Without mushrooms, I can honastly say I wouldnt have any mental health

oh what an unworthy planet we have to be graced with such relaxing and colourful substances.... what have i done to be portrayed as a criminal?

surely if one truely believes 'tripping' is a form of meditation and can use it properly like i have done, why must laws condemn that persons reality to a boxed life of criminality and unjustice?

there is nothing wrong with drugs, only the misuse of them.

education is the key my friends :) the world is 1 living organism and we need to work together. stop sending the victimless to jail!

peace!

and yes im in college and doing quite successfully thank you very much Mr. "noone should ever take drugs"

Cork, cork, Eire

Once again I am forced to let out a tortured sigh of despair for the illogical logic of the idiots in charge of this world, in this case Holland.
One person dies indirectly from psilocybin use, over how many years?

How many indirect alcohol deaths per year in Ireland? Hundreds.
How many direct alcohol deaths per year in Ireland? Many dozens.
Now I'm going to be the first Irish person to ever contextualize this: How many Irish people to EVER die, directly or indirectly, from the use of psilocybin(probably mixed with alcohol) while it was 'legal'?
One....
Indirectly...

Then it's made illegal. No vote/discussion/warning. Bam! Illegal!
It's like the governments are just on the edge of their seats, waiting for some mental defective, or drunk that's way out of their league to screw up & ruin it for the people who take this experience seriously.
Why? Entheogenic compounds promote objective thinking, & questioning that which already exists.
I guess people aren't supposed to do that...

Colm, Cork, Ireland

It is completely ludicrous that this law should be passed. As mentioned in the article, this appears to be a tourist problem as opposed to a drug problem.

It even states that, 'nine out of ten cases' involved tourisits, meaning that surely such a statistic would provide some what of an argument against the problem is due to ignorant tourists as opposed to the drug itself.

Another issue raised in the article is that more individuals who are users in the Netherlands will be forced into an underground world of crime through drug dealing. By this I mean people who are users of mushrooms will have to deal with organized crime groups to obtain the drug.

This is completely unethical and dangerous for the native people who indulge in mushrooms.

Governments are always quick to blame issues surrounding incidents or deaths to a particular drug. However, the Government should look at all the evidence objectively and take note of such factors, as it is what the people deserve.

Alex, Southampton, Hampshire

I hope that some of those affected by the ban take legal action is the Netherlands. Religious use of psilocybin containing mushrooms could be a good argument. The Johns Hopkins study support this and so do entheogen based religions such as Matrixism.

It doesn't seem fair that Catholics are allowed their sacrament of alcohol which causes untold accidents, damage and social problems yet the Matrixists are denied theirs.

I imagine that the people in the Netherlands who have harmed themselves while under the influence of magic mushrooms were also drunk at the time. Really it is the alcohol that causes such recklessness.

We pay for alcohol induced recklessness in countless lost lives every year. If safety is our concern alcohol is what should be banned.

Salem, Salem, MA, USA

Ban shrooms? meh!

They should be banning Salvia Divinorium! one of the most powerful hallucinogens known to man, 0 to the other side of the universe in the blink of an eye!

I dont know one single person who's tried it and enjoyed it. Mushrooms, on the other hand, are generally a good laugh if you take them in the right circumstances.

Re: Fly Agaric mushrooms... scandinavians didnt slaughter the reindeer and get high by eating their meat, they fed the reindeer the shrooms and then drank their urine to get high, since the reindeers are immune to the poison held in the mushrooms skin.

Anyway, good luck to the Dutch, I think they'll find it very difficult to retreat down a road well walked.

Chris, Shrewsbury, UK

Utter madness the deaths they talk about involved a blend of mushrooms alcohol and cannabis.

Where the dutch made a mistake was that mushrooms could be sold to anyone of any age no 17 year old should be taking any drug. such as that young girl

There is no warning on the packs no recommended dosage this should be the first step not prohibtion which never works.The vast majority of mushroom users do so with no damage to themselves or others..

John, Sheffield, S Yorkshire

Especially as a 2006 study by Johns Hopkins researcher showed that 'more than 60 percent of subjects described the effects of psilocybin [the active compound in the mushrooms] in ways that met criteria for a “full mystical experience” as measured by established psychological scales,' why is the impact on religious freedom of legal status of the 'psychedelic drugs' still not discussed in the mainstream?
As the law stands in the UK and elsewhere (until now with the exception of the Netherlands), users of sacred mushrooms as part of their spiritual practice face arrest and imprisonment for what has been shown by millennia of indigenous use, and contemporary research, to be perhaps the most reliable route to direct mystical experience.
Provision should be made in British, Dutch and European law to extend protection to those using sacred plants for what are undeniably sincere religious use.

Francis, Gent, Belgium

The same report that showed an increase in mushroom-related ambulance calls actually showed a far far higher callout rate for those involving alcohol.

Now the drug will go underground, and those who partake will have no guidance whatsoever.

This will also unfairly affect those who respect the mushroom as a religious sacrament.

A sad day for liberty.

Tim, Liverpool, UK

Once again the Dutch goverment is giving in to the losing battle of the war on drugs. make them illegal and al you'll have is more deaths from shady dealers

Greg , Near Boston,

Please compare the number of deaths from drugs to the number of deaths from driving to work.

Or even just alcohol.

Or even just tobacco.

Not to mention the war.

Some Guy, London, UK

Uh, Fly Agaric mushrooms are not what are being considered for a ban. Fly Agaric (amanita muscaria) mushrooms are a completely different species which don't contain the psychedelic chemical psilocybin that are found in the "magic mushrooms" you talked about in the article. Psilocybe cubensis are the most common species of mushroom consumed for recreational or spiritual reasons in every country, not Liberty Caps.

Dennis, Rochester, NH, USA