not all mushroom species are equally safe for consumption, he states. Through the knowledge he has gained and shared over a lifetime of foraging, he has prevented his pupils from suffering potentially fatal side effects.
Corbett has been to court several times since the incident, but the case has not yet been settled. Twenty-four hours before one of his court dates, he was ordered to leave his wife in the hospital on risk of contempt of court—despite her doctor’s pleas to the contrary—to drive six hours from Fort Townshend, his residency, to attend his hearing.
Corbett has been frustrated by what he considers insufficient or even counterproductive advice by his lawyers, who have urged him to plead guilty. They have refused to discuss anything relating to mushrooms or entheogens, and hope Corbett will settle for the plea deal and probation. But Corbett is determined to challenge the law and prove his innocence.
He has since fired his attorneys and he hopes to hire one who will best represent him and his unique situation. He has opened a crowdfunding campaign to fund his legal expenses and his partner’s medical expenses.
Since his arrest, Corbett and Joyce have been traveling around Washington, following a recent hospitalization and surgery that Joyce underwent. He states that the worst likely consequence of his conviction would be leaving behind his frail partner. “We’re living in a camper now—which is a nice one—but she’s not capable of doing that on her own.” They are both counting on disability insurance, with no money to pay rent.
Corbett heaves a heavy sigh as he recounts his tale to me. “This has got to end. People need to be educated. My hope is to educate the whole courtroom. It’s a mystery to all of us why these things are illegal. And it’s a mystery to me why the word ‘liberty’ doesn’t apply to my curiosity and my entheogenic use.”
Corbett is uncertain about his own fate, but he hasn’t lost faith for his younger peers. “I’m hoping that education with these entheogenic substances will help us change the world, because I’m worried about it. I’m hoping this new movement now can change things. So we look at everything—each other and this whole earth—in a way that is a little more caring and a little more on the side of being a good steward.
“I don’t think people really get to know [the mushrooms] and where they live. They live in beautiful places, amazing places. And then again they also follow us around everywhere we go. They want to be with us, and they want to teach us.”
Corbett will return to trial in November 2017, after two more hearings scheduled in the fall.
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LightRay
Lord Hubert
Registered: 07/18/17
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: Ythan] 4
#24557494 - 08/16/17 07:30 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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Just seems so hilarious a policeman jumping out of a bush with a gun "you picked a mushroom".
Absolutely bizarre behaviour by the human species.
Almost symbolic of the power brokers who point a nuke at the planet.
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: LightRay] 2
#24557588 - 08/16/17 08:13 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
LightRay said: Just seems so hilarious a policeman jumping out of a bush with a gun "you picked a mushroom".
Absolutely bizarre behaviour by the human species.
Very common in the place he was at. If you go there in November you will see lots of hippies walking through the dune grasses, all trying to pretend they are not looking for mushrooms. Some carry binoculars and bird books, others walk dogs and some carry surfboards. On the top of the ridges you will see rangers with binoculars, looking for hippies.
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TNK
Pleasures of Africa
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: Alan Rockefeller] 1
#24557723 - 08/16/17 09:28 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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I've senn this exact thing happen to several people in Kirkland and Redmond.
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bodhisatta
Smurf real estate agent
Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,891
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: Alan Rockefeller] 5
#24557740 - 08/16/17 09:40 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Alan Rockefeller said:
Quote:
LightRay said: Just seems so hilarious a policeman jumping out of a bush with a gun "you picked a mushroom".
Absolutely bizarre behaviour by the human species.
Very common in the place he was at. If you go there in November you will see lots of hippies walking through the dune grasses, all trying to pretend they are not looking for mushrooms. Some carry binoculars and bird books, others walk dogs and some carry surfboards. On the top of the ridges you will see rangers with binoculars, looking for hippies.
What a joke. So we have the law acting as criminals. And "criminals" causing no victim. The law is making victims. So the worst part about magic mushrooms is being caught with them.
Stop! this part of nature is illegal.
I wonder how diluded you have to be to be a park ranger and actually enforce that shit. Especially against an old man.
Cape disappoinment. Because your own country will disappoint you.
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Eminence
Registered: 07/25/10
Posts: 16,627
Loc: Richmond, VA
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: bodhisatta] 1
#24557786 - 08/16/17 10:06 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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Wow, that does it. We must put mother nature behind bars for mass drug manufacturing. I've had enough of this shit.
