liamtheloser said:

20 bucks for shipping? what did you order? a pallet of bricks?

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monstermitch said:

media mail.
 

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Quote:

Article published July 20, 2006

Mushroom kit results in arrests
Magic 'shrooms,' pot found at house

SUMMIT TWP — A seized mail-orderkit to grow psychedelic mushrooms ultimately led authorities to the home of a Summit Township man.
Inside the attractive two-story Portman Road house, investigators allegedly got eyefuls of even more contraband, including 5 pounds of marijuana, eight marijuana plants, OxyContin pills and fully grown, ready-to-eat magic mushrooms.
The Butler County Drug Task Force on Wednesday charged Bradley Calvin Weitzel, 48, his wife and their son with felony narcotics counts stemming from last month's search of the family's home that sits on 14 well-manicured acres.
The retired landscaper is no simple street dealer, Pat Cannon, a county detective who spearheads the Butler County Drug Task Force, said of the defendant.
"Based on the shear amount of weight (of drugs) we found on his property, I'd say he's a major distributor for our area,"Cannon said.
Weitzel is charged with manufacture of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, conspiracy, and possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.
The defendant's wife, Mary Weitzel, 45, and son, Bradley Elton Weitzel, 19, face similar charges. The son lives with his parents.
The case, meanwhile, has raised other issues that could ultimately land in court, such as the legality of the initial search that uncovered the mushroom grow kit.
Whether the kit is legal also could be open to challenge, authorities admit.
The case came to light on June 22 when a DHLdelivery driver was given a large package to be delivered to Weitzel.
The driver was suspicious of the hand-written label and markings on the 25-pound package that stated "Deliver to Addressee Only." The parcel had come from Texas.
Instead of driving to Weitzel's house, the DHL driver went to the Butler police station.
When the driver opened the back of the truck, police Chief Tim Fennell, a 27-year veteran cop and a one-time supervisor of the drug task force, got a whiff of what he believed was marijuana.
"It was just a little blast," he said. "It turned out to be organic material (from the mushroom grow kit), but it smelled like marijuana."
The 2-foot-high package designated for Weitzel was taken to the courthouse where it was X-rayed. Authorities claim no search warrant was needed because the delivery company has the right to inspect any package it deems suspicious.
Cannon said he could make out what appeared to be vegetable material and large syringes in the box.
A sheriff's scent-detecting canine further raised suspicions of the package's contents.
"I've never seen a dog hit a box that hard." Cannon said. "That dog sure smelled something in there."
District Judge Clifford Woessner issued police the initial warrant that day, and the package was opened. The contents revealed a typical kit to grow so-called hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Included were six syringes filed with psilocybin mushroom spores, prepared soil in which to inject the spores, and rye berries used to kill the bitter taste of the mushrooms, according to documents.
Psilocybin mushrooms are ingested orally. They may be eaten raw, brewed as a tea or added to other foods. The so-called "shrooms" are known to yield mind-altering effects similar to those produced by LSD.
While magic mushrooms are illegal in Pennsylvania, there seems to be a loophole in the law that permits the sale of kits to grow them, authorities said.
"Mushroom spores themselves are not a controlled substance in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,"said Christopher Capozzi, a deputy state attorney general assigned to the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation office in Butler Township.
He said there is apparently no state law to allow the prosecution of sellers of grow kits.
Other states, such as California, Georgia and Idaho, have previously addressed the loophole and have made it illegal to ship magic mushroom spores.
Authorities in Pennsylvania apparently must wait for kit buyers to grow the mushrooms before they can charge them with possession of a controlled substance.
Still, kit buyers run the immediate risk of lesser charges.
"When you send psilocybin spores with injectors and soil to grow them,"Capozzi said, "I would take the position that that is drug paraphernalia, which in fact is a crime."
Police parlayed the discovery of the magic mushroom starter kit into another search warrant; this time for the Weitzel home.
"There was a lot of paraphernalia throughout the house,"Cannon said. "He wasn't hiding it from anyone.
Along with the drugs, police on June 23 seized two pistols, two rifles and two shotguns, $560 in currency and other items, including a "High Times"magazine.
Preliminary hearings for the defendants are 2:30 p.m. Aug. 22 before District Judge Lewis Stoughton of Chicora.
The Weitzels have an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment.

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