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Steven Hayden Pollock

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Steven Hayden Pollock
Born(1947-08-12)August 12, 1947[1][2]
Los Angeles, California[2]
DiedFebruary 1, 1981(1981-02-01) (aged 33)[1][3]
San Antonio, TX[3]
Cause of deathMurder
Resting placeMission Burial Park North, San Antonio, Texas
29°38′07″N 98°36′37″W / 29.635249°N 98.610142°W / 29.635249; -98.610142 [1]
NationalityAmerican
EducationMedical College of Wisconsin, University of Texas Department of Pharmacology[3]: 6 
PartnerMitzi Moore[3]: 7 
FatherWalter Pollock[3]: 12 
Scientific career
FieldsMycology
InstitutionsHerbal Medicine Research Foundation, San Antonio, TX, and a Winnebago laboratory[3]: 10 
Academic advisors

Steven Hayden Pollock (August 12, 1947 – February 1, 1981) was an American mycologist who studied psychoactive mushrooms and published many articles on the potential of mushrooms to treat illness and improve quality of life.[4][5]: 81 [6]: 55 

Life and career

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On September 3, 1977, in Tampa, Florida, while the Second International Mycological Congress was ongoing, Pollock and Gary Lincoff discovered a new species of psychoactive mushroom, which they named Psilocybe tampanensis.[7][3]: 3–4 

Pollock wrote a book on Magic Mushroom Cultivation in 1977. It contained his research on several ways to cultivate magic mushrooms,[8] including the method of cultivation in brown rice that was later demonstrated to produce mushrooms of high psilocybin content.[3]: 6 

Pollock isolated a strain of P. tampanensis that produced sclerotia of a size much bigger than known before. This discovery enabled a means of using psilocybin in places where magic mushrooms are illegal.[9][10][3]: 6, 16 

Pollock envisioned creating the first legal medical mushroom research laboratory and estimated he would need about two million dollars to set it up.[3]: 6–8  Together with another mushroom lover, Michael Forbes, he founded a company called Hidden Creek in 1979 to sell P. tampanensis sclerotium by mail. The company advertised in the monthly magazine High Times,[11] and became the largest magic mushroom vendor in the world within the same year.[3]: 6 

As well as selling mushrooms and prescriptions, Pollock planted an acre of cannabis to get the funds he needed for his research. He traveled to the Amazon and Mexico to study psychoactive mushrooms and discovered three species in 1979: Psilocybe armandii, Psilocybe wassoniorum, and Psilocybe schultesii.[3]: 7–8  In 1980, because of his high volume of illegal prescription writing, the state pharmacy board alerted employees about his practice. As a work-around Pollock bought his own pharmacy to supply his customers.[3]: 8 

Death

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On the evening of January 31, 1981, Pollock worked late at his pharmaceutical practice. He spoke to his girlfriend Mitzi over the phone at seven, and told her that he could not meet her for dinner as he was expecting a patient. At half past nine, he received a phone call from fellow mycologist Paul Stamets, but Pollock cut the call short, claiming that some patients had arrived. Mitzi called several more times through the night, but Pollock did not answer. Worried, she went to his office at eleven. The place had been ransacked and Pollock was lying dead in a corner, having been shot in the head.[3]

The police found 1,753 jars of growing psychoactive mushrooms in Pollock's greenhouse. These were dumped and burned by the San Antonio Narcotics Force.[3]: 10–12 

In 1983, detective Anton Michalec gathered evidence against three men whom he suspected of the murder: Ernest Dietzmann and Jerry Baker, who were drug dependents and patients of Pollock's, and Arthur Lenz, a methamphetamine dealer. An informant told Michalec that these men had plotted to rob Pollock of his money, and their fingerprints matched those found at the crime scene. According to the police report, Michalec brought the case to the district attorney Terry McDonald, who refused to prosecute for unknown reasons. In 2013, journalist Hamilton Morris contacted McDonald, who said that the police report was mistaken, and that he had not been the district attorney at that time. Morris tried to discover who had actually been responsible for the refusal to prosecute, but was informed by the Drug Enforcement Administration that any records which might have contained this information had been destroyed.[3]: 14 

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Grave Site of Dr. Steven Hayden Pollock (1947–1981)". BillionGraves. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Steven Hayden Pollock – Birth Event". Family Search. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Hamilton Morris (July 2013). "Blood Spore: Of Murder and mushrooms". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  4. ^ Pollock, Steven Hayden (October 1976). "Liberty Caps: recreational hallucinogenic mushrooms". Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 1 (6). Elsevier Science: 445–447. doi:10.1016/0376-8716(76)90010-7. ISSN 0376-8716. PMID 1035156.
  5. ^ Pollock, Steven Hayden (17 January 2012). "The Psilocybin Mushroom Pandemic". Journal of Psychedelic Drugs. 7 (1). Taylor & Francis: 73–84. doi:10.1080/02791072.1975.10472640. ISSN 0022-393X.
  6. ^ Pollock, Steven Hayden (17 January 2012). "Psilocybian Mycetismus With Special Reference To Panaeolus". Journal of Psychedelic Drugs. 8 (1). Taylor & Francis: 43–57. doi:10.1080/02791072.1976.10472007. ISSN 0022-393X.
  7. ^ Steven Hayden Pollock; Gastón Guzmán (July–September 1978). "A new bluing species of Psilocybe from Florida, U.S.A." (PDF). Mycotaxon. 7 (2): 373–376. ISSN 0093-4666. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  8. ^ H. Pollock, Steven (1977). Magic Mushroom Cultivation. San Antonio: Herbal Medicine Research Foundation. ISBN 9780930074012.
  9. ^ "Truffle takes over from the magic mushroom". DutchNews.nl. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  10. ^ "Amsterdam tourists mad about truffle trips". RNW Media. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  11. ^ "Hidden Creek – Magic Mushroom Farms". High Times. No. 44. April 1979. p. 108. ISSN 0362-630X.
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