At present The Netherlands, especially the city of Amsterdam, is considered a party city attracting large numbers of tourists for stag weekends and partying, drawn to the city in part for its liberal laws on recreational drugs.
Magic Mushrooms
The decision came on December 1st 2008, following the death of a French tourist in an incident blamed on the consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms. The effects the fungus has on the brain, described as ‘tripping’ varies in each mushroom type. They are marketed in professional looking packaging, detailing the origin of the mushroom type and the experience the user can expect to have after taking.
Proponents of the psychodelic drug describe the experience as bringing increased spiritual insight and altering perception for amplified meditation. However, the US National Drug Intelligence Centre offers a rather more demonising description as ‘'far more dangerous’' with effects such as vomiting, hallucinations and paranoia.
Selling the dried versions of the mushrooms is already illegal, as the dried versions are more potent than their fresh counterparts. However, now anyone attempting to sell them fresh could face up to four years in jail. Before the ban shops were able to sell them over the counter at around 12-15 Euros (16-20 USD) a pack.
Some of the fears that this has raised is that tourists heading to Amsterdam will still wish to indulge in recreational drugs, instead turning to street dealers and other less reliable sources, getting mixed up in harder drugs. Emergency services were called to 128 incidents relating to the hallucinogen in 2006, however, this is a lesser number by far than those relating to alcohol.
Image Change?
It is not only magic mushrooms that are being targeted in the city of Amsterdam, the famed hash cafés have also been targeted in a bid to clean up the city. Licensed cafés have been allowed to sell cannabis since 1976, however it is expected that the number found in the city is to fall as licensing laws are tightened in hope to drive organised crime out of the city. This is coupled with the Dutch government’s plan to do the same for the sex trade in the city as Amsterdam recently announced that it would half its shop window brothels in the Red Light District.
Swing to the Right?
Historian, Han van den Horst was quoted in the Telegraph to have said '‘The country is turning more conservative, there is a move away from sex, drugs and rock'n'roll towards some pretty bourgeois values.’' With the rise of right wing political figures such as Geert Wilders, it would seem that Holland and especially Amsterdam is losing its famed liberal position. Wilders found support with the rise of anti-Muslim feeling following the murder of anti-Islam filmmaker Theo Van Gough.
'‘The change started out as a rightist phenomenon, but is now becoming more of a mainstream feeling. It is gaining legitimacy and credibility among the working classes’' Said Dick Houtman, sociologist from Rotterdam's Erasmus University in recent interview with the Telegraph. It would seem that a change in the liberal immigration laws was just the start.
With the country doing somewhat of a u-turn from its previous position, the question must be asked of what will become of the city’s trade as its traditional cast of tourists are encouraged away and also the country, as its famed liberal image erodes.
Daniel Crudge - Daniel is a graduate from the London, University of Westminster, where he achieved a Bachelar of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and ...
