http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1095861,00.htmlThe Aztecs dubbed them "the flesh of the gods", Siberian shamans used them to enlighten their path to the spirit world, and they were the preserve of hippies and the pioneers of the psychedelic movement in the 1960s. But now magic mushrooms are at the centre of a new - and legal - retail boom.
On the Portobello Road, in Notting Hill, west London, a stall opened for business in August, openly advertising varieties of psychedelic fungi and growing kits for sale. Psyche Deli, the company behind it, now runs two similar market stalls elsewhere and supplies more than 30 shops across the country. The company estimates that its turnover and that of its competitors in London is running at 50kg (134lb) a week, the equivalent of 5,000 individual doses or five-hour "trips".
"We sell to all types - doctors, architects, lawyers, even the odd policeman," said Chris Territt, one of the directors of Psyche Deli, which operates out of a refrigerated storeroom in Dalston, north London. "In our opinion it's only a matter of time before the fad becomes mainstream."
Although psilocin and psilocybin, the psychoactive constituents of the mushrooms, are considered class A drugs under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, the gathering and possession of fresh mushrooms has never been an offence in Britain. However, the courts have ruled that mushrooms that have been dried or "altered by the hand of man" do constitute a class A drug, as might mushrooms that have been frozen and packaged for sale. Nevertheless, when the company checked with the Home Office last March it received a letter from a licensing officer saying it was "not illegal to sell or give away a freshly picked mushroom" or mushroom growing kits.