No More Tolerence for Horse Fucking. Even If the Horse Wants It

Neatherlands:

THE DUTCH Parliament has voted to make sex with animals a crime.

The vote ends two years of debate and now means 'animal pornography' carries a penalty of up to six months in prison.

The current Dutch law only forbids bestiality when animals are found to have been mistreated.

Smoking bans, animal sex bans...The Dutch are quickly eliminating all reasons for me, I mean anyone, to visit their country.

Full story here.

This Time They Mean It

The Netherlands looks to ban mushrooms...again:

The Dutch government has decided to ban "magic mushrooms" and announced that it would put a bill before parliament under a proposal put forward by the ministers of health and justice, Ab Klink and Hirsch Ballin.

The decision, backed by a majority of members of parliament, was taken after a number of accidents mostly involving tourists.

Flashback to over a year ago when we first heard that the Dutch government was banning the sale of mushrooms after a French teenage tourist jumped to her death in March of '07. This past February I was surprised to find that smart shops were still open and doing brisk business. So I don't know what to expect with this recent news out of the Netherlands, but it would seem as if at some point in the near future smart shops will cease to exist legally in the tolerant country.

Amsterdam Mayor At It Again

Job Cohen:

"The romantic picture of the area is outdated if you see the abuses in the sex industry and that is why the council has to act," he said. "We don't want to get rid of prostitution but we do want to cut crime significantly."

Cohen said the city wanted to partially reverse the full legalization of prostitution introduced in the Netherlands in 2000 because it had not achieved its aim of bringing the profession out of the shadows and protecting sex workers

I'm not sure there's anything new here. Sounds like more of the same rhetoric from the Mayor, with a few creeps of increased regulation like increasing the legal age of prostitutes from 18-21.

This woman however, has it right:

Mariska Majoor, a former prostitute who now runs an information center in the red light district, said the city's plans could force hundreds of women out of work or underground.

"Where should the women go?" she asked. "They are only talking about criminals and gangsters. We're talking about a legal profession here ... They completely ignore the hundreds of women who are working of their own free will."

Full story here.

P.S. I hope this doesn't cut into the Amsterdam mainstay of scary, brutish, and completely British tourists that will make any American wonder how we got such a bad name overseas. The Brits are absolute animals anywhere, but throw them in Amsterdam? Forget about it...

Forget the Waiting Period, Sale of Mushrooms Now Banned

Jesus, that was quick:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the government announced Friday, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a teenager on a school visit jumped to her death after taking the narcotic.

The decision will go into effect within several months, said Wim van der Weegen, a Justice Ministry spokesman.

[...]

Possession of "hard" drugs like cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy is illegal. Mushrooms will fall somewhere in the middle.

"We're not talking about a non-prosecution policy, but we'll be targeting sellers" Van der Weegen said.

Psilocybin, the main active chemical in the mushrooms, has been illegal under international law since 1971. However, fresh, unprocessed mushrooms continued to be sold legally in the Netherlands along with herbal medicines in so-called "smart-shops," on the theory that it was impossible to determine how much of the naturally occurring substance any given mushroom contains.

Van der Weegen said that was also the reason the system proved unworkable: "It's impossible to estimate what amount will have what effect."

Calls for a re-evaluation arose after Gaelle Caroff, a 17-year-old visiting from France, from a building in Amsterdam in March after eating psychedelic mushrooms.

Shame. Full article here. Our prior stuff on smart shops, Amsterdam and mushrooms, here.

Amsterdam Now Requires 4 Day Visit

Buzzkill of the week:

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A new proposal from the mayor of Amsterdam is sure to be considered a bummer by certain visitors to the Dutch city: a three-day waiting period to buy hallucinogenic mushrooms

Mayor Job Cohen wants to require the wait period to allow mushroom buyers to fully understand exactly what it is they are purchasing, ANP news agency reported Tuesday.

