Vic Mensa caught at DC airport with a stash of psilocybin and LSD

Victor Kwesi Mensah, 28, was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport on Saturday after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers discovered a stash of psychedelic narcotics, including psilocybin and LSD, in his luggage. Mensah is better known by his stage name as a rapper, Vic Mensa.

Mensah boarded a flight from Ghana early Saturday morning, according to a CBP press release. For reasons that are not clear, his luggage was examined a second time. During a second luggage search, CBP officers discovered about 41 grams of liquid lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), about 124 grams of psilocybin capsules, 178 grams of psilocybin gummies, and six grams of psilocybin mushrooms hidden in Mensah’s luggage.

Vic Mensa’s stash. Photo courtesy of US Customs and Border Protection.

Mensah’s father and extended family are from Ghana, and the artist commutes frequently between Africa and Chicago, among other places.

Police officers from the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) were alerted and indicted Mensah on narcotics possession felonies. MWAA officers took Mensah into custody and confiscated the drugs.

CBP leaders urged passengers to throw away their drugs before entering the airport. “Travellers can save themselves time and potential criminal charges at their international arrival checkpoint by taking a few minutes to ensure their luggage is drug-free,” said Daniel Escobedo, who serves as Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, DC of CBP acts. Narcotics prohibition remains a Customs and Border Protection priority, and we remain committed to working closely with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners to ensure those transporting illegal narcotics into the United States are investigated and prosecuted be prosecuted.”

While traveling with cannabis on domestic flights is one thing, carrying drugs of any kind on an international flight is a more serious matter. Let it be known, however, that the psilocybin mushroom cubes found in Mensah’s stash only contain microdoses of psilocybin at 0.14g of psilocybin each – which isn’t exactly enough to trip a person. At this low dose, the psilocybin gummies are unlikely to produce more than a mood change. The other products he owned are also available in microdoses.

Given that he was caught with the drugs in microdoses, it’s entirely possible that he used psychedelics for medical reasons. In a study published months ago in the journal Nature, people who microdosed psilocybin showed lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress across genders. As it turns out, Mensah himself opened up about his struggles with depression and drug addiction in his 2018 song “10K Problems.”

Mensah recently split from his hip-hop roots and formed a punk rock and rap band called 93Punx, which released an ICE protest song as well as another single featuring Travis Barker. The price of his recent legal troubles could soon hit his pocket. But recently he enlisted Chance the Rapper and Wyclef Jean on the track “Shelter.”

Don’t test the CBP when dealing with drugs, especially if it’s an international flight.

CBP officials averaged more than 650,000 travelers arriving at airports, seaports and land border crossings last year. CBP officers and agents arrested an average of 25 wanted criminals at US ports of entry each day. See what else CBP accomplished on a typical day in 2021.

Visit CBP Ports of Entry to learn more about the types of items seized by CBP’s Office of Field Operations.

Psilocybin is legal for medical use and was decriminalized in the state of Oregon — the first state to legalize the psychedelic for medical use, when voters approved Measure 109 in 2020. Cities in another six other states decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms at the city level.

Decriminalization efforts across the country would also decriminalize LSD and other psychedelics. Several major cities in the US have already made headway. California Senate Bill 519, for example, would decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms and LSD — as well as DMT, mescaline, and MDMA.