Editing Smart shop (section)

==Typical products specialization==
[[File:Paddo products Warmoesstraat Amsterdam april 2007.JPG|thumbnail|A Dutch Smart Shop with [[herb grinder]]s on display]]

===Smart drugs===
Smart shops (often webshops) offer prescription-free pharmacy products such as [[Ritalin]], [[Adderall]], and [[modafinil]], for example.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/nootropics-smart-drugs/|title=Will 'Smart Drugs' Really Make Us Smarter, or Just Ruin Our Lives?}}</ref>

===Psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants===

====Traditional entheogens====
Smart shops are best known in practice for selling whatever [[psychedelic drug|psychedelics]], [[dissociative]]s, [[entactogen]]s and [[deliriant]]s local law permits. In the [[Netherlands]], which is home to most of the smart shops in Europe, this includes ''[[Salvia divinorum]]'', ''[[Amanita muscaria]]'', [[Peyote]], [[Trichocereus macrogonus|San Pedro cactus]], ''[[Tabernanthe iboga]]'', and various ingredients for [[Ayahuasca]] preparations. 
As of 1 December 2008, magic mushrooms are under stricter control in the Netherlands. Those new controls are quite controversial, because the list of banned mushrooms also contains species that have no psychoactive substances. Magic Mushroom spore prints and grow boxes are still available over the counter in the Netherlands. [[Psilocybin]] is not included in the ban and continues to be sold in smart shops nationwide in truffle form.<ref>{{cite news |title=Psilocybin mushrooms |url=https://psilocybinlounge.com/}}</ref>

====Decline of designer drugs====
{{see also|Designer drug}}
Smart shops in various countries have been known in the past to sell [[designer drug]]s: that is, synthetic substances that were not (yet) illegal. The sale of synthetic drugs not explicitly approved as food, supplements or medicines is illegal in some of them. For example, in the Netherlands it is dealt with by the relatively benign machinery of the ''Warenautoriteit'' (Commodities Authority) rather than in criminal law, as would be the case with controlled substances.

Yet, this has made it effectively impossible to sell them in a formal retail setting, even if their production and possession is entirely legitimate. Smart shops have attempted no further marketing of synthetics since they tried to sell [[methylone]] as a "room odorizer" but were ultimately forced to pull it from their shelves in 2004, though it can still be obtained under the counter in some shops.

===Drug paraphernalia===
{{see also|Head shop}}

Smart shops sell many products that can be seen as [[complement good]]s to psychoactive drugs, including illegal ones. In the Netherlands, which has no [[drug paraphernalia]] laws, this is entirely legal. In particular, the sales of literature about illegal drugs or their manufacture is rarely criticized and protected by a traditional concern for free speech in local law and custom that is more pronounced than in other European nations.

Many of the paraphernalia and complements sold in smart shops reduce, in one way or another, the harm associated with illegal drugs. For instance, reagent kits for testing the purity of ecstasy can be essential now that tablets named [[MDMA|ecstasy]] can in practice contain just about anything, and often do not, in fact, contain [[MDMA]] at all.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} Supplements of vitamins and amino acids have been developed to mitigate specifically the damage of certain illegal drugs. [[Tryptophan]] and [[5-hydroxy-tryptophan]], for instance, can be used to help the body replenish serotonin levels in the brain after the use of [[MDMA]], and vitamin supplements are appropriate for users of stimulants such as [[amphetamine]]. [[Vitamin B12]] is depleted by recreational use of [[nitrous oxide]], and is thereby useful.

Smart shop is distinguished from [[head shop]]s found in many countries. Head shops provide only paraphernalia, whereas smart shops usually sell at least some actual drugs. The term head shop is more common in the UK,<ref>{{cite news |title=Magic mushrooms in the Uk |url=https://royalpapersmart.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117040552/https://royalpapersmart.com/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=January 17, 2021}}</ref> though many British head shops sold magic mushrooms until July 2005 when the Government introduced a complete ban on magic mushrooms, putting them in the same category as heroin and crack cocaine. Many of the British head shops still sell a range of other legal highs.