ISU students arrested for growing mushrooms and poppy pods

Two Iowa State University students took their interest in horticulture to an illegal extreme and are now facing drug charges. Captain Eugene Deisinger of the ISU Department of Public Safety says officers got a tip that the two students were growing illegal plants at their apartment on the Ames campus. He says officers went to the apartment, knocked on the door and were allowed to come into the apartment and talk to the students. He says officers noticed drug related materials and then got a warrant. Deisinger says Ryan Paul Peterson and Nicholas Andrew Jones, both age 22 were arrested after officers returned with the warrant and seized the drug material. He says they seized seven large storage bins containing growing psilocybinmushrooms and over 100 opium poppy pods. Deisinger says mushrooms and poppies are not the usual drugs found on campus. He says they’ve found a few small grow operations of mushrooms, but this is the first opium grow operation he’s heard of. The two were each charged with manufacture of psilocybin mushrooms and possession of raw opium poppy with intent to deliver. Peterson and Jones were also charged with two tax stamp violations for both the mushrooms and opium. ISU officers made the arrests in conjunction with the Central Iowa Drug Task Force. Peterson is a senior in Environmental Science (Agriculture) from Davenport, Iowa. Jones is a junior in Computer Engineering from Tipton, Iowa.