In a city where you can find ornate pre-painted insects as a design feature on public urinals, it should come as little surprise that the good burghers of Amsterdam have currently got their teeth into another creative trend. Smart Shops so called for their peddling of a vast array of herbal smart products which have been imported from various parts of the globe and neatly packaged into numerous usage categories are proliferating like mad.
Right now, everything from Energisers to sex stimulants and psychedelics are being bought over-the-counter by a wide base of consumers, ranging from clubbers to business people.
Inside the Magic Mushroom Gallery s impressive array of glass cabinets, herbal heaven awaits those so inclined, with each product sample on display bearing its own description. Among the sex stimulants with names like Love Bomb , Be Horn E , Damiana and Prodige For Men , you can find Yohimbe Plus , described as a potent male aphrodisiac and sexual enhancer using the active ingredient Yohimbe and five other herbs. It helps with both erection and sexual desire. For the women, there s 69 Female , which apparently causes a warm, relaxed and erotic feeling around the vagina.
Clubbers and partygoers, meanwhile, are more than adequately catered for with Energisers such as Herbal XTC , a blend of stimulating herbs like guarana, ginseng, colanut, hydrocotyle, calamus and kava-kava take three teaspoons and party, laugh or make love. This product is among the most popular on Amsterdam s thriving club scene, along with Ephreda , a herbal speed , and countless other similar substances with names like Cloud 9 , Explore , Liquid Ex , 55 , Boost , Shark , Azaro , Power Pil and Spiet .
It is not just the content and sales-pitch of these relatively harmless products which has recently attracted the attention of the Dutch government, but also their widespread availability not merely in Smart Shops , but also in nightclubs and accessory shops. According to a spokesman at the Dutch embassy in Ireland: A policy statement on the matter is expected by the end of the year, but only in the context of current opium legislation and consumer health risks.
For their part, the people selling the produce are nonplussed.
We think it s better to have these products available than to have them go underground, comments Rodney Yzer of the Magic Mushroom Gallery. But it s difficult to see which way the different people in government will decide the issue. We re not sure what the position will be.
A short stroll away on Haringpakkersteeg is Natural High, another Smart Shop which opened for business just two months ago. Proprietor Glenn Pestana is similarly wary of the authorities mooted interference.
The herbal products, unlike the magic mushrooms, don t have hallucinogenic characteristics, and so they should be okay, he says, but some of the sex stimulants and the Energisers are being looked at. If that happens, and they ban them, about 80% of the shops will close, because they are the ones that are most popular due to the fact that they actually work. We don t deal with the real chemical drugs. We prefer the whole situation to be safe.
GENTLY STIMULATING
Indeed, our sources in the Amsterdam sex industry inform us that products like Love Bomb and Yohimbe actually do produce the desired effect, although alcohol usage at the same time is not recommended.
With chemical ecstasy, you get a down feeling when it begins to wear off, elaborates Pestana. But with these herbal forms you don t feel that, and you just level off because they re very light tablets. And because of that lightness, people who do regularly take chemical ecstasy wouldn t get very much benefit from these herbal ones they re not heavy enough.
Most of the Energisers range contain guarana, a plant from the Amazonian rainforest which is widely available in Ireland through health food stores. According to a brochure issued by the Rio Trading Company (Health) Ltd, based in Brighton in England: Guarana is a complex of natural stimulants buffered by saponins similar to those found in ginseng. These are oily substances which work as a natural time-release, giving a gently stimulating effect lasting up to six hours.
Around Dublin, guarana is available in liquid, capsule, biscuit and chewing-gum forms. For those of you popping chemical ecstasy, they are worth exploring as a possible option, yet contain naturally-occurring caffeine.
As Pestana points out, magic mushrooms are in a different category altogether; yet they can be purchased in Amsterdam in powdered packet form or in pre-rolled joints (the tagline is the deathless Smoke em dry and you ll fly! ). A revealing leaflet purloined from the counter of the Chills & Thrills shop illustrates the potential hazards of mushroom use. For those of you roaming the fields in search of free fungii, the warnings are pertinent: The magic mushrooms will bring you to a dreamy, lightly hallucinogenic, mellow state. After 15 to 30 minutes it will start, you will first feel relaxed and happy, then the mellow visualisations will slowly begin and these will last 4-6 hours, depending on your dosage.
While adding that you should try to eat as little as possible before taking the mushrooms , and stating that when you re on a mushroom trip you will want to be in a mellow, safe and relaxed place and state of mind , the leaflet also advises that one should never mix mushrooms with alcohol and never smoke weed or hash while on a mushroom trip, as this will increase the chance of flashbacks occurring. Smoking a joint afterwards is no problem.
Additionally, you should not use mushrooms when pregnant, depressed, in combination with medicine, or when driving or operating machinery.
Fans of ambient music may be more interested in another strand of Smart Products which includes Kava-Kava , a root from the South Pacific which creates euphoria and a real relaxed old time ; Catmint , a substance which is relaxing like marijuana ; and Dreamscape , described as a psychoactive herb mix relaxing and dreamy, also useful for meditation .
One thing s for sure the demand for psychological and/or physical release is as much a part of the human condition as the sexual impulse, and it may be time for the political authorities to wise up. Again. n