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Read more about this issue in the RNW Press Review for 28 March 2007 |
Meanwhile, doubts have been raised as to whether the young woman actually consumed any magic mushrooms. Nonethless, this incident has again brought the issue of these hallucinogenic mushrooms back to the top of the Dutch political agenda, with the main question being whether or not they can indeed bring someone to commit suicide.Then there is the additional question of whether the Dutch state can indeed be held accountable for the death of the French 17-year-old.
Magic mushrooms - known as paddos in Dutch - is the collective terms used for a number of mushrooms that contain psilocybin and which affect a person's consciousness and can cause hallucinations.
Risky behaviour
According to Harold Wiegel of Trimbos-Instituut, a centre with specialist knowledge in the field of addiction treatment, these mushrooms tend to heighten and strengthen a person's emotions at the time when they are ingested. However, he says that they won't drive someone to suicide:
"But, under the influence of this kind of drug, you do have the tendency to engage in riskier behaviour... to take more risks. That's something we're also familiar with in the case of alcohol. Someone who's drunk too much and drives into a tree isn't out to commit suicide, but does things that are risky whilst under the influence [of alcohol]."
Harold Wiegel says it's important for customers of 'smart shops' - where the magic mushrooms are sold - to be properly informed about what to expect if they actually use the mushrooms. The smart shop in Amsterdam where the young French tourist possibly bought some of these mushrooms had information available in Dutch about the product, and also folders in English and Spanish, but not in the French language.
Alcohol
Erik van der Maal represents a national consultative body of smart shop operators, and he too compares magic mushroom with alcohol. He believes the claim made by the French couple to the effect that the Dutch state is responsible for their daughter's death is absurd:
"If I were in Paris and drunk myself silly on absinthe in some or other sleazy bar, and then went and jumped from the Eiffel Tower, than no one would call the French state to account, would they?"But the death of the young French tourist has revived the debate about magic mushrooms, and there are now calls from some quarters for them to be classified as hard drugs. Ed Anker is a member of parliament for the Christian Union, the smallest party in the current three-way coalition government, and he supports the idea of a ban. He believe the effects of magic mushrooms are in fact much greater than those of, for example, alcohol:"I have the impression that use of magic mushrooms are a forgotten drug. They are not extremely well-known and they're simply heavy stuff. As it is now, young people of 17 are using magic mushrooms while [here] on holiday, and that's because they're so easily available."
Re-examination
The parliamentary bloc of the Labour Party - also part of the current Dutch government - is also calling for a re-examination of the effects of consuming these mushrooms, as party member Lea Bouwmeester explains:
"We need to find out exactly what the active ingredients are, and how many accidents have occurred. Only then would we want to take action."Although the death of the young French tourist has again focussed attention on the effect of magic mushrooms, the likelihood of her parent's proving successful in holding the Dutch state liable for her death is very small. When asked about this, experts point to the detrimental - and sometimes fatal - effects of alcohol, and the fact that these, too, cannot be used as a basis on which to build a legal claim.
* RNW Internet translation (tpf/jc)
Tags: Amsterdam, drugs, French, hallucinogenic, hard, magic, mushrooms, narcotics, Netherlands, policy, shops, smart, soft, suicide