Could a ban on hallucinogenic mushrooms herald the end of Holland’s
famous liberal drug policy?

Source: Newsweek Web Exclusive

October 22, 2007

By Thijs Niemantsverdriet

In Amsterdam the Psilocybe cubensis has become a regular on the menu of stimulants offered to visitors. The “magic mushroom,” as it is more
commonly known, has a lot going for it. It’s cheap, it’s organic, and
upon consumption the coolest things happen to you: dustbins turn into
green dragons, trees turn into vertical lines, and faces take on funny
shapes. Yet the mushroom’s biggest asset in the Netherlands is that it’s
legal. Just drop by one of Amsterdam’s so-called “smart shops,” with
self-explanatory names such as Euphoria, Conscious Dreams or Altered
State. For less than 20 bucks popular brands like Philosopher’s Stone or
the Golden Teacher will give you a mesmerizing evening.

Holland’s fungus fantasy, however, could soon be over. Last week the
Dutch health minister proposed a total ban on the sale of hallucinogenic
mushrooms in the Netherlands. If the government has its way, which is
very likely, the mushroom will become an illegal drug within a few
months. The ban will almost certainly spell the end of an industry that
has been flourishing in Holland since the mid ’90s, forcing the majority
of smart shops to start selling wooden shoes or Delft Blue pottery. But
it also, some argue, heralds the end of the country’s world-famous
lenient drug policy.

Until recently Holland regarded psychoactive mushrooms as a relatively
harmless intoxicator. A recent report by a government health agency
called the magic fungi “no peril to public health” and saw no reason for
a ban. This past year, however, Amsterdam was shaken by a number of
incidents involving mushrooms. In March a 17-year-old French high-school
student killed herself by jumping off a building. In July a
panic-stricken tourist from Iceland plunged out of his hotel window
(surviving, but ruining both his legs). Some weeks earlier, a heavily
intoxicated Briton gave his hotel room a complete trashing (badly
injuring himself in the process).

“Mushrooms may not be as harmful as cocaine or heroin, but we simply
shouldn’t take the risk of selling this stuff,” says Ed Anker, an MP for
the conservative ChristenUnie party who supports the ban. “I don’t want
to sit around waiting for another casualty.”

Users and sellers of mushrooms are outraged by the ban. Paul van Oyen, a
spokesman for the national association of smart shop owners, calls the
government’s decision “narrow-minded,” adding, “The health secretary has
lost his sanity.” Although Amsterdam’s approximately 40 smart shops
don’t trade only in mushrooms (most of them also sell energy drinks,
aphrodisiacs and substances said to be herbal equivalents to synthetic
drugs like ecstasy and LSD), they fear the end of their business. A
hastily opened Web site called “Save the Mushroom” claims to have
received more than 25,000 supporting e-mails in just one week.

It’s not just Dutch mushroom aficionados who are up in arms. Many drug
experts lament the government’s decision as well. August de Loor, an
independent addiction consultant in Amsterdam, warns of a shift to
illegal drugs that are much more dangerous. “Right now the authorities
have the possibility of monitoring the use of mushrooms,” he says. “If
people turn to the black market for their mushroom fix, they will also
be tempted to buy stuff like LSD and GHB.” This has been the crux of
Dutch drug policy over the last 35 years: regulation instead of
suppression, harm reduction instead of prohibition. Mushrooms have been
legal, and while marijuana is technically illegal, the authorities have
tolerated the purchase and use of small amounts. The government has
dispensed clean needles for heroin users in some cities and, for a brief
time, even offered free testing of ecstasy pills at dance parties.

Opponents of the ban point to something else too: a bad mushroom trip is
almost exclusively a tourist experience. According to local health
authorities, 92 percent of mushroom trippers gone astray between 2004
and 2006 were foreigners (Britain tops the list, with America coming in
third). This is due to a new kind of tourism: young people who come to
Amsterdam on a cheap flight just for the weekend. For three days they
indulge themselves in heavy smoking and drinking, with a couple of
mushrooms for dessert—often ending up in the hospital. (All of this
summer’s three victims had also used large amounts of marijuana and
alcohol; the French girl reportedly had a history of depression.)

“After a ban, the number of tourist accidents will surely plummet,” says
smart shop spokesman van Oyen. “Yet local people enjoying a mushroom
every now and then without any problems will have to suffer.”

The mushroom ban fits into a wider crackdown on Holland’s lenient
soft-drug policy. For more than three decades the Dutch state has
tolerated the purchase and use of marijuana. But after reaching its peak
in 2000, when tens of thousands of European soccer hooligans smoked
their way through a peaceful European Cup, the Dutch drug gospel is
starting to lose strength. Holland’s world-famous “coffee shops” are
facing ever more restrictions. Over the last decade their number has
dropped by 40 percent. This spring the city of Rotterdam announced it
would shut down all shops within a 270-yard radius of schools. In
Maastricht people attending a coffee shop are obliged to leave their
fingerprints, so as to prevent underage persons from buying pot.

With a socially conservative government in office since the beginning of
this year, this process is only speeding up. A countrywide smoking ban
(covering marijuana, too) will take effect in July 2008, likely
degrading the coffee shops to mere selling counters. Last year Holland’s
health secretary even predicted the end of the Dutch exception. “The
image of Holland as extremely tolerant toward drugs is less and less in
keeping with reality,” Hans Hoogervorst, who stepped down in February,
told an international audience of addiction experts. “The climate in
Holland has changed,” adds MP Anker. “People are weary of the
happy-clappy liberalism of the 1970s.” (Anker’s party has proposed
shutting down Amsterdam’s famous red-light district and converting it
into a “second Montmartre,” with restaurants and art galleries.)

Drug expert de Loor also thinks the end of an era is near, though he’s
regretting it. “The mushroom ban does not stand alone,” he says. “Within 10 years not a single coffee shop will be left in Holland.” Anyone
craving a legal taste of the Philosopher’s Stone had best make his
Amsterdam vacation plans now.

READ ALSO: SAVE THE SHROOMS

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