cannabisnews.com: Feature-Dutch Smart Shops Face Bad Trip





Feature-Dutch Smart Shops Face Bad Trip
Posted by FoM on November 07, 1999 at 11:54:02 PT
Reuters
Source: CNN
AMSTERDAM Dutch Smart Shops -- the Nineties version of the euphemistically named coffee shops of the hippie era -- could face a bad trip after a recent court order banning their most popular item. 
Dried magic mushrooms, whose active ingredients psilocybin and psilocyn, induce a mild euphoria or hallucinogenic haze, were ordered off the shelves last month in a case before a Den Bosch court designed to test the limits of Dutch Opium Laws. But the ban need not spell a nightmare for Conscious Dreams, strife in Magic Valley or collapse at Inner Space -- just some of the 200 pyschedelic smart shops that draw thousands of trippers to the Netherlands each year. The court decided against outlawing the sale of fresh mushrooms, the unprocessed and slightly weaker version of the same substances. Its decision, far from clearing the mist surrounding the sale of the naturally-growing recreational drug, seems to have added a grey area to the psychedelic scenery. Hans van den Hurk, owner of the Conscious Dreams chain of smart shops and a defendant in the case, said he would remove the dried mushrooms from his stores but continue to stock the fresh ones. "It's clear that you're not allowed to prepare the mushrooms although it's legal to have them," Van den Hurk, who is appealing against his sentence of 240 hours of community service, told Reuters. "What's still not clear is whether you're allowed to grow them." Other smart shop owners also want to know where they stand. "It's not clear what the final outcome will be...it's really difficult to give answers to our members," said a spokesman for VLOS, an association of Dutch smart shop proprietors. "We've advised our members for several years not to sell the dried mushrooms," he added. MODEST BEGINNINGS Van den Hurk opened Amsterdam's first smart shop in 1993 as a gallery which also sold "smart drinks" - high-energy herbal beverages loaded with vitamins. His company started by importing the popular Red Bull drink at a time when the Dutch still banned the sale of foods with added vitamins. Since then there has been an explosion in the number of smart shops and the selection of mind-altering products they stock. Conscious Dreams' Kokopelli store on the fringe of Amsterdam's Red Light district also features psycho-active cacti, including peyote, once used by native American tribes to induce visions. As a matter of store policy the cacti are sold only in their natural state. No figures are available on the quantities of magic mushrooms sold annually in the Netherlands, but Van den Hurk estimates an average-sized smart shop would turn over some 250,000-300,000 guilders a year ($120,000-$145,000). LONG ARM Dutch policies of tolerance towards the small-scale sale and use of so-called soft drugs such as cannabis coupled with free market forces have been the driving forces behind the surge in smart shops. But their rapid rise has also brought them to the attention of the police. Conscious Dreams' Amsterdam store was raided in 1995, and police carted off more than a kilo (2.2lb) of the mushrooms. After two years, however, the case was closed and no charges brought. Last month's mushrooms case was the first to come to court, and dates from a 1997 raid on a smart shop in the southern Dutch city of Den Bosch. Its owner, Van den Hurk and three others were arrested and charged with trafficking in a banned substance, a conviction which carried a jail sentence. However Van den Hurk and his associates were able to walk free as the court accepted research showing the mushrooms posed no significant threat to public health. It also ruled that the mushrooms in their natural state were not covered under the Opium Act although their active ingredients are banned. As such the mushrooms themselves are not illegal, but processing them to release their banned substances is. HELPFUL Van den Hurk, a former aid worker on a drug prevention scheme, believes the mushrooms are best sold in shops. There, he argues, consumers can be given the proper information to trip safely, avoiding the abuse that comes with illegal drugs. "If you stop the sales now it will go directly into the criminal circuit because the users want their mushrooms," Van den Hurk said. Customers at Kokopelli are blissfully unaware of the legal tussle over the mushrooms, but agree with Van den Hurk's assessment. "Taking mushrooms is not something I would do very often," said one Dutch woman, munching through a package. But would making the mushrooms illegal create a deterrent to their use? "No, it's still something I would try, at least once," she said. Pubdate: November 7, 1999Copyright 1999 Reuters
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Comment #1 posted by Karen on September 10, 2001 at 11:06:32 PT:
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Please could you give me any information on selling herbal high's in the UK as i am opening a head shop and would like to sell herbal high's. Are there any restriction's on any of the highs. Look forward to hearing from you.Karen
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