Netherlands - Holland bans Magic Mushrooms

[Psych0naut]

I'm sorry to say it's just the other way round. It has a lot to do with pleasing the citizens in a country, and if they are all against something due to enormous media attention and pressure, the goverment will ban something, this has happened in many countries.

[Thirdedge]

Smartshop owners in de centre of Amsterdam call for stricter regulation, to stay ahead of a total ban on magic mushrooms. According to the shops, only restriction would be a solution to the problems that the sale of mushrooms brings along.

The sale of mushrooms was called into question in March when a seventeen-years-old French girl jumped from a bridge and died after eating mushrooms. It also appeared that since 2005 the number of tourists that needed first aid after eating mushrooms had increased.

Law offense

“The problem is not the smartshops, but those shops that sell mushrooms without information, along with t-shirts and souvenirs,” so says Guy Boels, president of the National Association of Smartshops (VLOS).

But law is still offended by smartshops as well. The municipality of Amsterdam had two smartshops closed last week. During a check these shops, Innerspace and Magic Mushroom Gallery, turned out to offense the Opium Law. Dried mushrooms which are scheduled as harddrugs (only fresh mushrooms are allowed) and GHB were found.

A ban?

A ban on magic mushrooms was proposed by the ministers of CDA, VVD, PFF and Christian Union; therefore a new study was carried out on the risks and dangers for users and society. The RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and Environment) has now finished the report. It was discussed in the parliament but will be presented to the public after summer. Then also the decision on the future of the magic mushroom will be made.

In 2000 a similar study has been done. Every possible risk of mushroom consumption was proven to be zero or very small, which means fresh mushrooms should not be banned.

VLOS, the National Association of Smartshops, now calls for regulation so that mushrooms will remain legally and safely available. The forthcoming points are proposed to the parliament.

1) No sale to minors.
2) Further professionalisation of the smartshops by means of a course for smartshop owners and staffs.
3) A general mushroom information flyer, in as many languages as possible.
4) Concentration of the sale of mushrooms in specialized professional shops that handle according to the rules, recognizable by a trademark.

[Thirdedge]

Dutch media failed in checking and rechecking their sources - one of the most important principals of journalism - by publishing their stories about the several magic mushrooms incidents earlier this month. Now it seems to be that the French tourist who murdered his dog with a pair of scissors last Friday, didn't took any magic mushrooms at all.

According to an anonymous source of the GG&GD they didn't do any research to investigate this bloody case. The French tourist explained that he killed his dog because he freaked out after eating magic mushrooms. Now, it seems to be that he had a 'normal psychosis'.

Negative perspective
According to Van den Hurk, owner of the Conscious Dreams smartshop in Amsterdam and wholesaler of several franchise-based there is an all over trend going on to put magic mushrooms in a negative perspective.
All accidents with tourists are automatically related with magic mushrooms. Besides, all incidents with tourists are compared with each other and the stories are published in the same way.
Whether earlier incidents really caused by eating magic mushrooms is still doubtable.

Last week a young tourist from Island jumped out his hotel room. He explained to became extremely paranoid, freaked out and tried to escape through the window and fell down 6 meters. Both his legs and feet are broken. Also he declared that he panicked after eating magic mushrooms. His father insist on a total ban on magic mushrooms.

Motives
It's rarely that someone just freaks out after eating mushrooms. Accidents are often the result of using them in combination with alcohol, medicines or other stimulants. Also depressed people should not eat magic mushrooms.

His explanation for his jump out of his hotel room fits exactly in the trend of publicity about incidents with magic mushrooms this summer.
Besides, his explanation about eating psychedelic mushrooms gives him no further criminal proceedings. If he had any hard rugs in his possession like LSD, speed or cocaine things would not worked out for him so easily. This 'mushroom explanation' was probably one the best options he could choose. This theory is not truth, doubtable and just based upon my feelings about the whole story.

Based upon these feelings speculations are presented like facts and 100% truth by journalists whom did not checked or rechecked their sources. For sure, this negative publicity around magic mushrooms will lead to stricter political regulations and maybe to a total ban in the future.

Source: Is a Source so can,t list.

[Alfa]

The minister of health has announced that magic mushrooms will be banned in Holland.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Alfa

The minister of health has announced that magic mushrooms will be banned in Holland.

Any noise from groups in opposition to this move? Encod perhaps? Is there any media coverage of people opposing this ridiculous change in policy?

