A HEADS-UP ABOUT 'MAGIC' MUSHROOMS

Legal Loopholes Allow Hallucinogenic Fungi To Be Sold Openly In Japan, The
Tribune's Uli Schmetzer Writes

TOKYO -- The magic mushrooms Hiro offered on the pavement in fashionable
central Shibuya arrived from Zurich custom-wrapped in cellophane, looking
more like prehistoric fossils than a psychedelic drug.

"This Swiss mushy is better quality than the Mexican and Hawaiian stuff you
buy around the corner," Hiro boasted.

He didn't whisper. He didn't have to. The prowling police officer was more
interested in illegally parked cars than in the hallucinogenic mushrooms
and Mexican peyote the young Japanese entrepreneur displayed in an open
suitcase. Elsewhere in the world his drugs would have been considered Class
A narcotics.

Not in Japan.

Despite many anti-narcotics laws, including one with a 5-year jail sentence
for possession of marijuana, anyone here can buy as many magic mushrooms as
their mind can tolerate.

The ponytailed Hiro tries to explain the apparent discrepancy. "If I
encourage you to eat it, that would be illegal. But not if I encourage you
to buy it."

Noting some perplexity on my part, he placed a soothing hand on my arm.

"The law says if you know it's a narcotic and eat it, then you have broken
the law. But if you think it's only a mushroom and eat it, man, that's fine."

Thus the loophole in Japanese law.

A spokesman for the customs office said importation of vegetables is indeed
legitimate. Even a Justice Ministry official admitted that "magic mushrooms
are not on the list of banned narcotics and therefore their sale and
possession is not illegal."

Food For Thought

Most dealers chuckle among themselves and note that the authorities have no
idea how a magic mushroom differs from the culinary species used in most
Japanese dishes.

As a result, mushroom munching is enjoying a renaissance unequaled since
its golden era more than three decades ago when American hippies and global
flower children trekked to Mexico's Sierra Madre del Sur in the central
state of Oaxaca. In those days, the burning ambition of many a dropout was
to "trip" with Maria Sabina, the high priestess of the mushroom cult.

Her Indian cult, dating to pre-Hispanic days, came to a dramatic end after
some of the mushroom eaters, thinking they could fly, jumped off mountains
and died.

Maria Sabina, allegedly 120 years old at the time of her arrest, was
dragged into court. She eventually was exonerated, and the Mexican army
closed off the Sierra Madre to hippie pilgrims.

The psilocybin the hippies found in Mexican mushrooms was potent because it
was ingested right after being plucked, before the strength of the drug was
diminished by evaporation.

Japanese dealers import dried mushrooms. This reduces the hallucinatory
power of the fungi but still allows mushroom munchers a feast of colorful
psychedelic experiences.

A friend of mine ate only a small part of an imported Swiss mushroom. He
later swore he saw the eyes pop from a portrait on the wall, saw the face
grimace and that he could hear mosquitoes buzzing a half-mile away down by
the beach.

Competitive Environment

In addition to street vendors, dozens of "head shops" furiously compete,
advertising their wares in weekly magazines.

Around the corner from where Hiro hawked his Swiss fungi stands the Golden
Building. On the second floor a chain of shops known as Booty advertised
"Magic Mushrooms 1 gram for 800 Yen [$6.70], Mexican mushrooms, Hawaiian
mushrooms, peyote, pipes, bongs, hemp goods, incense. All the products we
sell are legal by the constitution of Japan."

Appended to such advertisements are detailed maps of how to arrive at the
shops.

The sudden public attention to the mushroom craze has made shopkeepers
cautious about overstepping legal loopholes. Near Osaka, one shopkeeper
advertised that his wares were "for use as ornaments."

A middle-aged man near Osaka who recently jumped to his death from a
building apparently ate more than the recommended portion. And police are
still investigating the drug overdose death of a 19-year-old saleswoman
working at a magic mushroom shop in Tokyo.

Actor Goes Berserk

The worst publicity for the fungi came when a friend gave a serious dose to
Hideaki Ito, 25, an actor and teenage heartthrob. He was found running up
and down a Tokyo street at 2:20 a.m. on April 10, yelling nonsense. Ito
struggled like a man possessed when ambulance attendants carted him off to
a hospital.

Ito told police he had consumed "magic" mushrooms. He was released after
treatment because, so a police officer explained later, "eating mushrooms
is no crime in Japan."

Not yet, but perhaps soon.

Health officials announced this month that Japanese scientists are studying
13 types of mushrooms to determine whether these can be banned under the
Narcotics Control Law.