Many people are out filling their baskets with mushrooms these days. But if you come with a mushroom in the basket and ask a mushroom inspector, you will not get an answer to what you have found. The mushroom inspectors may not know it, because morels are corky edible mushrooms or easily confused with edible mushrooms. Therefore, the mushroom is not on the list of the 154 mushrooms they must know. But if they know, they still won’t say it. – They will not be involved in breaking the law. There is a culture that you don’t want to, even if you can. That’s according to Lene Johansen, mushroom control coordinator at the Norwegian Mushroom and Useful Plants Association. – The culture of not wanting to say Fleinsopp has not appeared in Norwegian mushroom books since 1956. And Fleinsopp is illegal in Norway. According to Section 5 of the Narcotics Regulations, both acquisition, storage and use are prohibited. Fleinsopp is considered a poisonous mushroom. The intoxication you get is a poisoning reaction, in the same way that the intoxication from alcohol is also a poisoning reaction, says Johansen. This summer, a woman was fined NOK 6,000 for keeping mushrooms in her car. According to Johansen of the Norwegian Mushroom and Useful Plants Association, the mushroom experts are keeping their mouths shut. Even if they know what mushrooms people bring in the basket. – We get all inquiries about this privately. I have had it several times. But I haven’t had the knowledge to help, says mushroom control coordinator Lene Johansen. Photo: Privat But there is no rule that says that inspectors cannot inform people that they have found cork mushrooms, either publicly or with the Norwegian Mushroom and Useful Plants Association. – It is a bit silly that we should be an expert organization on mushrooms, and our inspectors cannot identify one of the most mythical mushrooms in Norwegian culture. – It’s nonsense. Then we will not become a knowledge organisation, and that is what we are, says Johansen. Fleinsopp Fleinsopp, also called sharp Fleinsopp, lives naturally in Norway The mushroom contains psilocybin, which is a hallucinogenic substance The intoxicating effect can be compared to LSD The mushroom was first banned in 1981 Fleinsopp defined as a drug, and it is therefore illegal to both pick, store and use – It is naive to think that people do not want to become intoxicated. The Safer Drug Policy organization has information on various intoxicants on its website. Every autumn they experience an enormous increase in searches for morels. – In the statistics, it may look like nobody uses fennel mushrooms, but on our website interest explodes every September, says daily manager Ina Spinnangr. Ina Roll Spinnangr, day-to-day manager of the organization Tryggere Ruspolitikk, believes that there are far more people who pick and use mushrooms than is known from surveys. Photo: Pernille Sandberg / Pernille Sandberg – It is quite naive to think that people will not get high, if information is withheld. She believes the goal must be the safest possible framework, regardless of the drug involved. Have you ever tried to pick boletus mushrooms? Yes, I have both picked and tried morels Yes, I have tried to pick, but I don’t dare try No, but I can imagine picking them No, I haven’t tried and I can’t imagine either Show result Poison information : – People call in In small towns, mushroom inspectors are often called from the emergency room when they receive people who have been poisoned by mushrooms, says Johansen of the Norwegian Mushroom and Useful Plant Association. But whether they are poisoned by a mushroom or another type of mushroom that is easy to confuse with a mushroom, the inspectors cannot answer. Most of the mushrooms that look like mushrooms, but are not, will mostly cause diarrhea and make you bloated, according to the poison information at FHI. The exception is the highly poisonous pointed toadstool. Photo: Erik Waage / news The Poisons Information Center at FHI has also experienced people calling and being unsure whether they have eaten more mushrooms or whether they have mistaken the mushroom for another. – In such cases, we have to rule out whether they have ingested poisonous mushrooms that require hospital follow-up, says Anita von Krogh, senior researcher at Poison Information at FHI. But the poison information has not registered that poisonings have occurred as a result of mushroom inspectors not having identified the mushroom. Thinks the taboo is turning The organization Psynapse is now working to get more mushrooms off the list of illegal drugs, with the campaign “liberating Nature”. Fleinsopp is classified as one of the less harmful drugs, according to the Safer Drug Policy Organisation. Photo: Alexander Horn / Colourbox Fleinsoppen ended up on the drug list in 1981. Mjelva believes that it happened on a weak basis and with inadequate case management. Psynapse believes that criminalizing the picking of boletus mushrooms is a disproportionate interference with the rights of the public, and the right to privacy. Jørn Kløvfjell Mjelva, chairman of the organization Psynapse, says the criminalization of mushrooms was never the subject of a broad hearing. Only the pharmaceutical institute at UiO and the police were allowed to comment. Photo: Jonas Been Henriksen In addition, it means that people can ingest dangerous mushrooms, if mushroom inspectors risk becoming complicit in a crime by identifying them. – It would be an advantage if mushroom inspectors could let people know if people have picked the wrong thing to prevent people from ingesting, for example, sharp poison ivy mushrooms. Do you think it should be illegal to pick mushrooms? Yes ? No ? Don’t know ? Show result The coordinator for the mushroom inspectors in Norway, Lene Johansen, believes that it will be difficult for the inspectors to change their practice. In any case, as long as we continue to have an unexplained relationship with the intoxicant in fennel mushrooms. Nevertheless, she believes that the taboo of talking about and teaching about mushrooms is about to change. – There is a generational change in the organization now. Several people think there is a need for us to inform about this, says Johansen. In the Norwegian Social Insurance Office’s drug special, politician Øystein Meier Johannessen from Hemnes municipality in Nordland tests flue mushroom.
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Flein mushrooms are not identified by the mushroom inspectors. They are afraid of breaking the law. – news Nordland
