Re: MAPS: Re: The Dutch Lesson

[pfe@xxxxxxxxxx]

Arno Adelaars <nota@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The Dutch harm reduction approach is that selling mushrooms legally in
> smart shops with a staff trained in giving good information is far less
> harmful for public health than scheduling mushrooms with all the
> disadvantages of the black market: No quality control, no information for
> users, no age limit.

That is the theory yes. But the practice is that there is no quality control on
the fresh mushrooms anywhere. The quality regulations which are applied to
supermarket edible mushrooms (to protect customers against food poisoning) are
not used for the consumption mushrooms of smart shops. I have seen psilocybian
mushrooms with the wrong types of mold growing on it, offered for sale in
smartshops. And the salesperson trying to convince me that the green part
was 'normal'. I guess that this is one of the results of the mushrooms simply
being not illegal instead of legal.

There do indeed exist smartshops with a properly traind staff but it is a
minority.

Something else is that I see the age limit as a type of age discrimination
which should be illegal, not supported by government-approved smartshops.
Besides - what is the function of directing slightly underaged consumers to the
black market? We all know that most people have their first drug experiences at
an age that they are not allowed to. Why deny them guidance&advice?

Under these circumstances people are better off when they grow their mushrooms
themselves. Fortunately it is only the distribution of harvested psilocybian
mushrooms which may be outlawed. The cultivation itself is protected by the
Vienna Convention of the United Nations.

IMHO if there is one lesson we can learn from the past decade is that
smartshops were a bad idea for promoting psychedelic knowledge and research.
Smartshops are too visible and too high profile for the mainstream media. Sure
more people can be reached in this way but the amount of psychonauts has been
the same since the sixties (about 1 percent of the population admits to have
used a psychedelic) and I am sure they all find what they are looking for
eventually, with or without smartshops. It is information which is needed, not
shop windows.

I won't shed a tear when the smartshop concept dies and we have to return to
the old backstreet 'art galeries' and underground websites. It has been too
touristic, too much an Amsterdam-centered, commercial concept to my taste. The
smartshops made things more visible, but they didn't do much for psychedelic
research.

René

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