Party Vibe

shrooms are now class A

but apparently the cops haven’t yet been given any advice on how to deal with the shops openly selling them by CPS …..

many shops which sell shrooms also sell other, legal, items such as cyberkid clubbing gear, records and tapes, cigarette lighters etc

UK cops are supposed to be “proportionate” – it would be stupid for cops to heavily bust these places as there is a strong argument that although they clearly do support “drug culture” and are therefore in some legal/moral grey areas (as far as “conventional morality” is concerned), 90% of what else they do is legal and goes through proper channels.

These shops certainly annoy middle england with some of their stock; but shrooms aside are no worse in legal terms than sex shops, or shops which claim to sell “model aircraft/hobby stuff” but are often full of knives and replica guns.

The “clubbers/ravers gear” shops pay taxes/rates like any other shops ; they are also small businesses which employ young people who may, following the loss of their business they have worked hard to set up, otherwise be tempted into more questionable forms of earning a living such as more major drug dealing (bear in mind the customers of these shops would often be drug users!)

When the authorities do finally get their act together, I would expect a first offence would result in confiscation of the offending items and a caution – the main punishment would be the financial loss caused to the business by the removal of the stock of mushrooms. However continued offending would result in the usual class A dealing penalties; which can and do include prison terms.

It would not however surprise me though if CPS and the Police did get a plan of action sorted before the summer festival season…and when the inevitable crackdown happens, we can no longer allow people to sell shrooms on this board; these posts will, unfortunately, have to be deleted like other posts selling illegal drugs. The Internet is no longer “above the law”.

hope you used a phone box (civil service departments log incoming call numbers of all people who ring them and the details of their queries, there are two sides to “freedom of information”!) BTW the person who answered the phone is often an overworked disgruntled clerk with their job under threat of downsizing who is often equally stubborn…

I’ve had a look myself at what home office say on their official channels (websites are also classed as official). There is no clear mention of what you say (although I don’t doubt it is a true reflection of your conversation) – apart from something buried on “talk to frank” which warns people the law will change sometimes…

But I’d be wary of even what the home office say unless it is in writing – that answer can be interpreted in two ways…. it could also mean “shrooms are class A” – but we are not yet enforcing the law in some situations until it has been altered. But cops could equally decide to enforce it in other situations.

Did you get a full answer in writing? Its not worth jack shit otherwise.

I don’t mean to get at you personally and I appreciate you must be gutted like everyone else about the laws and are trying to squeeze the last few sales out of this loophole before this is all locked down, but Govts are very smart at dealing with people who try and play games with them and/or use “official channels” to bend the rules – there is still a potential danger for the punters who are going to festivals with these items.

My response is aimed more at young people who may not be sure about the risks they are taking, not at business people like yourselves who are sensible enough to research the rules and regulations.

I also have a few friends who work for the security at commercial festies and have (unfortunately) to liase with cops when people get busted for drugs.

Those who get caught with shrooms will probably get busted anyway, cops don’t always obey the letter of the law as you no doubt know or will interpret it how they feel – they will no doubt still arrest people who attend a festival with them on suspicion of posessing class A (which gives them the excuse to take them away from the festival, strip search them, nick them for whatever else may be found and have them ejected from the festival even though they have paid for a ticket).

if they whinge, they will be given the choice of a formal adult caution (which they would have got anyway for most class A for personal use) or being bailed (and having to travel at their own expense once more to a police station often remote from their homes) and protesting about the unclear application of the “law” in Court! Most people will cut their losses and take the caution at that point. This is a procedure which occurs with many “questionable” arrests, not just for drug use.

Either way the cops have “won” because they have inconvenienced the drug user, they have lost their stash and the chance to be at the festival…

OTOH until such date as the law is enforced, ppl can always stock up for less commercialised events where they are less likely to be searched 😉