2 ARRESTS MUSHROOM INTO DRUG PROBE

A Combination Of Cow Dung And Rain Might Translate Into Jail Time For Two
Mushroom-Poaching Teens

FORT PIERCE - The season's heavy rains recede slowly, leaving small, muddy
puddles in a cow pasture along Jenkins Road in suburban Fort Pierce.

Here, spoon-sized caps of maturing beige mushrooms peek through tufts of
vibrant green grass.

The moist field is fertile ground for an abundance of these mushrooms --
the psychedelic and potentially poisonous kind.

"Magic mushroom" pickers often flock to rural pockets of the Treasure Coast
during the wet season in search of the mushrooms that sprout from small
piles of dung and contain a hallucinogen similar to LSD, called psilocybin.

Two St. Lucie teens were arrested on trespassing charges last week after
deputies found them at the Jenkins Road pasture with a bag stuffed with
mushrooms.

St. Lucie sheriff's deputies seized the mushrooms, and the regional crime
lab in Fort Pierce is testing them for psilocybin. If the mushrooms contain
the hallucinogen, the teens could also be charged with a felony.

"There are two things we respond to: the trespassing and then the
mushrooms," said Ken Mascara of the St. Lucie Sheriff's Office. .

The sheriff's offices in Martin and St. Lucie counties regularly patrol
rural areas and sometimes use helicopters or block off areas to catch
suspected pickers.

They also hope the aggressive tactics will deter others, many of whom
apparently learn about the mushroom patches on the Treasure Coast from the
Internet, authorities say.

DEA officials estimate that about a dozen suspected mushroom pickers are
caught each year in St. Lucie County, and at least twice as many in Martin
County.

People who live near the pastures say the mushroom pickers are a nuisance.

"It's just not a very respectful thing to do to march on someone else's
property without asking," said Mary Smith, who lives near a pasture along
Edwards Road in St. Lucie.

Others worry the problem could be more serious, saying that people are
being hired to pick the psychedelic mushrooms that will later be dried and
sold illegally.

The mother of one of the teens arrested last week for trespassing said her
16-year-old son was one of those hired by a local man.

"I'm extremely concerned, and as a parent, I'm drug-free and don't condone
or accept that," said the mother, who asked not to be identified.

She said it was the first time her son had picked mushrooms.