November 16, 2024 / 9:31 PM MST / CBS Colorado
A Boulder man is behind bars following a grand jury investigation into his alleged sales of drugs to underage users. crane lifting equipment
The investigation into 23-year-old Benjamin Harmon's alleged drug sales was triggered when the body of a 15-year-old boy to whom he'd reportedly sold psychedelic mushrooms was found below a construction crane.
The 15-year-old fell from the crane on June 20 while "experiencing strong hallucinogenic effects" of psilocybin mushrooms purchased from Harmon three days earlier, according to a grand jury indictment against Harmon. The teenager fell "from an extreme height," as stated in the indictment. The Boulder County Coroner's Office found amounts of Psilocin, the compound in many psychedelic mushrooms which produces mind-altering effects, in the teen's blood.
Days after teen's death, investigators used the dead boy's phone to contact Harmon and set up another deal. Police arrested Harmon on Aug. 7 when he pulled into the same parking lot in which he'd allegedly sold to the teen.
Harmon, according to the indictment, admitted to detectives that he was there to sell mushrooms to a customer he knew to be underage.
Colorado residents voted to decriminalize the possession and medical use of psychedelic mushrooms in 2022 for anyone 21 years of age and older. The drug is illegal on a federal level, not medically approved by the Federal Drug Administration and still a Schedule 1 controlled substance in the eyes of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Colorado is only the second state in the nation to make it legal (following Oregon).
Following Harmon's arrest, investigators gained access to his Snapchat account. There, they found proof of the sale of mushrooms to O'Neal - and conversations with 19 other underage customers with whom he had dealt mushrooms and marijuana. All of the sales were made to high school students in Boulder County, according to the indictment.
Recreational and medical use of marijuana became legal in Colorado 10 years before psychedelic mushrooms did, and with the same over-21 age requirement.
Harmon told investigators that the sales of drugs were his only income at the time, as stated in the indictment.
Detectives also found evidence that Harmon sexually assaulted one minor at gunpoint and obtained child sexual abuse materials from another during his alleged drug dealings in the previous year.
Harmon now faces 40 criminal counts, 21 of them felonies related distribution of drugs to minors. He is being held in the Boulder County Jail on a $2 million bond and has a court hearing Tuesday.
The University of Colorado Police Department, Boulder County Drug Task Force, and 20th Judicial District Attorney's Office participated in the investigation. Anyone with more information on Harmon's alleged drug activity, or who may know someone who is a possible victim of a sexual assault by Harmon, is asked to call CUPD's non-emergency number at 303-492-6666.
Logan Smith is an assignment desk editor at CBS Colorado in Denver with more than 30 years of journalism experience in digital, television and print media.
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