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No More Mushrooms

Adam Beavers

Famed for its liberal drug laws, The Netherlands is now imposing a total ban on the sale of "magic" mushrooms. This announcement comes months after a 17-year-old French student jumped to her death while under the influence of mushrooms. Other high profile incidents include an Icelandic tourist breaking both legs while jumping from a balcony and a Danish tourist veering his car wildly through a campsite. A media debate has been raging for months over the use of mushrooms in the country.

"We expect the ban to come into effect in the next few months after it has been approved by the parliament and the senate," stated health ministry spokeswoman Karin Donk.

The total ban will close all loopholes for the sale of fresh and dried mushrooms. Dried mushrooms have been illegal in the Netherlands for some time, due to the high concentration of hallucinogenic chemicals, and now the sale of fresh mushrooms will be added to the list.

 

Creative Commons Image: Seahorse_/melanie on Flickr

10-15-07

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Picture of <em>Morgan Maher</em>

spore dissemination

Submitted by Morgan Maher on Mon, 10/15/2007 - 22:27.

sad. : (

banned magic

 

saved. : )

A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home (Paperback) By Paul Stamets and J.S. Chilton

 

Picture of <em>Coveredinrain</em>

:(

Submitted by Coveredinrain on Tue, 10/16/2007 - 09:53.
This is so sad... I don't think it is the use of mushrooms that is the culprit in the situations mentioned above. If liberal drug laws are going to be enforced, then people need to be educated on the history, usage, and dangers of using such drugs without the proper knowledge of their powers. As for banning the drugs because of a few bad trips that ended as terribly as they did… I just don’t think it’s fair. There was a college student in my town that rolled out of her bedroom window and fell to her death after a heavy night of drinking downtown... I never heard anything about banning alcohol after that. I’m sure if we compared the deaths caused by alcohol and the deaths caused by psychedelics there would be a significant sway in the first direction. If you’re going to ban something, ban the one substance that has never to my knowledge been used for medicinal or spiritual purposes...
Picture of <em>Jonathan Phillips</em>

Restrictions suck for everyone

Submitted by Jonathan Phillips on Tue, 10/16/2007 - 10:39.

In Boulder, this situation did happen with alcohol. A sorority girl got drunk, went "car surfing" on top of an SUV and died around some curvy roads. The college reacted by banning beer at all events, and putting anyone who had a party with alcohol and "under-age" drinkers on an automatic six-month suspension from the university, even if it was off-campus and had nothing to do with the school. These restrictions affected 27,000 people who had nothing to do with the incident. All of us became incredibly resentful of the college administration and that's when you saw "The Boulder Beer Riots." We despised our administration from then on. It never stopped because we understood full well that they didn't care about personal freedoms when it came to cover their asses. I wonder how many people feel like this about the Dutch authorities right now?

Of course, you're right on alcohol not being villified like psychedelics. How many people die every year from alcohol-related driving fatalities, alcohol poisoning and liver damage? Probably more than the entire history of all psychedelics. And of course, there's no talk of banning alcohol anytime soon.