January 2008 marked the month when all Dutch shops pulled both dried stems of any ephedra species and any product containing ephedrine—a natural stimulant drug with effects identical to amphetamine, which chemists call deoxyephedrine—from their shelves.

We conclude our series on Albert Hofmann. Ololiuqui, a drug used since time immemorial by indigenous peoples in Central America, contains alkaloids similar to those found in ergot, which gives it effects comparable to LSD.

LSD, the medicine of Dr. Albert Hofmann

THE NETHERLANDS BANS "MAGIC MUSHROOMS": 12-1-2008. December 1, 2008, was the date chosen by the Dutch government to ban the sale of fresh psilocybin mushrooms. The new regulation equates the sale of mushrooms with the sale of heroin, cocaine, or LSD: all in the same repressive sack.