If...If this was separate from a more complete anti-drug push back in the Netherlands, I would be supportive of this particular policy 100%. We blogged about mushrooms and Amsterdam after my last trip in the spring to the city. Cicero and I both commented on the lack of proper information given to unaware users of the drug, and how irresponsible many smart shop owners and workers are. Unfortunately, with a more conservative government in power over the past few years efforts fix -- as they see it -- the image of the city have been continuously underway. Prostitution, coffee shops, have felt the pressuer -- tougher crackdowns on domestic marijuana growers, you could even throw the nationwide smoking ban in...If it wasn't done everywhere else in the world.

Ebb and flow...Ebb and flow. Hopefully more flow than ebb in this case... Full article here.

Dutch Smoking Ban Follow Up

I had said a few weeks back I would send a e-mail to a friend or two in Amsterdam to gauge the local reaction to the impending smoking ban. Then I forgot...remembered about a week later, and then forgot again. Rob's life story. Just ask my ex-girlfriend about her abortion. Note: Cards and flowers do not make up for a missed abortion appointment. Neither does the offer to pay for 2/3. I know, surprising.

But this time it didn't matter. A former Dutch co-worker who lives in Amsterdam e-mailed me about something totally unrelated to smoking, so I took the chance to ask about the reaction of the residents in the notoriously smoke-friendly city. She didn't have much to say, and most likely welcomed the ban. Here's the short, relevant bit:

People are ok about the smoking ban, they understand why it's passed. There is still some fuss about the smoking ban in coffee shops, which needs to be resolved. But then this week the discussion started about installing a smoking bans on all schools and colleges thruout the country and that gave the discussion a fresh impulse! (And probably took away the attention to the ban for cafes and restaurants!)

Ironic that another ban drew the attention away from the initial ban. Always another battle to be fought.

Dutch Smoking Ban

The comprehensive Dutch smoking ban, that will cover coffee shops (more or less), is getting a lot of coverage, so I thought I'd link back to my recent post-Amsterdam post. I don't have a whole lot to add to it, other than I have sent an email or two to some Dutch friends in Amsterdam for a sense on how the locals are receiving it. I'll post the relevant bits when I hear back. My initial reaction is everyone knew this was coming and I'm skeptical of the folks who say the ban won't have teeth. The Dutch may think they are unique to rest of the world, and they certainly have cause to think they are, but when it comes to this....I'm not so sure they are any different from the rest of the smoke-free world.

Whew

Wandered out of the back end of the time warp that was the last week. My head is becoming an exceedingly scary thing to mess with...A few thoughts before I try to re-grasp the concept of time and leap back into regular blogging...

Once again I am smitten with how smoke-friendly Amsterdam and Holland as a whole is. In a country where a multitude of drugs are, for the most part, legal; I always find myself most impressed with my ability to light cigarette anywhere save a hospital. How long this will last is another question. Over the past few years repeated attempts have been made to enact smoking bans in the country/city, including one that is threatening to make the whole country (coffee shops included) smoke-free beginning in 2008. Locals seem to shrug it off as something that hasn't happened yet, and if it does, probably won't happen when the bureaucrats say it will. My guess is that some weak ban passes, giving lenient exemptions for coffee shops, cafes and restaurants until some time in the future. Work it in slow, train the people well.

This story caught my eye last week, most notably the response from the police spokesman. [emphasis mine]

March 30--The Dutch health minister will order an investigation into the health risks of hallucinogenic mushrooms, after a French tourist jumped to her death after eating them.

Pressure for an outright ban grew in parliament after the girl, identified as 17-year-old Gaelle Caroff, jumped off an overpass earlier this month.

Her mother, Nathalie, was quoted by the newspaper De Pers as saying that hallucinogenic mushrooms were responsible for her daughter's death and should be outlawed.

Amsterdam police ruled the death a suicide.

[...]

Lawmaker Aleid Wolfsen, of the centre-left Labor party, which is part of the governing coalition, said it was difficult in practice to keep people from trying hallucinogenic mushrooms.

"Some of them grow wild here - it's difficult of course to outlaw them from growing."

And from a different article, that spokesman reaction:

It is terrible when your child dies because of such a tragic event. However, we can not prohibit the sale of mushrooms as this is national policy.

I would say that the smart shops did seem to be a bit more cautious and careful and I had the distinct feeling that they had suffered backlash and crackdown over the past few months. Anecdotal at best, but that was my impression at least.