Amsterdam mayor proposes three-day wait for magic mushrooms

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

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.

The proposal seeks to prevent impulse purchases and follows several incidents that have occurred in the city involving tourists who have eaten hallucinogenic mushrooms.

In March, a 17-year-old French girl killed herself by jumping from a bridge in the city after having eaten mushrooms.

Under the proposal, potential mushroom buyers would have to show identity papers when visiting one of the...