‘Get some!’, says a woman who is strolling through Utrecht’s Vinkenburgstraat with two Pekingese and three large shopping bags. To her left are striking posters with the announcement: De XTC Winkel.
The first Dutch drug museum opens its doors to the public on Friday 15 July. Inside, a colorful candy store with hanging ecstasy candy tubes and a pink counter with a gumball machine full of – fictional – ecstasy chewing gum, is waiting inside, next to a screen. A man appears on the screen who welcomes the visitor and asks, among other things: ‘Would you be willing to give your age before I sell you ecstasy?’
Opposite is the pharmacy, a clinical-looking room with white cabinets, a touchscreen with the same man asking questions, but now in a white doctor’s coat and display cases full of medicine boxes marked ‘XTC – Poppi Pharmaceuticals’.
Poppi is a BV of Mainline, a foundation that provides information about safe drug use. With pop-up art and scientific events, Poppi wants to contribute to the discussion about whether or not to legalize drugs, ‘based on facts and without emotions or morality’, explains director Machteld Busz.
No drugs, just ask
No drugs are provided in the ecstasy shop. On the basis of experiments and questions, the visitor to the museum can indicate under which conditions he would or would not buy ecstasy if the supply were legalised. ‘Yo! Welcome to Club X’, greet the same man again, but now in a hip outfit, from the screen on the bar cum turntable in the dark basement of Poppi’s canal house, where a hard beat thunders through sound boxes. ‘Do you want to buy Ecstasy? Which can! Can I make a copy of your ID?’
During the tour of the museum, which will remain open until the end of September, visitors are asked questions such as: ‘What minimum age do you think is appropriate in an ecstasy store? Can ecstasy packaging look nice and cheerful? Do you think it’s safe to buy thirty pills at once for your entire circle of friends?’
Utrecht University will collect all the answers and will analyze the setting in which – medical, retail, entertainment – and under what conditions the Dutch would be willing to buy ecstasy if the active substance, MDMA, were to be regulated. This should result in public and scientific reports. ‘You can regulate waste from synthetic drug production with legislation and regulations, just like in conventional industry,’ says Busz. ‘A wide range of choices can also be made with regard to regulation on the sales side. We show that here.’
Support for freer policy
Half of the Dutch up to age 54 are now in favor of a freer policy for the sale and production of ecstasy, according to a representative sample of the political barometer Ipsos. For young people up to the age of 34, that is six out of ten.
To prevent that only young people visit the museum and that their answers are therefore not representative of ‘the average Dutch person’, Poppi actively invites other target groups, such as police officers, politicians, concerned parents and policy makers. Minister Kuipers of Health will pay a working visit in August.
The drug shop is a result of the discussion about whether or not to legalize ecstasy, which seems to be moving in the direction of regulation. For example, a state commission is being set up to investigate the pros and cons of the medicinal use of MDMA. In 2020, eighteen scientists from the ‘MDMA Policy Think Tank’ concluded that regulated production and sale of ecstasy is the best policy option for environment and health. Two weeks ago, the independent advisory council Denkwerk, which investigates social issues, published the report Drugs the Boss† In it they argue that regulating ecstasy is the best alternative to combat drug crime. In the Utrecht coalition agreement, the city council writes that it is striving for a better balance between regulation and punishment of ecstasy use, and the city council of Amsterdam is initiating a pilot with the regulated sale of MDMA.
Breathalyzer yes or no?
“Would you like to take a breathalyzer before buying ecstasy in a club?” After the Club X visitor has passed an illegal drug lab in the basement of the ecstasy shop (anonymous) and has answered a series of questions, he receives a coin with which he can pull a box of fictitious ecstasy pills from a vending machine. As soon as the box falls out, the music blaring through the basement changes.
‘We all ask questions that you as a policy maker cannot ignore if you are seriously involved with this subject,’ says director Busz. ‘In this museum we make it very tangible for policymakers which buttons you can turn when you start regulating. With this you have control, you can direct the use. You can’t do that on an illegal market.’
Together with Vincent Schoutsen of the art collective Het Uitvindersgilde and photographer Corné van der Stelt, the director is co-inventor of this ‘scientific expression of art’. As a program manager at Mainline, she was once inspired by the successful Dutch policy to combat the heroin problem in the 1990s. ‘That health approach of syringe exchange, methadone programs, user rooms, housing assistance and decriminalization turned out to be more effective, more humane and cheaper than the in and out of jail thing you still see in many countries. There are still many losers in drug policy, such as young people who are drawn into drug crime. According to Poppi, a different approach could also be beneficial for them.’