Not mush room for pickers in Donnybrook, police warn

Donnybrook police are warning people to think twice about heading into the area to pick psilocybin mushrooms as the region heads into the growing season.

Psilocybin mushrooms are naturally occurring and have a dangerous hallucinogenic effect, which can last from three to eight hours.

There has been a clear trend in people making the trip to the South West to pick and eat the illegal mushrooms, which has proved to be an annual issue for the area.

Donnybrook officer-in-charge Sgt Matt Fogarty warned potential visitors that police would regularly be targeting areas known for harvesting the mushrooms.

“We have had a proactive scenario set up for a few weeks now and have caught a fair few people out in the areas, but not too many that have been doing the picking, so we’ve done pretty well,” Sgt Fogarty said.

“We try to get out and patrol the relevant areas daily, but we’ve got all the way through to August and we’re only at the start of it, so touch wood we keep going the way we’re going.”

The main message for people to remember is the mushrooms are dangerous, Sgt Fogarty said.

You don’t know how they’re going to affect your body — it may make you hallucinate, but it can also make you sick.

Sgt Fogarty warned people who visited the shire to pick mushrooms that they could face additional trespassing charges.

“Don’t be going around to any of the locations within the Donnybrook shire to pick them because all of the locations are private property, so essentially you’re trespassing to start with,” he said.

“Obviously if you are caught with magic mushrooms they’re a prohibited drug so you can be charged and put before the court.”

Sgt Fogarty said Donnybrook police had received help from the surrounding police stations with the annual issue.