Legality in the Netherlands
Mushrooms that contain psilocin and psilocybin have been illegal in practically every Western country, with the exception of the Netherlands, where our company is situated. In 1995 some stores ("smartshops", a type of headshop with a wide variety of ethnobotanicals) started selling fresh and dried Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, as well as Peyote cactus, Salvia extract and LSA containing seeds.
After some years, the sale of dried specimens was made illegal, because the drying was considered "processing". Smartshops continued to sell fresh mushrooms and ready-to-grow kits.
2008: Shrooms banned in the Netherlands
In 2007 a depressed and suicidal student from France went on a field trip to Amsterdam and managed to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the Nemo Science Center. Rumour had it that she had bought and eaten some shrooms before going into the Nemo, and immediately the Christian political parties seized the opportunity to ban shrooms, which happened in December 2008.
The politicians created a new law, banning a wide variety of psychoactive mushrooms. But since they specifically banned "mushrooms/toadstools" the ban did not apply to another psilocybin containing natural product: truffles (which are little lumps produced at the base of certain mushrooms but are themselves not mushrooms). And so the smartshops soon switched to the sale of truffles (sclerotia), which give very similar effects to shrooms, of course depending on the dosage taken.
Because mushroom grow kits take some time to harvest, and so cannot be abused by careless tourists, they have not banned are still available at various smartshops.
So to summarize the Dutch legal situation:
Shrooms (Psilocybe cubensis), liberty caps (Psilocybe semilanceata) and even the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) are illegal. But the sclerotia/ truffles/sclerotia are still legal. They are available in various smartshops in Amsterdam and other cities in the Netherlands. And if you live here, you're allowed to grow mushrooms for personal use.
