Police in the Holme Valley have warned people they face arrest if they pick so-called “magic mushrooms.”
The warning from Kirklees Rural Neighbourhood Policing Team comes as a woman was locked up for possession of Class A drugs.
Officers caught the 30-year-old woman with a bagful of around 100 wild toadstools, also known as “psychedelic mushrooms” because of their hallucinogenic properties.
Police were alerted to a man and a woman seen picking wild mushrooms on the moors near Digley Reservoir above Holmbridge.
Officers attended and arrested the woman, who turned out to be an American on holiday. The man she was with had no mushrooms and no action was taken against him.
The woman was arrested and taken to Dewsbury Police Station – Huddersfield Police Station cells are not currently in use – and was interviewed. She was later cautioned and released.
PC Sally Baines, of Kirklees Rural NPT, said it was currently mushroom season and the location was well-known locally.
However, farmers kept a watch on their land and would always call out police.
PC Baines said: “I think over the years farmers and landowners have had bad experiences with people picking the mushrooms and eating them straightaway so they will call us out.
“Whatever people’s views of drugs we are here to enforce the law and the law states that these mushrooms, when picked, are a Class A drug.”
PC Baines said the law had recently changed. It used to be that it was legal to pick the mushrooms and only became an offence when they were cooked or dried to make tea. Now, under the Misuse of Drugs Act, it is an offence to have possession of the mushrooms.
The mushrooms contain the psychedelic compounds psilocybin and psilocin and when taken colours, sounds and objects appear distorted.
The chemicals can also make people feel disorientated, tired or sick and can cause stomach pains or diarrhoea.
Writing on the NPT’s Facebook page, PC Baines said: “If you are caught in possession of magic mushrooms, no matter what the quantity, you can be arrested.
“There is also the risk that you pick and eat other mushrooms which may send you on trips to the toilet (or the morgue) rather than to another cosmic, hallucinogenic dimension.
“Stay safe and get your mushrooms from the supermarket rather than the Class A kind!”
In unrelated investigations, police would like to speak to the people pictured in the image gallery below.
The people pictured in the images may be witnesses as well as suspects.
If you recognise anyone, contact police on 101 quoting the reference number on the image caption.
