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Magic mushroom sales ban in Amsterdam
The sale of so-called magic mushrooms is set to be banned in Amsterdam. Dutch authorities want to ban the sale, a turnaround in the city's liberal drugs policies. Drug laws will be changed to ban the both the sale and cultivation of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The move follows health and safety concerns after a number of incidents involving tourists who had taken them. Incidents with paddos, as hallucinogenic mushrooms are known, has more than doubled from 55 cases reported by the emergency services in 2004 to 128 last year.
In March this year a 17-year-old French girl died on an Amsterdam bridge after eating magic mushrooms, though no formal link was every established. There have other cases where tourists had become aggressive or paranoid after taking them.
The ban will have to be approved by the parliament and the senate but this is highly likely after a majority in the Dutch parliament urged a total ban earlier this year. The change in the Dutch drug laws will mean so-called smartshops that sell magic mushrooms will be shut down.
This article was written for TravelSavvy Europe by Amy Armitage. If you know of an interesting European travel related news story, please get in contact.
