SHROOM BUST WORTH BULLETS?

Although described by Boulder police chief Mark Beckner as "a major case,"
the flubbed June 16 shakedown of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushroom
dealers struck me as just another episode in the emperor-has-no-clothes drug
war.

Even Beckner acknowledged that the 18-month federal probe ended on a sour
note, with two suspects evading capture (finally caught Thursday) and one
man shot in the chest after he allegedly knocked an officer down with his
car.

I have little sympathy for fools tempted into the "easy money" of the
illegal drug trade, yet I can't convince myself that this operation
accomplished much. One limb of our local "shroom" and pot market was severed
- -- but the drug trade, even locally, is a millipede. Plenty more where that
came from.

If I read the federal arrest warrant affidavits correctly, this case was
more about psilocybin mushrooms than pot, which many people deem relatively
inoffensive (or at least no less offensive than some legal drugs, including
alcohol and tobacco). So what about 'shrooms?

"Psychedelic" 'shrooms occur in nature (in cow pies, in wet climates). And
according to the University of Utah Alcohol and Drug Education Center for
students, mushrooms are not physically addictive, it's unknown if they are
psychologically addictive, and "overdose" may result in "Longer, more
intense 'trip' episodes, psychosis, possible death."

Not good, obviously, but no reason to panic. I have been unable to find any
documented 'shroom deaths, except from stupid, drug-induced behavior -- but
Coors can do that, too.

I recently spoke to a bright young person who was arrested for 'shroom
dealing. Smart enough to know never to do it again, the person said Boulder
is teeming with mini 'shroom operations. The ex-dealer described a mobile
home that is used solely as a mushroom-growing facility.

So as proud as investigators want to be about this big bust, it hardly seems
worth the time or expense. And it's certainly not worth two officers nearly
emptying their guns firing at a dim-witted suspect who probably was only
trying to flee.

Oh, and a question about the marijuana: Yes, about 80 pounds of pot (not
much) was "prevented" from reaching Boulder streets. But since it was a
"sting," conducted by undercover officers acting as potential buyers, wasn't
the dope "ordered," in a sense, by the investigators themselves? Just
wondering.

This is our drug war, folks, until we "just say no." This is what we're
paying good men and women in blue to do, instead of other things. Drug
offenders fill our prisons, forcing us to build ever more. The federal
government dallies precariously with military action in "drug-producing
countries."

Is it worth it to you?

In last week's column about the cruel bird poison Avitrol, I screwed up.
Remember that old saying about the word "assume," how it makes an a-s-s out
of u and me? Well, you're absolved, but feel free to apply the label to me.

Somebody is using Avitrol in Boulder, but it is not the University of
Colorado or its contractors. CU, which used to use Avitrol to rid buildings
of pigeons, has not done so in years, and does not contract with companies
that do. I should have checked out my assumptions.

I'm embarrassed and sorry. In particular, I'd like to apologize to Tom
Carson and Scott Harvey at CU, and Christine Anderson at the city.

I hereby sentence myself to redoubled vigilance. As old journalists like to
say, even when your mama says she loves you, check it out.