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JizzMasterZero
Stranger
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: Eminence] 1
#24557858 - 08/16/17 10:40 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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What a shame, that dude sounds so cool. There aren't many free spirits like him anymore. You really would think the rangers would have something better to do, such as protecting the forest and its inhabitants. With that in mind, if they really wanted to punish him, they should make him do community service working in the park rather than locking him up. It would be different if he was picking huge amounts and selling it. It's illegal to do that even with items that aren't illegal.
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Thayendanegea
quiet walker
Registered: 02/20/12
Posts: 7,600
Loc: 7 Lodges Nation
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: JizzMasterZero] 2
#24557955 - 08/16/17 11:20 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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The Mid Atlantic / Northeast corridor has been largely spared this type of governmental oversight. I did hear of people getting busted by rangers in WVa. hunting for ovoids. This is precisely why I am against people posting precise locations for their finds here and on mushroom observer.
Just this spring someone posted the exact state park that I forage in both here and in MO. The problem being that there are only 1 or 2 parking areas where the rangers have to sit in this park. There is no parking anywhere else in the parks. I fear that with the rise in popularity of these entheogens, people are going to start to get arrested and there will be more scenarios like the op. Another thing that pisses me off is that it took me years to find my first ovoids, now this guy points the spot out to anyone who can read.I believe that telling the county of your finds should be sufficient.
I think I will soon start cultivating my own on my own property in outside beds with stem butts from the wild for my and a few friends use. The inevitable is coming.
-------------------- Look Deep Into Nature,and Then You Will Understand Everything Better. Albert Einstein
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JizzMasterZero
Stranger
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: Thayendanegea] 1
#24558062 - 08/16/17 12:17 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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^^^ Yeah, no need to help out the authorities so they can arrest us! I'm sure they would even start searching "suspicious" people that might not even be looking for mushrooms, but just wanted to smoke a bowl out in nature.
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CookieCrumbs
Fucked off to the pub
Registered: 12/10/11
Posts: 14,166
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: JizzMasterZero] 2
#24558113 - 08/16/17 12:41 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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Well he's going to lose. He broke the law. The only thing he can do is try to take it to supreme court to change the laws.
Which probably won't happen. It would be in the best interest of himself and his wife to take the plea deal.
Other than us, people that care about mushrooms and drug use being something left up to an individual, almost no one will hear about his story.
-------------------- Free time is the only time
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ellomello
XP
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Posts: 2,425
Loc: babilonUSA
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: CookieCrumbs] 1
#24558454 - 08/16/17 03:20 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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if they are freshly picked, they are not illegal until dried, just say they are for later identification. unless they use his statements about psychaelic against him, he will probably get penalty for illegal taking from state-park.
Quote:
Corbett was hiking in Cape Disappointment Park when he spotted large red mushrooms in a wood chip pile, which were to his knowledge, unidentified. A sign posted nearby read: NO MUSHROOM PICKING: VIOLATORS SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL CITATION. Corbett ignored it, elated by his discovery. “Everyone that goes there thinks those mushrooms are Psilocybe azurescens, but they’re not. They’re more clean feeling like the ‘liberty cap’ [Psilocybe semilanceata], and a very, very beautiful mushroom.” Close by, in the grass, he spotted true azurescens. More of the mystery mushrooms grew by the spot where Corbett had parked his truck.
(a new red-cap woodloving species, that sounds pretty cool)
-------------------- PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN get back to the garden some came singing, some come to play, some come for keeping the dark away
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CookieCrumbs
Fucked off to the pub
Registered: 12/10/11
Posts: 14,166
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: ellomello] 1
#24558531 - 08/16/17 03:53 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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That's true, and that's a much lesser sentence. Hopefully his lawyers will help him push it... Though he sounds like the sort that won't be able to keep his mouth shut for it.
-------------------- Free time is the only time
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FreeTheSoul
The wonderer.
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: CookieCrumbs] 1
#24559024 - 08/16/17 07:54 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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That is not true, possession of anything containing psilocybin is illegal in every state and on a federal level. The only reason you people think its not illegal is because some granny gets caught growing some poppies and the prosecution dismisses the charges, if you're a hippie though that shit just ain't going to happen, they know you were purposefully breaking the law.
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ellomello
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: FreeTheSoul] 1
#24559205 - 08/16/17 09:25 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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No i really think if they are fresh and (if you don't say they're psychedelic) but for later identification, that isn't illegal. . ..As long as you have permission to be foraging, and NOT next to a big sign that says 'NO MUSHROOM PICKING'
-------------------- PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN get back to the garden some came singing, some come to play, some come for keeping the dark away
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FreeTheSoul
The wonderer.
