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Tourists overdose on heroin sold to them as cocaine in Amsterdam


Cape Town - Travelling is all about self-discovery, experiencing new, foreign things and pushing the boundaries of your comfort zone. All this wonderful travel-experiences should, however, be explored within the boundaries of the human body as well as the law of the country of which you find yourself in.

Amsterdam is known for its liberal drug laws, and many inquisitive travellers head there to legally experience cannabis. For many travellers, however, using drugs in this cit has ended catastrophically, and for two British tourists, friends Shaun Brotherston and Bradley Price, it's ended fatally. 

The British friends, Brotherston and Price, was in the country celebrating their 21st birthdays when they overdosed on white heroin sold to them by an ignorant dealer, reports The Mirror. The two used the drugs, presumably thinking they were snorting cocaine.

The friends were found dead in their hotel room. Police said the pair mistook the drug for cocaine, when it was in fact heroin.   

Many heroin mix-ups have allegedly been made in Amsterdam, and the city has even put up billboards warning tourists of the new "dangerous type of cocaine" being sold to tourists. 


#amsterdam #streetsign #extremelydangerouscocaine

A photo posted by Berk (@immpres) on

Bet you didn't see the second 'is'.... #onlyinamsterdam ?? #extremelydangerouscocaine

A photo posted by IFE (@ife) on



Since the fatal overdose, Shaun Brotherston's girlfriend Amy Totterdell has issued a statement warning other tourists of the use of drugs, especially while abroad. She told BBC News that the unthinkable has happened to Brotherston. She said that he never had any interest in drugs and that he told her he wasn't interested in taking any whilst abroad.

Totterdell told the BBC however, that "you always think it is not going to happen to you... and then it does." Totterdell and the deceased Brotherston are in the picture, from Totterdell's Facebook, below. 




Since the deadly heroin has been discovered in Amsterdam, at least 17 people have required medical treatment after taking the drug.

Rob van der Veen, police spokesperson in Amsterdam told The Guardian that white heroin looks like cocaine, is sold as cocaine and people think they are snorting cocaine. The result, however, is totally different than with cocaine as users suffer respiratory failure.

Many of Amsterdam’s tourists are drawn to its coffee shops where the sale of cannabis is tolerated, although hard drugs are illegal in the Netherlands.

Please share your travel experiences with us at info@traveller24.com or contact us on our FacebookTwitter or Instagram accounts.




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