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Mr_Puke
Suicidal Failure

Registered: 06/11/02
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Ranchers's problem mushrooms
#861584 - 09/03/02 11:32 AM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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Rain has brought psychedelic fungi --- and people seeking them --- to pastures
By Pamela J. Johnson
Around midnight, looking out his window after a recent storm, Jim Adams saw tiny beams of light in his cow pasture. "It wasn't much of a moon, but i could faintly see shadows moving in my field," Adams recounted He grabbed his rifle, went outside and confronted intruders who had come on to his pasture not to rustle his cows but to make off with mushrooms. Crouched with their flashlights over piles of manure, they were seeking "magic mushrooms" --- psychedelic fungi that sprout in cow dung after the rain. As Adams raced toward them, the trepassers dashed back to their truck parked nearby. "Hey, I saw you climb through my fence!" he hollered at them. "You were trespassing." "No, sir," One replied. "We were just taking a walk in the neighborhood." Angery cattle ranchers throughout Central Florida --- a region awash in nearly daily deluges --- says they're chasing off the mushroom hunters several times a week. "I've had nothing but trouble since the rains began," said Adams, who manages 2,000 acres where he keeps 300 head of cattle in east Orange county. "This year has been worse than ever."
Trespassers let cows out It's not only trespassing that enrages ranch owners. To gain access to fields, the culprits cut wire fences or kick down wooden gates. At times, cows get out. Some have been rounded up on congested roadways, such as State Road 20. On Aug. 22, Orange County deputy sheriffs shot and killed five cows from the Desert Ranch that had wandered onto the Bee Line Expressway and were creating traffic havoc. Officals did not know whether mushroom hunters were responsible. Some of Adam's cattle got out recently and wandered to Lake Pickett Road. "It's just a matter of time before somebody gets killed," Adams said. "A car could hit a cow and --- wham! --- that would be it" --- for the cow and, perhaps the driver who hit it. Adams said some of the trespassers he has caught have told him they learned on the internet about the Bithlo and Christmas cattle ranches and their crops of mind-blowing mushrooms. The mushrooms contrain psilocybin, a chemical that causes hallucinations when ingested. They grow in manure after rainstorms when temperatures reach 65 to 85 degrees. Because of their rank smell, the fungi are usually dried before consumed. They may be steeped in tea or mixed in soup. For centuries, magic mushrooms have been harvested around the world and eaten for their psychedelic effects. Many species contain psilocybin, and not all of them grow in cow manure. When mushroom pickers see Adams racing toward them with a rifle, they often leave behind a basket, plastic bag, or backpack filled with mushrooms.(no shit?) Once Adams found a cell phone in the middle of his pastures. Adams has called Orange County deouty sheriffs, but by the time they arrive, the tresspassers usually are gone. It's not unusual to wait an hour for help to arrive, ranchers say. At times they say, a deputy dosen't show up at all. Sheriff's officials admit that such calls in the past have taken a low priority. But as a result of the growing problem, sheriff's drug agents in east Orange say they plan to step up enforcement efforts. Deputy Sheriif Randy Armstrong, whose territory covers east Orange, said he issues about a dozen trespassering warnings and citations a month, althought he said the number of rancher complaints is much higher. "I'm being a nice guy by giving them a ticket or a warning," Armstrong said. "If I wanted to, i could haul them off to jail." Ranchers wish deputies would take off the kid gloves. "You call the sheriff's department and tell them you got a mushroom picker in your pasture, and you're on the bottom of the list," said Gerald Simmons, president of the Orange County Cattlemen's Association, which represents 105 ranchers. "You could be holding a gun on them for two hours waiting," said Simmons, who owns tow small cattle ranches in east Orange.
Law Rarely enforced
Sheriff's drug agent Robert Curtin said a Florida law pertaining to psilocybin is rarely enforced. Psilocybin is considered a controlled substance under Florida law, the same as opium or LSD; anyone caught possessing psilocybin mushrooms could face third-degree felony charges. There also are dangers of accidentally gathering a poisonous mushroom or having a "bad trip" from a psilocybin mushroom, agents said. But to charge someone, a deputy making an arrest would have to identify the mushrooms as having psilocybin. There is no test kid, as there are for drugs such as LSD or cocaine. Curtin said few deputies have that kind of expertise, and the ones who do rarely get an opportunity to make such arrests. Drug agents usually work undercover searching for drug dealers. And mushroom pickers typically do not sell the drug. In fact, officals said only a handful of mushroom pickers were charnged with drug possesion in Orange Country in the past year. To complicate mushroom pickers are not always trespassing on private property. They often hunt mushrooms on state-owned property, where cattle owners lease the pastureland. That's when Officer Brain Baine of the Florida Fish & WIldlife Conservation Commission is sometimes called. Recently, Baine questioned two young men from Miami found picking mushriims in east Orange. Althrough they were not technically trespassing, Baine issused them a trespassing warning. "The state is still steward of the land," Baine said. John Tanner manages thousands of acres of state and county owned land where he keeps cattle in Christmas. An hour after it rains, he spies the mushrooms pickers in the field. Recently, a picker cut off a gate lock on county owned property, and some of the cows got out and were found on State Road 50. Stomping on a mushroom with a cowboy boot, Tanner said he is fed up with mushroom pickers. "I tell them, "Hey, kids, respect my property,' " Tanner said. "I'll let you go this time, but don't come back!" "All they do is give me the finger."
Artical out of the Orlando Sentinel Local&State Tuesday, September 3, 2002 Section B
Sorry for any spelling errors
Edited by Thor (09/04/02 10:58 AM)
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Thor
Anti-Theist OVERLORD