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: ellomello] 1
#24559235 - 08/16/17 09:41 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
ellomello said: No i really think if they are fresh and (if you don't say they're psychedelic) but for later identification, that isn't illegal. . ..As long as you have permission to be foraging, and NOT next to a big sign that says 'NO MUSHROOM PICKING'
Nope you are still in possession, just like if you drive someone elses car if it has kilos of coke in the trunk you are going to be charged with possession even though its not your car, and not your kilos, the driver is the one who posses the objects in the car, also there's a thing called constructive possession where you can be in a place and get charged for whats in the place as well.
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sprinkles
otd president
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: Ythan] 1
#24559432 - 08/16/17 11:37 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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the "justice" system here in washington state is a joke that has no humor at all, whatsoever. ITs fucking ridiculous.
I always said when I lose my mind and go batcrap crazy im taking the heavy machineries and my first stop will be the court house. I would never wanna hurt anybody, just make a statement.
there are more police per capita here in WA than in any other state in the US. this state has way too much money.
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pineninja
Dream Weaver
Registered: 08/17/14
Posts: 12,468
Loc: South
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: sprinkles] 1
#24559450 - 08/16/17 11:50 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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Thoughts to you Paul. Yours is a good fight and one that is appreciated by me.
It is only through people making brave and open stances like this that acceptance and truth can come about.
-------------------- Just a fool on the hill.
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Wiiiiilson
Katso Grower
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: pineninja] 1
#24559775 - 08/17/17 07:36 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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You may be right pineninja, but I don't think he's going to be the right guy to get the message across. If he did this all purely to make a statement about the ridiculous state of hallucinogenics prosecution, then maybe. But if you consider that he blatantly went out of his way to go there and knowingly broke the law, in spite of being responsible for his wife's health at the cost of no longer being able to now help her - that looks reckless.
Like Cookie said, he's the kinda guy who probably can't keep his mouth shut.
As soon as he starts saying stuff like, "...then again they also follow us around everywhere we go. They want to be with us, and they want to teach us", the same people who already hate and fear psychedelics are going to get further inflamed. The people who don't care, still won't care and will probably just label him a hippie.
People just don't know that it's worth defending if they never try it. Otherwise, what benefit does the average joe think mushrooms have? There's some positive research getting light at the moment that psychedelics can be useful for combating addiction to drugs that are actually dangerous and has helped some people with depression and anxiety. Unfortunately there's a whole lot more negative media about psychedelics causing erratic behavior, bad trips, psychosis and disruptive thinking like “I no longer felt comfortable in this society, the United States, or really any society,”.
In the government's eyes that's a very bad thing. He's happy to subsist? That's not economically productive.
Psychedelics have the same bad wrap that weed had once and while weed has had a massive following, mushrooms do not.... yet.
-------------------- Long time lurker and learner!
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Blabble40
Scorpio
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: Wiiiiilson] 1
#24560251 - 08/17/17 11:37 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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A pretty sad story I suppose but he did ignore the sign. They apparently actually cared enough to enforce it more than regular rec or med pot in California (which I'm told cops are mostly lax about it and focus on other stuff, could be wrong).
Sad part is, no matter how much anyone complains on this website the laws aren't going to change soon because of that.
They say the war is already over but the government won't admit it for another ten or twenty years. It's like, right around the corner.
Edited by Blabble40 (08/17/17 02:58 PM)
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Bill_Oreilly
ANIMALS (the RAINBOW SERPENT)
Registered: 11/12/11
Posts: 26,370
Loc: Boston
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Re: Washington Man Facing Prison After Foraging for Wild Mushrooms [Re: Blabble40] 2
#24560572 - 08/17/17 02:14 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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I feel bad for this guy.
But the average hippie can rot in jail for all i care. If they want mushrooms so bad they should grow them in a home instead of being a cheap dirty stinky hippy and picking them when you know you are not supposed to do that. Hippies just really piss me off...they wont shower yet they always have the answers to everything...they are the most lazy people on the planet as well. You ever see a hippy giving away any money to a good cause? Nope...they are like bums...any money goes to drugs.
-------------------- Something there is mysteriously formed, Existing before Heaven and Earth, Silent, still, standing alone, unchanging, All-pervading, unfailing, I do not know its name; I call it tao. If forced to give it a name, I call it Great (ta). Being great, it flows out; Flowing out means far-reaching; Being far-reaching, it is said to return. It's just a shot away..
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