Amsterdam Bans Magic Mushrooms!

I know that many of you also like to indulge in that other legal drug in Amsterdam that is mushrooms! Well I have some bad news for you unfortunately.

Amsterdam's government on Friday decided to ban mushrooms.

A ministry spokesman, Wim van der Weegen, announced that the ban will take effect within 6 months and will not require any sort of parliamentary approval.

Whilst most of the media reported this story on Friday, those with their ears close to the ground (including me!) had expected an announcement for some time.

What really started this story was when a French girl a few months ago decided to toss herself off a bridge and fell to her death to a motorway. Silly girl!

For a start, she did the mushrooms and ventured off on her own. Only an idiot would take psychedelics on their own. Maybe the shop didn't warn her but she should have known better that drugs are not like candy.

There were a few other incidents as well, all involving tourists, but I think the French girl was the hair that broke the camel's back and started this campaign to control mushrooms.

I say control, because initially it looked as if the government wanted to bring in a 3 day cooling off period i.e. you express an interest in buying mushrooms and you get 3 days to mull it over before you come to collect them.

Many people including myself scoffed at this and it would also prevent many European weekend tourists from buying any.

So when the news came that they were to be banned, this came as a complete surprise!

This is a stupid idea in my opinion and only gives the pesky street dealers another poor quality, adulterated and dangerous product to peddle.

If you're planning a trip to Amsterdam soon then you can still get the mushrooms, probably for the rest of the year then that will be it :(

Luckily, the beautiful weed has not been touched so we are safe...for now.



Picture credit
Image: "Magic mushroom!" by jocelyn.aubert
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/jocelynaubert/1524073479/)
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

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