Dad Admits Dosing Kids Daily With Hallucinogenic Mushrooms

A California father has admitted he not only ran a mushroom drug operation, but put his two young sons to work in it—and on the product. Federal prosecutors say 43-year-old Randal Vance of San Diego County pleaded guilty to conspiring with his wife and a friend to cultivate and sell psilocybin mushrooms from two sites in Fallbrook and Bonsall, the Los Angeles Times reports. Agents executing an October 2024 search warrant reported seizing more than 300 pounds of mushrooms and growing material, psilocybin capsules, and six firearms. The mushrooms are a hallucinogenic drug.

As part of his plea, Vance acknowledged giving psilocybin capsules to his sons, then 9 and 11, every other day beginning around October 2023 and daily by 2024, and supplying his older son with mushrooms to sell to friends when he was 12, Fox 5 San Diego reports. He is accused of selling freeze-dried psilocybin mushrooms and mushroom-infused chocolates along with the capsules, KTLA reports. Prosecutors say he promoted the operation through two websites and an Instagram account, then helped delete messages and remove the sites after his arrest to cover up evidence. Vance was already free on bond in a separate state case when he was taken into federal custody. His wife, Rebecca Vance, 42, and friend, 34-year-old Keir Ceballos-Rivera, have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing.