Illinois Police Officer Arrested on Drug Charges After Mushrooms Found at Home

An Illinois police officer was arrested on drug charges when mushrooms were found at his home on Friday, July 3.

Illinois State Police's Division of Internal Investigation began investigating Collinsville trooper Nolan Morgan—aged 40, of Greenville, Illinois,—on July 2 after receiving internal information he was in possession of drugs and manufacturing them at home.

The investigators conducted witness interviews and searched Morgan's home, where they found around 259 grams of psilocybin mushrooms.

Morgan was charged with possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver and manufacture of a controlled substance. These are both Class X felony charges in the state of Illinois, which is the most serious felony short of murder.

The penalties for a Class X felony include a minimum sentence of six years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years, in addition to a maximum fine of $25,000.

The police officer's bond was set at $150,000 by Judge Christopher Bauer and he is being held at the Bond County Jail awaiting his next court appearance. He has been relieved of his police duties.

Morgan had worked at the District 11 Patrol in Collinsville since graduating from the Illinois State Police Academy in June 2018. The investigation into Morgan is ongoing.

In a social media post, the Illinois State Police shared information about the investigation and said: "No further information is available at this time. All subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law."

In June, the Attorney General of Illinois said that the state's police officers should be licensed, similarly to workers like physicians, pharmacists, and hairdressers.

Kwame Raoul suggested the idea as a state senator in 2014, following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The criminal justice bill legislation created a database of officers who had been disciplined due to misconduct, but the provision to license officers was dropped.

But following the killing of George Floyd, Raoul has said that he would pursue his efforts to license officers. Speaking to radio station WBEZ, Raoul said: "I think it's the responsibility of the legislature to do what they've done for many other professions to have consequences for repeated misconduct or single acts of egregious misconduct.

"If they have an egregious act of official misconduct or a pattern of such, they can have their license taken away such that they cannot participate in that profession anymore and that should be the same thing for a law enforcement officer who is capable of using deadly force in carrying out his or her duties."