The effects of the drug psilocybin usually begin approximately 20 minutes after ingestion, peak in two hours and are usually last approximately 6 hours (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2009). Psilocybin can be detected in the urine but a specific drug test must be ordered to monitor use. It will not be detected in a standard drug test. If an attorney wishes to have a client tested for psilocybin intoxication, he/she must act quickly. The testing is expensive and must be performed as soon as possible because the half- life of the drug is 2-5 hours and the detection window is usually less than one day. It can be detected in 1-3 days in the case of a chronic user but this is rare. The urine sample must be protected from light exposure to prevent degradation; therefore the sample should be wrapped in foil (Norchem, 2011).
Our topic for the criminal newsletter this month is Psilocybin/Mushrooms. Toxicology is a key component of many criminal cases, and mushrooms are certainly not absent from the list of drugs that come up in discovery. The subtopics for this month are:
- Overview (5/9/14)
- Ingestion (5/16/14)
- “Bad Trip” (5/23/14)
- Detection (5/30/14)
