5 Suspects Found With Psilocybin
By Steve Cannizaro, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
It’s psychedelic, it’s out of a previous era and sheriff’s officials point out it can “mushroom” into a felony.
It’s psilocybin mushrooms, the kind that grow out of cow manure and produce a hallucinogenic effect on a user.
It’s also something that St. Bernard sheriff’s deputies are seeing for the first time in several years, said Capt. John Doran, head of the sheriff’s Special Investigations Division.
Deputies have arrested five young people in two incidents involving such mushrooms over a two-week period, Doran said.
In early August, following a tip, deputies found two Meraux men, Gino Gallodoro, 21, and Gene Nehlib, 19, and a Chalmette man, Dominick Paretti, 22, who had picked 8 ounces of psilocybin mushrooms from a cow pasture in Reggio, in eastern St. Bernard Parish.
Last Thursday night, the Street Crimes Unit arrested two men and booked them with possession of about 9 ounces of the mushrooms. One suspect told deputies the mushrooms had come from a field in Belle Chasse, Doran said.
“Evidently it’s something on the uprise,” Doran said of the use of the so-called “magic” mushrooms. “It’s something we may need to pay more attention to.”
The mushrooms were more prevalent during the 1970s and ‘60s psychedelic period. “I guess it’s something coming back again, like a clothing trend coming back,” Doran said.
“I don’t know what to attribute this newfound interest to,” he said.
One of the men arrested in recent weeks said a small cupful of the mushrooms sells for about $ 5 on the street, Doran said.
It’s considered a hallucinogenic drug, in the same family as mescaline and peyote and about 20 other substances, he said. They are ingested in various ways, officials said.
Many young people today may be unaware that they can face felony charges if they are caught with the mushrooms, Doran said.
He said a possession charge has a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
“They probably don’t know that it’s serious,” he said. “But it’s still on the books.”
Doran also said people could mistake poison mushrooms for the kind containing psilocybin. “I don’t think these kids getting this out of cow fields are experts on what they’re picking. You pick the wrong kind of mushroom and it could be fatal,” Doran said.