Liberty caps- the clue's in the name

It's mushroom season. In gardens, parks and on fields across the country countless species of funghi are sprouting from the soil as the weather gets cooler. But one of them is special.

The Liberty Cap is a relatively unassuming mushroom, averaging about 5-6cm tall with a cream to brown coloured head, topped with a distinctive nipple. It grows naturally in this country, in well-grazed fields and commons, from the onset of autumn until the first hard frost.

The Liberty Cap is so named due to its similarity to ancient headgear of the same name- a conical cap associated in antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe, Anatolia and Asia. Most likely stemming from their use by emancipated Roman slaves, the cap became associated with the pursuit of liberty and republicanism during the French and American revolutions.

Sadly, its fungal namesake is anything but free. His Majesty's government categorise this little mushroom as a Class A substance- the same category as crack cocaine and heroin. Pick some of these little champignons from your garden and you could face 7 years in prison and an unlimited fine. Sale still carries life in prison. While the available statistics reveal most of those convicted are spared jail, dozens each year are slapped with a fine and criminal record. It is a nonsense that the mushroom is illegal at all:

The active compound in Liberty Caps, (known colloquially as "magic mushrooms") is psilocybin- a hallucinogenic whose effects vary from unnoticeable to "life-changing trips" depending on dosage. Cave paintings and archaeological evidence suggest that magic mushrooms were neolithic people's go-to for a fun night night in, pre-dating the mastery of fermentation and alcohol production by millenia.

Besides the provision of fun and giggles (admittedly, both virtually criminalised in themselves in recent years) psilocybin has a wealth of medicinal properties, many of which until recently were poorly understood as a result of restrictive drugs legislation curbing scientific research on the subject.

In recent years some more open-minded administrations have permitted research, and the results have been very promising indeed: regular, low doses of psilocybin have been shown to be effective for treating a variety of mental conditions, particularly depression. No study has found any evidence of addiction to the substance or any withdrawal symptoms upon cessation of use.

Between 1993 and 2014 the ONS recorded one death linked to the use of psilocybin in the UK. One. Furthermore, that one case involved an individual who lost their life not from consumption of the compound itself, but from deciding to jump from a high place while under the influence. One wonders what the comparative figures are for alcohol. The lethal dose of magic mushrooms for the average adult is estimated at 17 kilograms- beyond the realms of possibility.

Legalisation has already occurred under a number of administrations, from Canada to Czechia, Brazil to Bulgaria. Psilocybin has been available for medicinal purposes in Switzerland since the 1980s. None of these countries have seen any notable movement to reverse their decisions, and indeed the number of administrations in which psilocybin is legal increases year by year.

But not in the UK. Last year parliament briefly debated access to psilocybin for medical treatment, without changing the law. Liberty Caps remain a Class A substance. As a result, users naturally turn to the black market. It is plainly ridiculous that people are purchasing these mushrooms from drug dealers (not only funding gangs but often inadvertently consuming other substances that the mushrooms may have been laced with) as the The State prevents them from harvesting the naturally occurring little fungus- even on their own land.

While there is an argument that there should be no restrictions whatsoever on what the individual chooses to put in their body, in this instance the lack of potential harm makes the argument for legalisation even stronger than for some other controlled substances. To keep the socialists happy, there is also the tax revenue that legalisation would bring. Fortunately, in the autumn at least, liberty caps can be harvested entirely tax free from mother nature.

So should we legalise these delightful little funghi? Absolutely: the clue's in the name!