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As an Eastern Cape lawyer prepares to challenge the criminalisation of psychedelic mushrooms for therapeutic purposes, a conference was held at the weekend to discuss the uses and different types of wild mushrooms.
Jeffreys Bay environmental lawyer Ricky Stone spoke at The Hogsback Mushroom Festival and Symposium, detailing a landmark case which is set to challenge South African laws around psilocybin.
Trauma counsellor Monica Cromhout, of Somerset West, was arrested in December 2014 at her home after a client ran out of a guided therapy session which uses “magic mushrooms” to help people deal with a variety of mental health struggles.
The client went straight to the Somerset West police station, while under the influence of psilocybin, and reported a case against Cromhout.
The police then raided the therapist’s home and arrested the 84-year-old healer.
Cromhout was arrested for use, possession and dealing in psilocybin under the Drug Control Act.
Stone spoke to a room filled with scientists, mushroom enthusiasts and visitors from around the country about his application to the North Gauteng high court to challenge the constitutionality of the psilocybin prohibition.
“We should secure a hearing date for later this year and we expect judgment in early 2027,” he said.
“This is constitutional litigation, so whichever way it goes in court, will likely be appealed either to the Supreme Court of Appeal or to the Constitutional Court.”
The festival included talks from mycologists, scientists and legal experts, starting with a cultivation practical lesson on the Friday, talks on the Saturday, and a three-hour forage hike in the Hogsback Forest on Sunday.
Kinesh Chetty, a biologist and organiser of The Hogsback Mushroom Festival and Symposium, said all types of mushrooms had been used by humans for tens-of-thousands of years, and their use had largely been forgotten in modern times.
“Fungi connects plants into living networks. Sugars flow from plants to fungi,” he said. “Water and nutrients flow back.
“But beyond this exchange, something deeper happens. Trees become connected, signals move through the network, and resources are redistributed.”
Chetty discussed the ancient uses of mushrooms, highlighting evidence of mushroom spores being found in human dental remains from 18,000 years ago.
“Our ancestors were experimenting, learning, passing knowledge forward across generations.
“In 1928 Alexander Fleming noticed fungus inhibiting bacterial growth, and from that observation came penicillin, and with it, a transformation of modern medicine.”
He spoke of a resurgence of interest in medicinal and gourmet mushrooms, listing lion’s mane, reishi and shiitake mushrooms as some of the species that are transformational for both the body and mind.
Chetty explained that psilocybin, the psychedelic component of “magic mushrooms”, was a molecule that drove neural flexibility.
“In the brain, psilocybin alters network dynamics,” he said.
“It reduces the dominance of rigid patterns in the parts of the brain linked to our sense of self and repetitive thought.
“Clinically, this is showing promise in treating depression, PTSD, addiction and anxiety.”
A 60-year-old Pretoria-based practitioner of therapeutic psilocybin use, who asked to not be named, said he first discovered these mushrooms four years ago.
In the brain, psilocybin alters network dynamics. It reduces the dominance of rigid patterns in the parts of the brain linked to our sense of self and repetitive thought.
— Kinesh Chetty, a biologist and organiser of The Hogsback Mushroom Festival and Symposium
“I have always been fascinated by mushrooms. I wanted to experiment with psilocybin so I tried 10g.
“At the time I was not aware that this was a therapeutic dose and I lost all of my senses and went into a trance that some describe as an ‘ego-death’.”
The software engineer said this experience made him research the use of psilocybin and he began treating his 22-year-old daughter with micro doses to help her deal with her crippling depression.
“I am not interested in the psychedelic trip. That 10g dose was the first and last time I used the mushrooms on that scale.
“I found that by giving my daughter 100mg of psilocybin allowed her to stop using prescription medication and she has become a productive adult now who does not rely on pharmaceuticals to treat her depression.”
A young veterinarian, Casper Venter, said his interest in mushrooms started at a young age living in Louis Trichardt in Limpopo.
“I finished studying last year and with my first salary, I bought tickets to this festival.”
Venter explained how advances in the science of mushrooms had allowed him to not only feed himself with the nutrient rich fungi, but that he was excited at the prospect of using various mushrooms in his veterinarian work.
“Emerging research into medicinal mushrooms is opening exciting possibilities for veterinary medicine,” he said.
“Compounds found in certain fungi appear to support immune function, reduce inflammation, and even assist in managing chronic conditions.
“As our understanding grows, I believe we’ll see mushroom-derived therapies becoming valuable tools for veterinarians offering more natural, supportive treatment options that could improve the health and recovery of animals in our care.”
Chetty explained that mushrooms had the potential to contribute to food security in SA because they grow quickly, require limited space and offer significant nutritional value.
“There is a certain nutritional profile within fungi that is not available in plants or animals.
“It is possible for home-growers and smaller communities to grow their own mushrooms without high-tech equipment.”
Stone further mentioned in his talk that legal mushrooms were all unregulated.
He said the law did not recognise, regulate or protect them — it only recognised and outright prohibited psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
“The law doesn’t care for context, private use, spiritual use or therapeutic self-exploration,” Stone said. “Not why you are using them, or whether anyone is harmed. It simply criminalises it.
“Constitutions exist precisely to slow the law down when it moves too crudely over human lives.
“They are designed to restrain unjust power. They protect not only bodies, but also psychological integrity and belief.
“This is not a technical legal challenge, it’s a cultural one.
“Across SA, we are seeing increased public conversation about psychedelics, growing therapeutic self-use and exploration, underground but organised ceremonial spaces, and decreasing social stigma compared to a decade ago.”
Stone said his 15 years of work in cannabis reform had helped inform his work with psilocybin.
“If drug use or abuse is a social ill, then it is better dealt with through social interventions as opposed to blunt-force criminal laws and resultant imprisonment,” he said.
While most of his work is in environmental law, Stone said his focus had moved from just plant medicines to “earth medicines” and that thousands of years of using these various natural medicines had helped.
“They are ancestral and cultural medicines with recorded use extending tens-of-thousands of years,” he said.
“Our ancestors relied on them extensively and we’re quickly starting to appreciate that fact.
“These earth medicines help us remember what we have long forgotten — that all life is connected.”
In SA, psilocybin mushrooms are criminalised in terms of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act and the Medicines and Related Substances Act.
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