Damn, I think you just ruined my day....

[Heretic.Ape.]

excuse me, I'm just going to go bang my head against the wall for a couple hours. F@#$&!!!

[Twiglet]

Oh! Lets pray they don't make stuff up about weed

[Alfa]

I see you haven't been following the news.

[Twiglet]

Originally Posted by Alfa

I see you haven't been following the news.

I meant in holland.
I admit elswhere, i've read one or two things about weed that isn't true

[Alfa]

I meant in Holland as well. Half of the coffeeshops in Holland close in the coming years. The christian government has promissed to get rid of the liberal Dutch drug policy and has been working hard to do so for quite some time now. With magic mushrooms gone, smartshops in Holland will soon be less liberal/free than smartshops/headshops in many other countries.
The police is now actively after drug users. Especially during big raves. Police going after drug users is something that has not happened for decades.

[Twiglet]

I saw interview with top police man in amsterdam ,chatting to leah bett's dad)high profile ecstasy death case (also a policeman,i believe)
he said to police cannabis was laugable as he would need 1000's of extra police and prisons and it would be still rife.
I know holland has been under pressure for some time to enforce the law

[jcdjinn]

When will this officially take place?

[Thirdedge]

So this is going ahead for certain, or is it yet to be voted on? Is there a chance of it being overturned?

[Jonny8888]

NOOOOOOOO. this is a sad day.

[Jonny8888]

I think in england they gave a few months before the ban was officially enforced. Usually they set a date.

[jcdjinn]

Is the ban for the entire netherlands or just holland. I heard holland is a section of the netherlands but I don't really know.

[Psych0naut]

Originally Posted by jcdjinn

Is the ban for the entire netherlands or just holland. I heard holland is a section of the netherlands but I don't really know.

Holland and the Netherlands are both the same country. There are 2 provinces in the Netherlands with Holland in their names though, Zuid-Holland and Noord-Holland(South Holland and North Holland)

[x cynic x]

Paul G. van Oyen of the National Coalition of Smartshops (VLOS) supports the recommendations of the GGD. "We do not want to have anything to do with dried mushrooms or products that have mushrooms included. We believe the sael of fresh mushrooms should become more professional but should not be banned. That would be a disaster. The whole commercial circuit would become illegal. As a consequence, the number of incidents would surely increase.”

http://www.encod.org/info/NETHERLAND...MUSHROOMS.html

Whatever happened to negotiation? Warnings and precautions would be a start. A ban for minors would certainly be acceptable. But outlawing a great substance into prohibition will definitely fail to make the world a better place. Swim would like to hear how politicians believe this ban would improve the living conditions of Dutch citizens.

[podge]

This is a bad day.....the world just keeps slipping further and further down the wrong path.

[Nagognog2]

When will they bring back the Auto de Fete's in the village squares to make up for the loss of revenue in tourist dollars?

[JDreaming]

Just caught this the other day on USAToday... unfortunate sounding business going on in the Netherlands.

Magic mushrooms face ban in Netherlands

By Toby Sterling, Associated Press

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — The famously liberal Netherlands has been swinging toward the right, cracking down on immigration, religious freedoms and the freewheeling red light district. The next possible target? Magic mushrooms.

The death of a 17-year-old French girl, who jumped from a building after eating psychedelic mushrooms while on a school visit, has ignited a campaign to ban the fungi — sold legally at so-called "smartshops" as long as they're fresh.

Regulation of mushrooms is even less stringent than Holland's famously loose laws on marijuana, which is illegal but tolerated in "coffee shops" that are a major tourist attraction.

Gaelle Caroff's parents blamed their daughter's death in March on hallucinations brought on by the mushrooms, although the teenager had suffered from psychiatric problems in the past. Photographs of her beautiful, youthful face have been splashed across newspapers around the country.

In May, Health Minister Ab Klink ordered the national health institute to perform a new study on the risks of mushrooms. Depending on the conclusions, which are due next month, he said he would either recommend that mushroom sales be limited to those over 18 or impose a total ban.
A 1971 U.N. convention on psychotropic substances banned psilocybin, the main active ingredient in mushrooms, in its purified form. But the legal status of mushrooms themselves was long unclear. Over the last six years, they have been outlawed in Denmark, Japan, Britain and Ireland. It is also illegal to sell psilocybin-containing mushrooms in all U.S. states, but the status of spores, homegrown and wild species varies from state to state.
Peter Van Dijk, a researcher at the Netherlands' independent Trimbos Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, said in an interview last week that the mushrooms themselves are not a health threat because they are neither addictive nor toxic.

