MUSHROOM BUSINESS LANDS 4 IN TROUBLE

In a way, it seems so '60s.

After all, aren't magic mushrooms a hippie thing of the past, long since
pushed aside by cocaine, crank and meth?

Apparently not.

Last week, four people from the tiny town of Amanda Park in Grays Harbor
County were charged with conspiring to sell, not mushrooms, but mushroom
spores.

The four defendants indicted by a federal grand jury are Robert W.
McPherson, Steven Coggin, Judy Kreigh and McPherson's wife, Margaret
McPherson.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Whalley said it's not illegal to sell
mushroom spores alone, but selling them with the purpose of producing
hallucinogenic mushrooms is illegal.

The investigation goes back to 1999, when law-enforcement agencies in
Washington and elsewhere in the country started getting complaints about the
Amanda Park mushroom-spore shipments. The spore businesses themselves date
back years before that. The Amanda Park business once operated from an
address on East Pike Street in Seattle, according to a publication in the
Netherlands.

While getting high on hallucinogenic mushrooms saw its heyday in the 1960s,
techniques for cultivating the mushrooms began in the late 1970s.

The mushroom-growing techniques are widely advertised and described on
dozens of Internet sites and in ads in High Times, a drug-culture magazine.

The conspiracy charges stem from what federal agents say is a business
selling mushroom spores that McPherson operated under the name Psylocybe
Fanaticus. One of Robert McPherson's Amanda Park neighbors, who began
feeding his cats after his arrest, said the mail-order business wasn't much
of a secret around there. "They had a lot of mail business. It's a small
town," said the neighbor, who declined to be named.

The neighbor described McPherson as a gifted jazz musician in his mid-50s,
bright and smart:

"They've been great neighbors, really nice people. They've been awesome with
my kids, helping with fund-raising and everything."

Someone writing under the name of Psylocybe Fanaticus in 1996 gave an
extensive description of the spore business to Soft Secrets, a Dutch
publication catering to the mushroom trade. The Psylocybe Fanaticus business
address listed in the magazine was in the 1200 block of East Pike Street in
Seattle.

Various Psylocybe Fanaticus articles and publications describe a growing
process in which mushroom spores are purchased in a syringe, which is then
used to cultivate various species of mushrooms in a soil base.

In one article, Psylocybe Fanaticus said that people interested in growing
the mushrooms could fly under police radar by selling just syringes and the
spores, neither of which are illegal.

"That is not against the law, because spores contain no prohibited
substances. By doing so, I have also more time for hobbies like jamming and
smoking fine herb," Psylocybe Fanaticus said.

According to the federal charges, hundreds of mushroom-grow kits were sent
out from Amanda Park, Whalley said.

The investigation was prompted by calls from concerned parents around the
country whose children had received packages from Psylocybe Fanaticus. The
packages contained syringes and instructions on how to grow hallucinogenic
mushrooms, according to Daniel Mancano, a Drug Enforcement Administration
special agent. Parents were even calling telephone numbers at the National
Park Service, apparently because Amanda Park is near Olympic National Park.

Through its Internet site and through ads in High Times, the
mushroom-business operators described how the spores could be used to grow
magic mushrooms, which contain psilocybin and psilocyn, both of which are
illegal to possess, according to the indictment. Kits were advertised for
$30 each.

"I have not identified any reason why customers would buy spores for so much
money unless they would produce a mushroom that was hallucinogenic," said
Mancano.

Years of on-and-off investigation followed, with agents doing periodic
surveillance of McPherson's house on North Shore Drive in Amanda Park and at
the Amanda Park post office and other locations.

Agents bought spore supplies from the business and tracked shipments sent
from Amanda Park. On Feb. 3, for example, investigators reported seeing
Kreigh go to the Amanda Park post office with mail "tubs" containing about
100 packages to be shipped, according to the charges.

Last Tuesday, agents served search warrants at the North Shore Road house
and found a mushroom-growing operation and live mushrooms, according to the
charges.

A second search warrant was served at Coggin's house in Neilton, about five
miles south of Amanda Park, and more syringes and other mushroom-growing
equipment were found.

At an initial appearance, McPherson estimated he was making $30,000 a month
shipping the mushroom spores.