stories
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TAKE a trip THROUGH THE DRUG UNIVERSE
Browse our stories for content. Pick a perspective and start exploring. You can take a trip with fact checkers, writers, researchers, crime fighters, inmates, health care workers and drugs cooks.
The Art of XTC exhibition
In the vast landscape of Dutch expertise, crafting XTC pills stands out as a skill we've truly mastered. With an array of designs that span from the iconic Donald Trump-shaped pills to the whimsical Hello Kitty and even Heineken-themed ones, Dutch dealers offer an unparalleled variety, making XTC synonymous with our party scene. It is the nation's favorite party drug after all.
There’s nothing “party” about your policies
Is Rotterdam effectively tackling the connection between drug use and criminal violence on its streets - through a pervasive visual campaign?
Part Ten: Checking in
How has corona affected the drug scene? In this series, drug researcher Hayley Murray investigates the users’ perspective on their drug use during corona. This time: a check-in, part two.
Part nine: Checking in
How has corona affected the drug scene? In this series, drug researcher Hayley Murray investigates the users’ perspective on drug use during corona. "I went to pass my cigarette to my friend, like ‘No! That is unsafe now!’"
Part eight: Checking in
How has corona affected the drug scene? In this series, drug researcher Hayley Murray investigates the users’ perspective on drug use during corona. "Chilling on the couch in sweatpants, and some healthy delivery, with nowhere to be, what could be better?”
Part seven: Getting tested
How does the corona pandemic affect the drug scene? Drug researcher Hayley Murray investigates the users’ perspective. This time: Drug testing services
Part six: corona and Christmas
How does the corona pandemic affect the drug scene? Drug researcher Hayley Murray investigates the users’ perspective. This time: Christmas.
Part five: Pause
Yours truly will be taking a quick break from investigating covid’s impact on the Dutch recreational drug use scene. And while I’m resting my legs in the chill out room, elsewhere, the party continues!
“Bishop, if you are selling drugs, I’ll have your head cut off.”
As a once-convicted dope pusher, the Catholic Church never really struck me as a natural ally. But priests are taking a stand again against the bloody ‘war on drugs’ in the Philippines. In recent years, three of them have been murdered.
Part four: Drug experiments during a pandemic
How does corona affect the drug scene? Are we engaging in more experimental, and by default, riskier behaviour? In this Poppi series, drug researcher Hayley Murray investigates and shares the users’ perspective on how they cope with their drug use during corona. This time: experimenting amidst a pandemic.
Part three: Corona and stimulants
How does corona affect the drug scene? Are users drawn to particular substances during this uncertain time? Drug researcher Hayley Murray investigates and shares the users’ perspective. This time: corona and stimulants.
Part two: Tripping during COVID
Traveling during COVID: we may all be confined to the walls of our apartments but we can still go places in our minds!
Part one: Panic buying
Panic buying is a term that surfaces alongside large-scale catastrophes. It is considered a type of herd behaviour where people hoard large quantities of certain products in the fear of its unavailability in the coming future...
Trouble in Paradise
Ah, the Seychelles. Paradise on Earth. It’s also got a serious drug problem.
Recreational Drug Use in Pandemics
Rutte says: Please Stay Home -
Many hear: let’s get high!
A Night On Drugs in Amsterdam
It’s not what you think. Or maybe it is what you think. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter what you think, because you are probably wrong about drugs in Amsterdam, no matter what your “experience” was when you were in your twenties traveling through Europe.
Cannabis, ayahuasca and other ‘Plants of the Gods’ as spiritual tools
Throughout history people have used psychoactive substances like cannabis, mushrooms and ayahuasca as spiritual tools. Some scholars even suggest that the use of these substances lies at the root of the very first forms of organized religion. The links between drugs, spirituality and religion were the theme of a fascinating event at Amsterdam’s Lloyd Hotel on November 6, 2019.