However, people who take them may hurt themselves or others, he said. The risks grow if mushrooms are combined with alcohol or cannabis, or if people already have psychiatric problems.

"They really shouldn't use mushrooms because that can trigger psychosis," he said.

A study published in January by Amsterdam's health services said the city's emergency services were summoned 148 times to deal with a negative reaction to mushrooms in 2004-2006. Of those, 134 were foreigners, with Britons forming the largest group.

Dutch government data suggest most mushrooms sold in smartshops are eaten by tourists. Since Caroff's death, other dramatic stories involving foreigners have been reported in the Dutch press:

• A 22-year-old British tourist ran amok in a hotel, breaking his window and slicing his hand.
• A 19-year-old Icelandic tourist thought he was being chased and jumped from a balcony, breaking both his legs.
• A 29-year-old Danish tourist drove his car wildly through a campground, narrowly missing people sleeping in their tents.

A majority of parties in parliament ranging from centrist to far right have demanded the hallucinogenic mushrooms be outlawed.

If the government does ban mushrooms, it will be in keeping with conservative trends that have been sweeping the country in recent years. Since 2001, Muslim immigrants have been under pressure to learn Dutch and integrate, and there have been calls by some to ban Islamic schools and radical mosques.

Last month, authorities announced a major crackdown on organized crime in Amsterdam's Red Light District. And the country's marijuana policies have also been under pressure, with authorities launching more aggressive prosecution of growers.

Brothers Murat and Ali Kucuksen, whose farm "Procare" supplies about half the psychedelic mushrooms on the Dutch market, say they are afraid their business will now be forced to close.

Their state-of-the-art system to grow and package fresh mushrooms is already operating at half capacity, in part because of the British ban and in part because of the recent bad press.

"The reputation of the product is down the drain," Ali Kucuksen said.
For many, however, it is still business as usual at Amsterdam's smartshops.
Chloe Collette, the owner of the Full Moon shop in Amsterdam, showed a group of British backpackers the various types of psychedelic mushrooms on sale Thursday.

"We have seven kinds on the menu, most of them are the softer kind," she told the group.

She said she doesn't sell to people under 18 and tries to screen out customers who appear unstable. But she acknowledged there is no way to be sure. She said she recommends people find a park or someplace outside where they can sit and talk with friends when they take them.

"People need to feel comfortable when they take it," she said. "It's something natural that makes you connected to yourself."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...ushrooms_N.htm

[Joe Duffy]

Gosh! they are some “dramatic stories” indeed!

[p$2]

this is obviously sad news but, as p$ has been following current affairs in the netherlands as p$ has friends there, this does not entirely surprise him.
one point though: i thought the "christian democrat" conservative govornment had, at the last national election, been voted out of power or at least been forced to share it...? is the new govornment just continuing the policy?
SWIp$ was first introduced to the world of psychedelic mushrooms in the context of picking the wild ones and sharing them, taking them out in the country. SWIp$ and those around SWIp$ would never have considered that the mushrooms were a commodity to be marketed for a quick profit. SWIp$ and those around SWIp$ would never have sold the mushrooms that they picked. although SWIp$ did purchase such mushrooms in the united kingdom at the time they were legally available SWIp$ could see that there were in some cases problems with the irresponsible way they were being sold and the way they were being taken (so to say, consumer drug culture) and now the upshot is that even fresh picked mushrooms are banned.
will this mean that laboratries in the netherlands will no longer be able to maintain and develop spore genetics? because surely even if the spores are legal, it requires that the mushrooms are grown in order for the spores to be developed.
SWIp$ would encorage all who are in a position of growing mushrooms to produce a good batch of spore prints... as a matter of responsibility.

[p$2]

Originally Posted by JDreaming

• A 22-year-old British tourist ran amok in a hotel, breaking his window and slicing his hand.

taking mushrooms in your hotel.... thats a total bullshit idea. smartshop owners frequently encouraged it. just my opinion sadly banning drugs is far easier than banning stupidity.

[Jonny8888]

Surely tighter regulations and stricter enforcement is the way to go tho.