DRIED 'MAGIC MUSHROOMS' ILLEGAL: DUTCH HIGH COURT

AMSTERDAM - The Supreme Court of The Netherlands Tuesday reaffirmed lower
court rulings in two cases in which the parties were convicted of
manufacturing and selling hallucinogenic dried mushrooms.

The grower and the owner of a shop that sold the mushrooms were convicted
in 2000 and sentenced to community service for growing and selling dried
mushrooms in various ways, such as in prepared food. After taking their
convictions to an appeals court last year and losing, they appealed to the
Supreme Court.

Under the Opium Act, which covers illegal drugs policy in the Netherlands,
it is illegal to manufacture and sell the mushrooms, but they are
classified as "soft drugs."

The differentiation between "hard drugs" and "soft drugs" is an effort to
manage an "effective acceptable level of hazard to health," according to a
drugs policy guideline on the Ministry of Justice's Web site.

Hard drugs, this reasoning says, are an unacceptable health hazard, while
soft drugs are tolerated as acceptable risks.

The Dutch Supreme Court has so far ruled that fresh mushrooms, which are
not manipulated (dried or ground up) by humans, are legal, and they are in
fact sold openly in numerous so-called "smartshops" around Holland.

"This Supreme Court decision clears up the dispute for manufactured
hallucinogenic mushrooms," Leendert de Lange, a spokesman for The
Netherlands Public Prosecutor's office in The Hague, told Reuters Health.

"Now it is clear for us how we can deal with this issue--it is clear that
dried mushrooms are forbidden. We are pleased the court has affirmed the
stance of the Public Prosecutors office.

"I do not want to comment of the status of fresh mushrooms at this time,"
he added, when asked about the contradiction between dried and fresh
mushrooms.

A lawyer for one of the defendants, reached in Amsterdam, declined to
comment on the case.

The strength and potency of dried mushrooms and fresh mushrooms is the
same, according to Harald Wychgel of the Netherlands Institute of Mental
Health and Addiction in Utrecht.

Hallucinogenic mushrooms can have a wide range of effects, from a
movie-like experience in the mind to horrific visions, depending on the
user, emotional state and quantity used.

"They are not toxic, or addictive, physically," added Wychgel. "You are
not going to die from them. However, they do produce a kind of feverish
state. What kind of experience you have depends on your emotional state.
You can have a good time, or you can be very afraid."

Pubdate: Tuesday, November 5, 2002
Author: Andrew Conaway
Source: Reuters