1971: the chemicals, not the mushroom
The Act received Royal Assent on 27 May 1971 and listed psilocin as a Class A drug. Psilocybin, an ester of psilocin, was covered through the paragraph on esters, and a further paragraph covered "any preparation or other product" containing them. The mushroom as such was not named.
That left the courts to decide when a mushroom stopped being a mushroom and became a "preparation or other product". The Home Office later admitted that this was "a matter of legal interpretation" that "had led to uncertainty" (explanatory memorandum, 2005).
The courts and the hand of man
In R v Stevens (1981) the Court of Appeal gave "preparation" its ordinary meaning. A later judgment summarised the effect: possession of fresh mushrooms was not illegal "unless the fungal material has been deliberately dried or prepared by the hand of man" (R v Thomas, 2004). The courts also treated mushrooms that had been frozen and packaged for sale as potentially controlled, as the Guardian noted in 2003.
The result was a line that turned on what had happened to a mushroom after it was picked. Fresh: no offence. Dried on a sheet of greaseproof paper: Class A.
2002 to 2004: the shop trade
Some suppliers used what the Home Office later called "an apparent loophole". In November 2003 the Guardian described a stall on Portobello Road, opened that August, that openly sold several varieties of fresh mushrooms and growing kits, and a company that supplied more than 30 shops. Before starting, the company had written to the Home Office and received a letter from a licensing officer saying it was "not illegal to sell or give away a freshly picked mushroom" or growing kits. The company said it sold the mushrooms for "ornamental" and "research purposes" only, and its stall carried a sign refusing sales to under-18s.
The government's figures show how far it went. The Home Office memorandum for the 2005 regulations estimated that over 400 establishments in the UK were selling magic mushrooms, mostly supplied with imports. HM Revenue and Customs estimated imports in 2004 at between 8,000 and 16,000 kilograms. The British Crime Survey found that about 180,000 people aged 16 to 59 had used mushrooms in 2002/3, and the 2003/4 survey showed an increase of over 40% in one year.
2004: a Class A sentence for dried mushrooms
Prosecutions for dried mushrooms continued in the meantime. In R v Thomas a man with 73 bags of mushrooms he had picked in Wales and dried himself was convicted at Bristol Crown Court in July 2004 of possession with intent to supply and sentenced to 2 years. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal in November 2004 and refused to sentence mushrooms more leniently than other Class A drugs. The penalties page has the details.
2005: section 21
The Drugs Bill was going through Parliament at the time. During the Commons committee stage the government promised that the mushroom clause would not come into force until exceptions for wild mushrooms were ready (3 February 2005, according to the memorandum). The Act received Royal Assent on 7 April 2005.
Section 21 is one sentence long. It inserts "Fungus (of any kind) which contains psilocin or an ester of psilocin" into the Class A list. According to the explanatory notes, before the change such a fungus was only a Class A drug "where it is in a form which constitutes a preparation".
Three instruments came into force together on 18 July 2005:
| Instrument | Effect |
|---|
| SI 2005/1650 | Brought section 21 into force |
| SI 2005/1653 | Added regulation 4A: no possession offence for mushrooms growing uncultivated, or picked only to destroy or hand in |
| SI 2005/1652 | Designated magic mushrooms under section 7(4), so that doctors, pharmacists and similar professions have no general authority to handle them |
The government said its aim was "to stop the commercial importation and supply of magic mushrooms" and that it would "not allow the open sale of fresh magic mushrooms". The memorandum states that the instruments apply to the whole United Kingdom. Northern Ireland made its own matching exceptions in SR 2005/360, in operation from 8 August 2005.
After 2005
The open trade ended with the Act. Fresh magic truffles, which Dutch smartshops kept selling after the Netherlands banned fresh mushrooms in December 2008, never had a legal window in the UK: they fall under the same "fungus of any kind" wording.
In 2016 the Psychoactive Substances Act introduced a general ban on producing and supplying psychoactive substances. It exempts drugs already controlled under the 1971 Act, so magic mushrooms stayed where section 21 put them. As of 14 October 2026 the 2005 wording is unchanged.
The timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|
| 27 May 1971 | Misuse of Drugs Act: psilocin and its esters Class A, mushrooms only as a "preparation or other product" |
| 15 April 1981 | R v Stevens: "preparation" given its ordinary meaning |
| August 2003 | Fresh mushrooms and grow kits sold openly on Portobello Road |
| 2004 | HMRC estimates 8,000 to 16,000 kg of mushroom imports |
| 8 November 2004 | R v Thomas: 2 years for dried mushrooms upheld |
| 7 April 2005 | Drugs Act 2005 receives Royal Assent |
| 18 July 2005 | Section 21 in force: any fungus containing psilocin is Class A |
| 8 August 2005 | Northern Ireland exceptions in operation |
| 26 May 2016 | Psychoactive Substances Act in force, controlled drugs exempt |
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