Drugs | The Churning

In Amsterdam, they have these shops that are sort of like convenience stores. But instead of selling lottery tickets, cigarettes and beer - they sell mushrooms. Yep, those kind of mushrooms.

We stopped in at one of these special places just a half a block from our hotel. The shop was on a major street corner in the heart of the city, with people rushing past, heading to and from work. From the outside, it seemed relatively non-descript. I can't even remember what made us want to walk inside to check it out. But as soon as we stepped into the place, we immediately knew what we were looking at.

The place was well lit with fluorescent lights and there were tall glass-door coolers on all sides. The refrigerator shelves were lined with hundreds of packages of dried mushrooms in clear, professionally labeled Ziploc bags. An attractive young lady with a kind face stood behind the cash register smiling at us as we browsed through the products.

Lady: "Good afternoon."
JJ: "Hi."
Lady: "Can I help you choose?"
Momo: "Ummm... We're just looking around."
Frankie: "Actually, I have a question."
Lady: "Sure, how can I help?"
Frankie: "Well, we don't really know what we should buy. Can you recommend something?"
Lady: "A lot of people love the Afghani ones. It's a very visual high. I recommend them if you're experienced."
JJ: "Actually we're sorta new to this. We don't want to be too... messed up."
Frankie: "We don't?"
Lady: "Well the Mexican and the Thai variety are not as strong. The high is very relaxed."
Momo: "That sounds cool."

The thing that struck me about this conversation was how normal it sounded. And the lady's voice was so completely soothing. She was helpful and nice, like a pre-school teacher. But we weren't talking about milk and cookies. We were talking to a drug dealer. A drug dealer who sells hallucinogens out in the open, in public, protected by law.

It was fucking fantastic. It's such a luxury to feel so free. Lighting up a spliff in a "coffee shop" is one thing. Buying a bag of imported psilocybin mushrooms at a corner store is entirely different.

Tagged as: drugs, travel 16 Comments

16May/0640