Tag: mushrooms

The cultivation and sale of fresh hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Netherlands will remain illegal, the High Court in the Hague has decided.

In upholding the ban the court rejected a request for interim relief filed by the Association of National Smart Shops.

The ban went into effect on December 1, 2008, after a series of deaths, injuries and other incidents linked — sometimes incorrectly — to the use of the ‘magic’ mushrooms.

A judge in The Hague, Netherlands, today rejected a legal challenge filed by the industry organization of smartshop owners against a national ban on the sale of fresh hallucinogenic ‘magic’ mushrooms.

The ban will go into effect on December 1, 2008.

A national ban on the sale of fresh hallucinogenic ‘magic’ mushrooms will take effect in the Netherlands on December 1, 2008. In dried form those mushrooms already were banned under Dutch Opiate Laws.

The ban was first proposed in October 2007, after as series of high-profile deaths and injuries linked to magic mushroom trips — most of them involving tourists in Amsterdam.

The number of incidents linked to the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Amsterdam rose last year, with most cases involving foreign tourists, health service statistics showed Saturday.

The Dutch cabinet has proposed a ban on the sale of all hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms because they could induce life-threatening behaviour.