DUTCH DECLARE HALLUCINOGENIC MUSHROOMS ILLEGAL

AMSTERDAM -- The Netherlands will ban the sale of
hallucinogenic mushrooms, the government announced Friday, tightening
the country's famed liberal drug policies after the suicide of an
intoxicated teenager.

Mushrooms "will be outlawed the same way as other drugs," Justice
Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin said. "The way we will enforce the ban is
through targeting sellers."

Psilocybin, the main active chemical in the mushrooms, has been
illegal under international law since 1971. But fresh, unprocessed
mushrooms continued to be sold legally in the Netherlands along with
herbal medicines in "smartshops," on the theory that it was impossible
to determine how much psilocybin any given mushroom contains.

That meant mushrooms were less regulated than marijuana, which is
technically illegal but sold openly in small amounts in "coffee
shops." Possession of such "hard" drugs as cocaine, LSD and ecstasy is
illegal.

The government has cracked down on hard drugs and tightened controls
on marijuana. It was expected to do the same with mushrooms after the
death of Gaelle Caroff, 17, who jumped from a building in March after
eating psychedelic mushrooms. Caroff had suffered from psychological
problems.

But the outright ban had not been expected: The government had
solicited advice from vendors, advocacy groups and the city of
Amsterdam, which benefits financially from drug-related tourism, on
how to improve the situation.

Mushroom vendors suggested stricter ID controls to prevent underage
buyers and strong warnings against mixing mushrooms with other drugs.
Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen had suggested a three-day "cooling off"
period between ordering them and using them.

The Justice Ministry decided those measures did not go far
enough.

About 500,000 "doses" of packaged mushrooms are sold annually in the
Netherlands. According to a study published in January by Amsterdam's
health services, the city's emergency services were summoned 148 times
to deal with a bad reaction to mushrooms from 2004 to 2006. Of those
cases, 134 involved foreigners, with Britons forming the largest group.

Denmark outlawed mushrooms in 2001, Japan in 2002, Britain in 2005 and
Ireland in 2006. Selling mushrooms containing psilocybin is illegal in
the United States, but the status varies from state to state for
spores, homegrown species and wild species.

Murat Kucuksen, whose farm, Procare, supplies about half the
psychedelic mushrooms on the Dutch market, predicted that the trade
will move underground as a result of the ban. Prices will rise, and
dealers will sell dried mushrooms, or LSD, as a substitute to tourists
without offering any guidance, he said.

"So you'll have a rise in incidents, but they won't be recorded as
mushroom-related, and the politicians can declare victory," he said.