In a patch of forest near the small West Australian town of Balingup so-called magic mushrooms are popping up everywhere.

It has prompted local police to boost patrols of the area as they try to deter people from searching for the hallucinogenic fungus.

Police said not only were the mushrooms toxic and dangerous, it was also illegal to collect them.

Balingup, south of Perth, has just over 400 people living in it, and not much gets by the local police.

In recent weeks they said they had noticed some unusual activity in the pine plantations just out of town.

Sorry, this video has expired Police on the search for magic mushroom pickers

Constable Jay Pereira said they had a few incidents in which magic mushrooms had been seized.

"Because we've started to come across them we've decided to go out and start policing the area a bit more than we have done in the past," he said.

The mushrooms contain the hallucinogen psilocybin.

Possessing them is illegal and trying to collect them from the forest plantation is also trespassing on Crown Land.

The ABC was allowed to travel with Constable Pererira and his partner Senior Constable Mike Smith as they went in search of people picking the mushrooms.

The two police officers soon found two women and a man in the forest and questioned them.

The group was searched, as they were found on Crown Land and trespassing.

Police question the suspected magic mushroom pickers. ( ABC News: Tim Brunero )

Mushroom pickers relieved to escape harsher penalties

The officers did not find anything on the group, but when they checked nearby bushes they discovered a blue esky containing 30 magic mushrooms.

Constable Pererria said there were two ways they could proceed with the group; one would be through the court where they would be prosecuted for drug possession.

"The other is via what we call a drug intervention requirement," he said.

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"Effectively we send out a referral to counsellors who have a chat to the people that we refer in relation to drug use, how it can affect them, the potential long-term effects of using drugs.

"That's how we're proceeding for this incident for all three parties."

The mushroom pickers said they were relieved they had escaped a harsher penalty.

"Based on my intention, the very small weight of the magic mushrooms that I have taken, which is a reflection of personal use only, I believe that there might be an intervention order or some sort of course for me to do," one of the pickers said.

"I think it just gives someone a little bit of learning room. I've given the gentleman here my word I won't come back to this place."