SIXTIES DRUG IS IN AGAIN

Crime: 'Magic Mushrooms' have made a comeback,and police say they can be
addictive or even deadly.

Ben Thomas put hallucinogenic mushrooms on his pepperoni pizza. He mixed
them into Lipton tea, or ate the nasty-tasting drugs with loads of potato
chips.

"All I wanted to do was get high," said Thomas, 19, of Newport Beach, who
says he has been straight for almost a year. "All my friends were into it."

Like bell-bottoms and platform shoes, psilocybin mushrooms are making a
comeback with teens and young adults.

The so-called "magic mushrooms," popular in the 1960s and 1970s, these days
are a drug of choice at rave parties - all-night gatherings held secretly in
warehouses and other industrial sites, police say.

The strongest of hallucinogenic mushrooms, psilocybins have made their
biggest resurgence in the past two years, said Walter Allen, special agent
in charge of the Orange regional office of the state Bureau of Narcotic
Enforcement.

"A lot of these young kids are getting into it," Allen said. "But they don't
know what they're getting into. It's unfortunate."

In what is believed to be the department's largest mushroom bust in at least
12 years, Orange County sheriff's narcotics investigators in December seized
20 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms - with a street value of $80,000 to
$100,000, sheriff's Lt. Hector Rivera said.

Three people, from Fullerton and Mission Viejo, were arrested for allegedly
storing and selling the mushrooms.

The mushrooms have a street value of $40 for one-eight of an ounce, police
said, though the price fluctuates with supply and demand. The drugs are
chewed, sucked or placed in drinks. The "trip" lasts two to six hours.

Mushrooms, which are physically addictive, can cause nausea, vomiting and
distort comprehension of time and space. Use can lead to severe liver
dysfunction and failure, Allen said.

Moods, good or bad, are intensified. Experts say the trip depends on the
drug taker's mindset.

Sometimes, death can result.

"People try to do some impossible feats under the influence of the drugs,"
Rivera said. "Some try to jump off a building or stand in front of a car."

The mushrooms often come from the Pacific Northwest, though sometimes they
sprout up closer to home.

"Some hydroponic gardens are set up in garages or bedrooms," Anaheim police
Sgt. Joe Vargas said, referring to plants grown in nutrient solutions. "They
can easily be home-grown."

Police usually seize the drugs in small quantities during larger marijuana
and cocaine busts, Rivera said.

La Habra police stumbled onto the largest batch of cultivated psilocybin
mushrooms in the county last year when officers responded to a disturbance
call at an apartment complex.

Police seized 176 pounds of mushrooms - valued at more than $1 million -
being grown throughout the apartment, said La Habra police Sgt. Phil
Stufflebean, supervisor of the special enforcement unit.

A college student who learned how to grow mushrooms on the Internet was
arrested and has pleaded guilty to possession and cultivation, Stufflebean
said.

Mushroom users say the drug is preferable to LSD because it is cheaper and
easier to get, and the high isn't as intense or as long-lasting. And the
mushrooms don't show up during standard drug screening.

Thomas, who began taking the drug at 14, said he ate mushrooms nearly a
dozen times every month for three years.

He sold his compact discs or stole, even from his parents, to get $10 for a
quick high, he said.

"They're not that cool," he said.

Kelly Wilson, a drug recovery specialist, recalled taking mushrooms at a
party, after which, she said, the walls began to move in and out. She saw
the carpet lift from the floor. She watched as music come out of the
speakers.

"I felt connected to people, a lot of love for everybody," recalled Wilson,
35, who did drugs for six years until she stopped in the late '80s. "It was
a fun party thing to do."

But she and other former users also know the downside.

Once while high on mushrooms, Thomas fell and broke four front teeth and cut
his lips.

Thomas said getting drug counseling at the Hope Institute in Costa Mesa has
changed his life.

"I feel better about myself," said Thomas, who now attends Orange Coast
College and works at a coffee bar to pay for his new car and apartment. "I
got to buy my family presents for the first time ever this Christmas. The
only way for me is total abstinence."