Conor McCormick-Cavanagh, writing for Westword:
A federal judge won't send Denver mushroom dealer Kole Milner to prison, instead sentencing the 29-year-old to three years of probation and a $5,500 fine.
"I don’t think putting this guy in prison for six months is going to accomplish much in terms of deterrence, or that it will benefit the community in terms of safety, or that it will provide any kind of benefit for the defendant," Judge R. Brooke Jackson of the U.S. District Court of Colorado said at the February 1 sentencing hearing for Milner. "I don’t see this guy being in prison."
Federal prosecutors had asked that Milner, who pleaded guilty in September 2020 to one count of possession with intent to distribute psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, be sentenced to six months in prison.
This might not seem like huge news at first glance, but it really is. The federal judge in this case has set a precedent that psilocybin mushroom dealers like Kole do not need to be sent to prison that may be used to decide similar cases in the future. We can argue until we’re blue in the face that Kole shouldn’t be given probation and a fine either, but for now it’s nice to see this progress, even if it’s not as far-reaching as many of us would like.