Liberty Cap (Magic) mushrooms everywhere on Dartmoor but unfortunately it's illegal in the UK to pick them.

Yesterday I went a walk on Dartmoor with a friend and as we were strolling along we noticed that there were lots of Liberty Cap mushrooms growing (Psilocybe semilanceata for the more scientific amongst you).

Unfortunately, in the UK it is illegal to pick these mushrooms because the British state doesn't like the idea of people picking naturally occurring plants out of the ground that might raise their consciousness to dangerous (for them) levels. For this reason I definitely did not pick any of the mushrooms ;-) but it is not yet illegal to photograph them or the area they grow in. Here's a closeup of a couple of Liberty Caps I took yesterday.

Here is a pretty crappy picture of the area of Dartmoor I found the mushrooms but they can be found all over Dartmoor at this time of year. (Dartmoor ponies can be seen in the forground)

The following photo was taken a few years ago (most definitely not yesterday) by a friend at a time when it was still legal to pick the mushrooms (the preparation for consumption was illegal back then rather than the act of picking)

Here's another photo sent by a friend a few years ago showing the mushrooms being dried.

You have to ask yourself, why is the Liberty Cap mushroom a Class A drug in the UK (same class as Heroin and Crack Cocaine) while alcohol and tobacco can be bought freely?

I think at this point it is worth quoting a section from the Wikipedia article on Psilocybin mushrooms.

Spiritual and well being

In 2006, the United States government funded a randomized and double-blinded study by Johns Hopkins University which studied the spiritual effects of the active compound psilocybin. The study involved 36 college-educated adults (average age of 46) who had never tried psilocybin nor had a history of drug use, and who had religious or spiritual interests. The participants were closely observed for eight-hour intervals in a laboratory while under the influence of psilocybin.[32]

One-third of the participants reported the experience was the single most spiritually significant moment of their lives, and more than two-thirds reported it was among the top five most spiritually significant experiences. Two months after the study, 79% of the participants reported increased well-being or satisfaction; friends, relatives, and associates confirmed this. They also reported anxiety and depression symptoms to be decreased or completely gone. Fourteen months after the study, 64% of participants said they still experienced an increase in well-being or life satisfaction.

Despite highly controlled conditions to minimize adverse effects, 22% of subjects (8 of 36) had notable experiences of fear or paranoia. All subjects had never taken a hallucinogenic trip before. The authors, however, reported that all these instances were "readily managed with reassurance."

I'm 39 years old and I've never tried any psychedelic drugs (unless you include Cannabis) and the more I read about them the more I want to try them for spiritual reasons.

It's just a shame that I am a law abiding citizen so will not be able to do so in the UK.