Landowners with magic mushrooms growing wild on their property could be caught in a legal loophole in the new Drugs Act 2005, which was rushed through Parliament before the election announcement.
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) will be urging the new government to swiftly introduce regulations to make it clear that landowners are not committing an offence merely by having the hallucinogenic fungus, now a class A drug, growing on their property.
Before Parliament was prorogued, Home Office Minister Caroline Flint confirmed that the new law needed clarifying if it wasn't to criminalise innocent landowners.
The CLA is particularly keen for the new government to state that it will not be an offence to be aware of magic mushrooms on your property and fail to destroy them.
Section 21 of the Drugs Act 2005 was introduced to make the possession and sale of magic mushrooms - including freshly picked and unprocessed ones - illegal.
Formerly, under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, it was only illegal to possess psilocin and psilocybin - the psychoactive constituents of the mushrooms.
Angus Collingwood- Cameron, CLA North East director, said: "While there was no deliberate intention to make it an offence for having this fungus growing wild on your land, this is another example of the need to properly consider the implications of legislation for rural areas.
"It would be high farce to prosecute a farmer for possessing a Class A drug simply because Mother Nature had produced mushrooms on the farm."
Business Comment
Enterprise North East
Evening Gazette's
