A motorist caught by police with a magic mushroom and other illegal drugs in his car was heading to an Ullswater fell for a psychedelic experience, a court was told.
Michael John Torrance, 37, was spotted by a constable on mobile patrol in a Hyundai which was parked at a Penrith town centre bus stop at 7.40pm on November 29 last year.
The officer approached, intent on speaking to Torrance, but he drove off.
He was followed and stopped on the A6 at Eamont Bridge. The PC noted Torrance — the sole occupant — appeared pale; his pupils were dilated and there was a smell of cannabis from his vehicle.
Torrance provided a positive saliva drug test at the road side. Inside his vehicle, the police found small amounts of class A drugs heroin and magic mushroom, and class B cannabis.
But in custody, Torrance refused to provide a blood specimen. When later interviewed, he said he didn’t like needles, that a previous procedure had taken a long time and he didn’t wish to comply. He accepted there was no medical reason for non-compliance.
“He said the drugs were for his own personal use,” prosecutor Andy Travis told Carlisle magistrates’ court today. “He was going to Hallin Fell to have a psychedelic experience before going to sleep in his car.”
Torrance, of King Street, Penrith, accepted taking drugs before driving, and spoke of picking the mushroom from a field.
He pleaded guilty to illegal possession of heroin, psilocin and cannabis, and also failing to provide a specimen for analysis, and was said to have stated he was “disappointed” by his crimes.
The court heard the four offences put him in breach of a suspended prison sentence. He was given this by a judge at Carlisle Crown Court in January last year for burglaries which occurred on a rural crime spree near Penrith as he sought to clear a drug debt.
Magistrates sent Torrance’s case to the crown court, where he is due to be sentenced on 29th March. In the meantime he was granted bail.
