A leading think-tank has called for the British government’s system of drugs classification to be scrapped. The UK Drugs Policy Commission says classifying illegal drugs on a “danger scale” of classes A, B or C needs to be overhauled because they do not affect drug use. The news comes ahead of a meeting when the Home Office’s independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will discuss whether...

Police closed down a Berlin sweet shop after discovering the owner was selling chocolates and lollipops laced with magic mushrooms and cannabis. The 23-year old owner of the shop in the trendy east Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, an area known for its vibrant night life, was taken into custody on suspicion of drug-dealing. "In the shop we found 120 pieces of magic mushroom chocolate and countless...

The Peruvian Institute of National Culture has declared the knowledge and traditional uses of ayahuasca as national cultural heritage, in order to guarantee their cultural continuation within native Amazonian communities. This resolution was published on July 12 in the law bulletin of the national daily El Peruano. It states that ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) is a plant specimen with an extraordinary...

Originally Salvia only grew in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Oaxaca, Mexico, where Mazatec shamans used this plant in their sacred rituals. To enter the visionary state of consciousness they collected the leaves of this plant and chewed on them for about 30 minutes. This is practiced even today, both in Mexico and all around the world. Salvia...

Yesterday MSNBC and CBS News published an article reporting on the lasting effects of psilobybin on self-confidence and optimism. It describes the results from a research project in 2002 at the John Hopkins University. The experiment was funded in part by the National Institute...

That was the headline on the frontpage of a major Dutch newspaper. "Smoking tobacco in coffeeshops is now forbidden, but smoking pure weed or hashish is not." The smoking ban in public places, which goes into effect on the first of July, forces coffeeshop owners to create a separate space where people can smoke tobacco so the rest of the shop will be smokefree. But some coffeeshops are too small...

From June 25, 2008 it is no longer possible to order with COD (Cash On Delivery) from Germany. We are very sorry about this. The reason is that our Dutch shipping company no longer provides this service. Of course we can still ship all your regular orders to Germany and instead of with COD you can pay your order by bank. If you have any questions about this new shipping policy you can contact...

"How the Internet fuels the global psychedelic community", an article in English written by one of our friends, is now published by several online (and possibly offline) media. We decided to publish it here as well, and integrated it in our encyclopedia. How the Internet fuels the global psychedelic community This year and the next,...

Researchers Juan Sanchez-Ramos and Briony Catlow at the University of South Florida have just started an exciting new study to see if psilocybin (the active component in magic mushrooms) can help promote the birth and development of new brain cells (neurogenesis) in the hippocampus,...

Shroom vendors in Amsterdam must pass for a mandatory exam which will test their knowledge of shrooms as well as their social skills. Only shopkeepers with a shroom diploma will be allowed to sell the tripfungus. This is proposed by the Dutch smartshop organization, called the VLOS, which wants to develop this exam. The shroom exam is one of the proposals aimed at regulating the sale of hallucinogenic...