Ketamine seems to be getting more popular as a party drug, according to new figures from the Trimbos Institute. Over the past six years, the number of people who went to a first aid post or hospital after using this drug recreationally increased five-fold, the institute said in its Drug Incidents Monitor, NOS reports.
Ketamine is an anesthetic that can cause hallucinations. The share of first-aid visits caused by ketamine use increased from 2.7 percent in 2009 to 8.2 percent in 2017.
Some 14 percent of the entire Dutch population can be classified as "problem drinkers", according to the Trimbos institute. These are people who have problems because of their drinking, like failure to meet obligations or driving under the influence, the Telegraaf reports.
"Of the 80 percent of the population aged 18 or older who drank alcohol in the past year, one in six can be considered as risky drinkers This corresponds to 1,790,000 people or 14 percent of the total population", according to the institute.
The number of people who end up in the emergency room after taking too much GHB increased explosively over the past years, doctors at the emergency rooms of hospitals in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Nijmegen and Haarlem, and the Dutch association for emergency medical services NVSHA said to NRC.
Dutch kids are still among the happiest in Europe and tend to have a good relationship with their parents, but more are experiencing pressure from their school work, according to a study by Utrecht University, the Trimbos institute and SCP. The researchers also found that the majority of 16-year-olds drink alcohol despite being underage, and that condom use is declining, NOS reports.
More children in primary schools in the Netherlands are being bullied than parents and teachers know of. One in three bullied kids never tell their teachers, parents or friends about it, according to study 'What works against bullying' by five universities and the Trimbos Institute, RTL Nieuws reports.
About 30 percent of Dutch kids are sometimes bullied. One in 14 children are even bullied multiple times a week. A third of these bullied kids have never told anyone about it, according to the study.
The wastewater in Amsterdam contains the highest concentration of ecstasy residues in Europe, and Eindhoven is in second place, according to a waste water analysis by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
The EMCDDA tested wastewater in 56 European cities in 19 countries for drug residues. The organization has been conducting this type of research on a regular basis since 2011. Seven measurements have been taken since then, the last one in 2017
Online store Bol.com stopped selling laughing gas cylinders, meant to be use for whipped cream sprayers. The canisters are increasingly used in combination with balloons or N2O crackers as drugs, and Bol.com therefore finds it irresponsible to keep selling them, a spokesperson confirmed to NH Nieuws.
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 Trimbos institute issued a "red alert" warning on Thursday for dangerous ecstasy pills that contain a fatal dose of PMMA. The institute found numerous of these red pills with a Superman logo on both sides.
Ecstasy pills often contains PMMA, but this is an "extremely high dose", a spokesperson for Trimbos said to RTL Nieuws. This high dose triggered the institute to issue the national warning. Trimbos expects to know more about the pills during the course of Friday, but issued the warning immediately due to the Amsterdam Dance Event that started on Wednesday.
Alcohol use costs Dutch society between 2.3 billion and 2.9 billion euros a year, according to a study by health organization RIVM in the possession of newspaper Trouw.
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
The drug 4FA, also known as ecstasy light, is seeing an increase in popularity in the Netherlands. More and more drug users are opting for this lighter drug because of the increasing potency of ecstasy, Daan van der Gouwe of the Trimbos Institute said
Almost a tenth of Dutch boys between the ages of 12 and 15 years can be characterized as addicted to gaming, according to a study done by Utrecht University among nearly 2 thousand boys.
The Trimbos institute praises Amsterdam's drug policy in their newly published guideline on how local authorities can best deal with alcohol and drugs at events. Amsterdam is repeatedly cited as an example in the report.
People in the Netherlands were warned against dangerous ecstasy tablets that have extremely high levels of MDMA in them. The Drug Information and Monitoring System (DIMS) is repeatedly finding the bad drugs across the Netherlands, prompting the Trimbos Institute to issue the nationwide warning.
There are no concrete plans to implement a complete smoking ban at amusement park Efteling, despite the ever growing number of complaints.
Ecstasy use in the Netherlands is four times as high as in the other European Union countries - 2.5 percent of Dutch people sometimes use ecstasy, compared to the EU average of 0.6 percent.
State Secretary Martin van Rijn of Health is putting in extra effort to get all school grounds smoke-free and to prevent young people from smoking.
Young people between the ages of 16 and 24 years are increasingly taking recreational drugs when going out. The polls used are also much stronger and used more often, which makes for increased risk to health and well being. This is according to research done by the Trimbos institute.
People who apply for a gun license in the future, will have to endure a much more intense screening. Those who want to own a weapon long term, such as hunters and hobby marksmen, will have to adhere to "very strict" safety demands.
The section of the Dutch population who smoke has remained equal to 2012 at 25 percent. E-cigarettes are on the rise, however. Last year, 3 percent of the population has an e-cigarette every now and then, whereas in 2012, only 1 percent did.
Half of the youth younger than 16, who bought cigarettes in 2013 was never asked for their ID, as evidenced by a survey of TNS-NIPO, one of the oldest market research agencies in the Netherlands.
The number of problematic opiate users in the Netherlands dropped by an estimated 21 percent, compared to the period 2008-2009, according to a report from the Trimbos Institute and the Community Health Services Amsterdam (GGD-Amsterdam).
60 percent of young people between 20 and 24 who go out, used ecstasy at least once in the last year, according to new research from the Trimbos Institute.
