First ‘ecstasy’ shop opens in Amsterdam
In the Netherlands 40,000 people use ecstasy on a monthly basis
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
A Dutch political movement is calling for the legalization of the psychoactive drug ecstasy – and has opened a shop to promote its cause. The youth wing of the Dutch Liberal Democrats says decriminalizing MDMA would make drug-taking safer. The Young Democrats opened the shop in downtown Amsterdam – but just for one day. The group said it aimed to show “why regulation is better than leaving the distribution to illegal street dealers.” Sadly for the party people, the shop still has to respect the law, so it’ll be handing out placebos, not real MDMA pills. The group says the law should be changed to prevent partygoers dying from tainted ecstasy pills, citing in particular one case of seven deaths in 2014. (See also: ‘Moralising about drug use doesn’t help, but neither does trivialising the problems’)