Dutch magazine about psychedelics folds

Stephen Snelders

   Unfortunately, the publisher of the Dutch bulletin on psychoactive substances, PAN Forum, has decided to stop publishing the bulletin. He felt that PAN Forum had not been able to get enough subscriptions and that continuing publication could no longer be financed.

   PAN Forum was started in 1995 as a quarterly bulletin on the subject of psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs. It attempted to publish a diverse range of views on the meaning of and developments in the various uses of psychedelics: psychotherapeutic, religio us, subcultural, etc. In the eleven issues that were published between 1995 and 1998, original contributions by Dutch researchers alternated with translations from foreign sources, including the MAPS Bulletin. The editorial board of PAN consisted of different generations of Dutch researchers of psychedelics.

As editor, it is my conclusion that the kind of material that was published in PAN was too specialized and perhaps sometimes too academic for a Dutch language public. The PAN editorial board will, however, continue some literary projects. A selection of the best articles from PAN will hopefully appear this year in an English edition with an American publisher. For the Dutch language readers, PAN Forum editors are now working on a reader on the problems of the use of psychedelics in the context of modern western society, and the challenge of re-entry after psychedelic travel.