The city of Amsterdam will not tolerate drugs at the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), currently happening int he city. "We have a zero tolerance policy in clubs and during events", the city said in a statement, Het Parool reports.
ADE attendees are not allowed to take any drugs into events. Drugs found will be confiscated, and the person carrying them will not be allowed to attend the event.
While alcohol remains the number one cause of addiction problems in Amsterdam,young adult residents of the capital are drinking less than they did in 2000. There are also fewer smokers, though cocaine use increased, according to the newest Antenna, an annual study by Jellinek and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences into the alcohol and drug use of Amsterdam young adults, Het Parool reports.
Last year there were around 30 incidents at Amsterdam student complexes where refugees and students live together, the Amsterdam office of mayor and alderman said in a report to the city council. The city is taking measures to reduce these incidents, Het Parool reports.
Around 40 police officers intervened in a healing ceremony in a home on Nieuwstraat in Eersel, Noord-Brabant, on Wednesday evening. A few weeks ago a 31-year-old man from Hungary died after participating in a similar ceremony. Four people were arrested on Wednesday, the Telegraaf reports.
A total of 16 people attended the healing ceremony. The attendees who were not arrested, were taken to another location.
Teenagers in the Netherlands start drinking at a later age, though those who do consume alcohol don't drink any less than in previous years, according to a study by newspaper Trouw, the Trimbos Institute, the Jellinek addiction institute, and the Netherlands Institute for Alcohol Policy.
The city of Amsterdam launched a drug safety campaign aimed at visitors to the Amsterdam Dance Event, taking place from Wednesday to Sunday. The campaign is aimed at encouraging all ADE attendees, particularly tourists, to seek medical help if they feel unwell after taking drugs, the city announced in a press release.
Popular designer drug 4-Fluoroamphetamine, also known as 4-FA and 4-FMP, will be banned in the Netherlands beginning Thursday. The party drug will be on the classified as "List I" under the country's drug laws, meaning it will be labeled as a hard drug.
A 13-year-old boy died in Amsterdam on Sunday after inhaling lighter fluid with his friends. The boy fell unconscious around 4:30 p.m. at his friend's house on Haarlemmerstraat in the center of the city. The friend's father tried to resuscitate the boy, but to no avail. He died at the scene, a spokesperson for the Amsterdam police confirmed to AD.
According to an autopsy on the boy's body, he went into cardiac arrest after inhaling the lighter fluid. Both families are dismayed, the police said.
The risks of taking so-called "ecstasy light", officially 4FA, are much bigger than assumed. Using the drug can lead to heart problems and strokes, according to the preliminary results of a still ongoing investigation by Trimbos Institute and Jellinek. The final results of the investigation is expected in October, but Trimbos found the risks of the drug so great that it was decided not to wait for the final results before alerting the public
Amsterdam launched a new campaign warning tourists to be wary of street dealers selling drugs that may contain dangerous substances.
Dutch parliamentarians are concerned about the increasing use of GHB. According to the CDA, the use of this party drug is especially increasing in "hot spots" in Brabant, Twente and Friesland
The anniversary edition of the Amsterdam Dance Event was extremely successful, with 365 thousand people attending the 1,001 events with 2,289 artists and 485 speakers.
The Amsterdam VVD is critical of the capital city's lenient ecstasy policy during the Amsterdam Dance Event. During this event party goers will only be punished if they are in the possession of more than five pills, instead of the one pill maximum applicable in the rest of the Netherlands.
As the kickoff for the 20th edition of the Amsterdam Dance Event approaches, the City of Amsterdam is asking party-goers to pay particularly close attention to the safe use of narcotics, and the laws regarding drug use in the Netherlands. The information is being distributed in five different languages, and just days after an alert was issued for ecstasy tabs with the ADE logo that carry a dangerously high amount of the substance MDMA.
Clinics in the Netherlands are waging Warcraft on gaming addicts, which have risen 66 percent in the last two years.
