Koh Phangan Bar Busted for Selling Shrooms, Laughing Gas

Psilocybe mushrooms. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

SURAT THANI — A bar on Koh Phangan was raided early Tuesday morning for selling drinks mixed with psilocybin mushrooms and nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.

Acting on a tip off at about 3am on Tuesday, police and army officers raided Bello Bar on Rin Beach which at the time was hosting more than 100 Thai and foreign revelers. The bar sold drinks mixed with psilocybin mushrooms, known as “magic mushroom” and nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.

The officers, with search warrants issued under Article 44 of the constitution, found 30 liters of fruity drinks mixed with “magic mushrooms” and 20 liters of blended magic mushroom smoothies.

Three 20-kilogram cylinders containing nitrous oxide were seized. Authorities also seized more than 1.5 million baht in cash.

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Bar owner Duangruedee Saelim and two staff members Chanchai Buakham and Kamnuan Somsuk were taken into police custody and questioned, said Col. Samai Prompakol of Koh Phangan Police.

Duangruedee told police she sold mushroom shakes at 300 baht a glass.

In Thailand, psilocybin mushrooms are classed as a Category 5 narcotic and the sale of laughing gas without a permit is illegal.