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Seizure of drug-classified mushrooms and calls to the Poison Information Centre, 2020–2024.
1 / 3Photo: Anders Humlebo
Cultivation boxes for hallucinogenic mushrooms and tons of plant parts that can be used to get high legally cross the border into Sweden every year.
The drugs are sold openly online and in shops, and at the border the Customs Service can only watch – because the products are not illegal in the form they are delivered.
On social media, for example, companies advertise plants and mushrooms that produce similar effects to illegal drugs. In the marketing, it is emphasized that it is completely legal for Swedish consumers to order and receive the goods in the country, which is also true.
This applies, for example, to boxes containing mushroom mycelium that can grow and become mushrooms that contain the hallucinogenic substances psilocybil or psilocin.
Okay without mushrooms
If no mushrooms have started to grow in the box when it crosses the Swedish border, the Swedish Customs Service has no legal right to stop or confiscate the shipment.
– It is permitted to bring the cultivation kit into the country, but you may not cultivate the mushroom. You can’t say that it is free, but we at the Swedish Customs Service have no tools to stop it because it cannot yet be classified as a drug when imported, says Jenny Åberg, expert and chemist at the Swedish Customs Service.
However, it is illegal to bring the mushrooms themselves into Sweden, but despite that, interest and attempts seem to have increased in recent years.
In 2023, 9.21 kilograms of drug-classified mushrooms were seized. So far this year, 34.6 kilos have been seized, an increase of nearly 276 percent.
For soap making
As for kratom, which is marketed and sold as an ingredient in soap production, in 2023 over 40 tons were brought into Sweden. The reason it is sold as a soap ingredient is precisely because the plant is not classified as a narcotic, but if you use it and, for example, make tea on the plant, then you are manufacturing narcotics.
– I have seen a lot of sites selling kratom and also soap kits for making soap, but I have never seen a kratom soap. There you can suspect that it might be another use that is relevant, says Jenny Åberg.
She says that the Swedish Customs Service has been informing the responsible authorities about the loophole in the legislation for many years, when it comes to kratom, among other things. It is the Public Health Agency and the Medical Products Agency that are tasked with investigating substances for drug classification. But for now, importing the product is legal.
Looked at the question
Åsa Thornqvist is acting head of the unit at the Public Health Agency that is responsible for proposing to the government substances that should be classified as narcotics.
She confirms that today the authority’s mandate does not include proposing drug classification of whole plants, such as kratom.
– We are looking at the question of whether we should be able to investigate and propose drug classification of plants as well, but so far we are not doing that, says Åsa Thornqvist.
THE FACTS Kratom and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms
+ Kratom is a tree whose leaves contain mitragynine, the main active substance.
+ The leaves are dried and chewed, smoked or ground into powder used for tea.
+ In low doses, Kratom produces light stimulating and euphoric effects, while larger doses produce opiod-like effects.
+ Risk of developing addiction. Epileptic seizures and development of jaundice occur. Occasional deaths.
+ Ingestion of certain mushrooms from above all the Psilocybe genus, sometimes called Magic mushrooms, produces symptoms such as euphoria, hallucinations, high pulse, agitation and, in severe cases, acute psychosis.
+ The mushrooms can also cause “flashbacks”, i.e. recurring symptoms, for up to a few weeks after ingestion.
+ The mushrooms are eaten fresh/raw or dried.
Source: Poison Information Centre
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