6 July 2007

AMSTERDAM – The municipality of Amsterdam has closed two "smart shops" on the Spuistraat with immediate effect. An inspection found that the shops Innerspace and The Magic Mushroom Gallery were acting in violation of drug legislation, the city announced on Thursday. The shops are favourites with backpackers looking for hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Inspectors found dried mushrooms containing the prohibited substance psilocyne at these two shops. This classifies the mushrooms as hard drugs. The party drug GHB was also found at the Magic Mushroom Gallery.

The municipality of Amsterdam is working with police, the health inspectorate, the tax authority and the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority in carrying out inspections at these shops that cell certain types of soft drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Two shops on the Nieuwendijk were forced to close in March when it emerged that they were not operating in accordance with the law. Inspectors found weapons, amphetamines and chocolate bars containing hallucinogenic mushrooms at the premises.

A report from the regional health authority GGD in Amsterdam indicates that there has been a sharp rise in the number of incidents involving hallucinogenic mushrooms over the past three years. Young foreign tourists in particular have become ill after taking the drugs.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Subject: Dutch news