Belgium’s very first ecstasy exhibition is coming to Ghent. In an empty building people will be able to act as if they are buying pills of this synthetic drug in 3 different settings. The exhibition is supposed to encourage visitors to consider an alternative drug policy.
Home News
XTC exhibition in Ghent: “Get people to think about alternative drug policy”
Colin Clapson
Published:
The exhibition is the work of the organisation Smart on Drugs that is eager to explore what it would be like if people could just buy the synthetic drug ecstasy in a shop. The organisation is pressing for drug policy reforms and advocates a new, expert-led and humane approach.
Three settings in which people can act as if they are buying the drug will be created in an empty building in Speldenstraat in Ghent’s city centre. The settings include a pharmacy, a nightclub and a smart shop, a kind of coffee shop.
Comparison with cannabis sales
"The regularisation of XTC does not automatically mean that its use will also increase," says Steven Debbaut, a researcher at the Brussels Free University VUB and one of those who has taken the initiative for the exhibition. "In the Netherlands, for example, you can easily buy cannabis, but use is lower there than in France or Italy, where it is banned."
Debbaut sees an advantage in the regularisation of XTC. "At least then, you can do quality checks on the product. Now people don't know how powerful pills are and they take too much."
Above all, Debbaut wants to make people think about how ecstasy can be sold, if sale of the drug is legalised. The exhibition opens on 14 April and runs until 15 May.