Are magic mushrooms legal in the Netherlands?

Magic mushrooms are illegal in the Netherlands. Fresh magic truffles are not: they fall outside the Opium Act and are sold openly to adults in smartshops. That single difference is the only green cell for mushrooms or truffles in our comparison grid, and it rests on a botanical detail written into a 2008 decree.

What the Opium Act says

The Dutch Opium Act works with two lists. List I holds substances with an unacceptable risk, List II the rest. Psilocin and psilocybin, the active compounds, have been on List I for decades (Opium Act).

On 1 December 2008 a decree added a new entry to List II: "paddenstoelen die van nature de stof psilocine of psilocybine bevatten", mushrooms that naturally contain psilocin or psilocybin, with the species named one by one, Psilocybe cubensis and Psilocybe semilanceata among them (Staatsblad 2008, 486). Before that date fresh mushrooms were sold in smartshops. Since then selling, holding and growing them is an offence.

Product	Status in the Netherlands	Basis
Fresh or dried magic mushrooms	prohibited	Opium Act, List II since 1 Dec 2008
Fresh magic truffles (sclerotia)	legal, sold to adults	outside the Opium Act; Hoge Raad, April 2026
Dried magic truffles	not settled	Jellinek classes them as List I; no ruling found
Grow kits	legal to buy	Trimbos: mushrooms from the kit are illegal
Spores	no rule found	not on either list; no criminal-law source
Driving after use	prohibited	Road Traffic Act, art. 8

Why truffles are outside the ban

A truffle is a sclerotium: a hard, knobbly mass of mycelium that some species form underground to survive dry periods. It contains the same psilocybin as the mushroom, but it is not a mushroom, because the mushroom is the fruiting body that grows above ground. The 2008 decree names mushrooms, and only mushrooms.

The Trimbos Institute, the national public health institute for drugs, says it plainly: truffles are not mushrooms and are not covered by the Opium Act, which is why smartshops can sell them (DRUGSinfo, Trimbos).

The April 2026 ruling

On 10 April 2026 the Supreme Court of the Netherlands (Hoge Raad) decided a tax case about the VAT rate on magic truffles. The judgment records as an established fact that magic truffles do not fall under the Opium Act, so that they can be cultivated and traded freely (Hoge Raad, ECLI:NL:HR:2026:450).

It is a tax judgment, so it did not create a new legal regime. What it does show is that the highest Dutch court takes the legal sale of truffles as settled ground.

What is still unsettled

Dried truffles are the open question. The Jellinek, the Amsterdam addiction care organisation, writes that dried truffles fall under List I of the Opium Act, the same list as the pure substance (Jellinek). We found no statute or court ruling that says so directly. Shops sell truffles fresh, in sealed packs, and that is the form this site refers to.

There is no age limit for truffles in Dutch law that we could find. Shops set their own: Avalon Magic Plants sells only to adults.

Possession of mushrooms

Holding magic mushrooms is an offence, but the Public Prosecution Service has a written policy for small amounts. Its guideline defines up to 0.5 grams of dried or 5 grams of fresh mushrooms as a quantity for personal use, and in principle does not prosecute below that (OM, Aanwijzing Opiumwet). The police can still confiscate them. In the grid this shows as "not prosecuted", which is a different thing from legal.

Grow kits and spores

Grow kits are sold legally. The Trimbos Institute explains that you are buying a container with mycelium, not mushrooms, and that the mushrooms become illegal as soon as they appear above the surface (DRUGSinfo, Trimbos). Spores contain no psilocybin and are not on either list; we found no criminal-law text or ruling that deals with them. A kit that fruits produces a List II drug in the Netherlands, and a controlled drug in every other country where the mushrooms are confirmed as banned.

What this means for a visit

Fresh truffles bought in a Dutch smartshop are legal to hold and use in the Netherlands, if you are an adult.
Do not drive, cycle or operate anything. Article 8 of the Road Traffic Act prohibits taking part in traffic under the influence of a substance that impairs driving, and that includes a bicycle.
Do not take truffles home. In almost every other country in the grid they are covered by the psilocybin ban, and carrying them across a border is an import offence. The travel sheet covers this country by country.
Do not combine them with alcohol or other drugs, and have a sober person nearby the first time.

Avalon Magic Plants sells the truffles below for use during a stay in the Netherlands. The descriptions in the cards are the shop's own. For a step-by-step choice from mild to strong, see the truffle guide.