Netherlands considering banning shrooms

From yahoo news...

By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer

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."

 

Sorry if anyone had already posted this - it popped up as front page news, so I figured Id post it. Kind of a grim story.

 

itl never happen theyd be putting alot of ppl out of jobs and i think the general population would be PISSED if it happened

 

I hate government.

 

agreed. hating THE government has become token of our napolean dynamite, all the emo/rappers hate bush. however, hating government is a sign of evolution and intelligence.

Man has the right to live by his own law-to live in the way that he wills to do: to work as he will: to play as he will: to rest as he will: to die when and how he will. Man has the right to eat what he will:. to drink what he will: to dwell where he will: to move as he will on the face of the earth. Man has the right to think what he will:to speak what he will: to write what he will: to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will: to dress as he will. Man has the right to love as he will. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights. -crowley.

 

Man has the right to live by his own law? Government produces all kinds of influential factors which people live by, and also creates a tight net of laws which people are expected to live within. An issue of control - government has a position of authority. If you think in depth enough about things, we work for the machine and freedom is not really a good way to define the lives humans lead. We are not free, we are slaves to the every day stresses and pressures which in most cases are closely linked to the government influential factors.
Getting arrested for smoking/eating something that grows in the dirt while people are getting away with murder because they have a good head on their shoulders? That's not right.
There may of been a time when man had all these rights, but we are now living for government.
LSD and mushrooms act as a back door escape route to this hold of control, giving man new thoughts, feelings, and altered perspectives on subjects. That's probably the cause of this ban, people falling through the net and getting a little out of government's control.

 

well, i think most dutchmen won't. shrooming ain't as widespread as the usage of marihuana and most of us are poorly informed about this phenomenon. i even believe a lot of dutchmen didn't even knew about shrooms before all the bad new popped up and so most of the people are just scared and want them to be gone. you should know Holland is sturning more and more stupid last years