Registered: 08/12/98
Posts: 10,017
Loc: Iceland
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: Mr_Puke]
#863455 - 09/04/02 11:00 AM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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Haha, poor ranchers...
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GabbaDj
BTH


Registered: 04/08/01
Posts: 19,696
Loc: By The Lake
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: Mr_Puke]
#864529 - 09/04/02 09:53 PM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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Is their an Orange County in Florida and California?
-------------------- GabbaDj
FAMM.ORG
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Anonymous
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: GabbaDj]
#865576 - 09/05/02 01:06 PM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yeah, I used to live in Orange County, Ca
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Mr_Puke
Suicidal Failure

Registered: 06/11/02
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: GabbaDj]
#865750 - 09/05/02 02:38 PM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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yup
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serialkiller
not a newbieanymore!!!!!
Registered: 05/22/02
Posts: 33
Loc: outer space
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: Mr_Puke]
#866281 - 09/05/02 09:16 PM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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my home before i joined the army used to be in orange county florida. i know where they are talking about its about 20 minutes away from my house
serialkiller
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pezbomb
exploding pez

Registered: 09/06/02
Posts: 151
Loc: Seattle, Washington
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: serialkiller]
#866895 - 09/06/02 08:17 AM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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The kids should at least give the ranchers a little respect, flipping them off for asking them to leave his property? Those kids are assholes.
-------------------- -------
The golden age was the age when gold didn't reign.
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Adom
Totally Nude

Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 10,877
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: pezbomb]
#868340 - 09/07/02 05:36 AM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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Flipping him off? who the fuck cares, some of those worthless little fucking pukes are knocking down gates and fences. I hope the little scum bags get busted.
(No trespassing is worth a life, edited out getting shot part)
Edited by Adom (09/09/02 08:17 PM)
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Sick_Of_It_All
All Of It's Sick

Registered: 07/10/02
Posts: 102
Loc: Orlando, Florida
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: pezbomb]
#868655 - 09/07/02 09:05 AM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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Id just like to say I live in Orange County, the county that the city of Orlando is in. Not all of us here are dumbasses like the few kids they talk about in the paper. The few idiots I have encountered here are usually young teens that have no common sense. If you plan on shrooming in central florida, use your fucking head, cuz i'll break it if I see you out in a field being a dumb ass.
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GGreatOne234
Stranger
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Posts: 8,946
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: Mr_Puke]
#871555 - 09/09/02 10:11 AM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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I want 2 of my own cows.
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EvilGir
Im the on coming storm

Registered: 11/26/01
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: Sick_Of_It_All]
#872334 - 09/09/02 10:57 AM (22 years, 5 months ago) |
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There was a few fields where I used to go picking where the farmer always came out. He told me that the police comes around every shroom season and asks him to report any shroom pickers.
But he would rather have people pick the shrooms than let the cows eat them. So he told me that i can pick on three fields but stay of the others and also dont leave any litter, or else he will call the police he then left and let me on my way.
So basicaly RESPECT the country side, Dont leave litter, upsect the animals or cause the release of any animals through leaving gates open ect.
Dont give the farmers any reason to call the police or get pissed off. Cos it gives us shroomers a bad name. And if possible try and RESPAWN the fields you take them from and not just rape the field til its dead.
-------------------- Fighting the man the best way I can.
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somacraft
amateur
Registered: 09/16/02
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: EvilGir]
#884973 - 09/16/02 05:20 AM (22 years, 4 months ago) |
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I grew up on a cow farm. When any of our cows got loose, we were out as much as $1000 per head. A stupid kid could easily cause the loss of $20,000 by cutting through a fence.
These kids are lucky that they are only getting tickets, or even hauled off to jail. If it were my farm and they disrespected my property rights that way, I'd have shot them outright.
Now if they came to the house and asked to pick... that would be a different story.
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thealkaloid
Stranger
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beware of dark and unforgiving cow passtures [Re: Mr_Puke]
#888832 - 09/17/02 02:22 PM (22 years, 4 months ago) |
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yeah i've my self gone shroom hunting in cow passtures. a lot of work and risks for nothing. you are lucky to run into any shrooms at night ( between the fear of being shoot and being stampeded, you're not as focused on identifying shrooms as you should be. which is important since a cow passtures is not really a contamination free mushroom cultivator and you could easily run into a lot of ugly and angry shrooms that will break down your liver not your ego.) i suggest looking in the forerst. or just growing your own ( homemade kit purchased) or buying from someone you know and trust. but i think ranchers need to be aware that people are drawn to their passtures in hope for find shrooms not to steal their cows. i mean one of these days some poor guy's going to get shot in the dark because he happened to be in a passture owned by a really paranoid and complsive rancher.
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Klown
JailBird
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Re: Ranchers's problem mushrooms [Re: Mr_Puke]
#895216 - 09/20/02 06:52 AM (22 years, 4 months ago) |
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they should walk some cows around the outside of the fence or shovel some shit over LoL
-------------------- -What Is This FAQ You Speak Of?
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