whitem8 hit it on the nail. However, lets stick with beer!!!!

However, more importantly, playing anything by Toto is sure to cause massive brain damage <whitem8>

Did you smoke pot when Toto was a great band?

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Chris Fountain

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Brue
Don't quote me on this, but there might be some bud out of a Californy dispensary around in Harm City. Although, not sure whether it cures glaucoma or causes it.

I hear masturbation causes blindness; How many here wear glasses?

Are you calling me a wa nker? Huh? Well are ya?

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Rialb
Is it true the law has passed that only Dutch citizens will be allowed to purchase weed legaly in the Netherlands starting in 2012?

The law is in the making. But politics have not agreed yet. Besides that, several coffeeshops in several city's are already making plans to passby(?) that law.

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Keep On Rolling

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Amsterdamned
However, more importantly, playing anything by Toto is sure to cause massive brain damage <whitem8>

Did you smoke pot when Toto was a great band?

Clearly my stuff was nowhere near as good as yours if it enabled you to hear Toto as a great band. Hats off to your grower...

I wonder, are they also talking about getting rid of the red light district?

Honest question... what is the stauts of the windows?

Why is this thread back on here ?

Don't tell me they passed that law !

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Rialb
Is it true the law has passed that only Dutch citizens will be allowed to purchase weed legaly in the Netherlands starting in 2012?

The law is in the making. But politics have not agreed yet. Besides that, several coffeeshops in several city's are already making plans to passby(?) that law.

Keep On Rolling





Thanks for your response.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-08-21 20:19 by Rialb.

If they implemented such a law and enforced it rigidly, Amsterdam would lose millions in tourist money. People go to the Dam for a) Coffee Shops, Prostitutes and C) to see the beautiful city and its amazing architecture and museums. Well maybe not always in that order and not always all of the three things in one trip. But seriously, I think the city would suffer, it had an amazing atmosphere (apart from the red light area). Hope common sense prevails.

I did not hear of any incident which makes them want to change these laws. Is it simply pressure from other countries? When will they finally understand that they can not legislate morals... humans will do what humans do, legal or not.

NO SMOKING ON THIS BOARD - PLEASE!!!!!

Best way to get somebody to do something is to say "you can't do that!" <Edith Grove>

"Ice" Hash, problem solved...

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hedegaard
NO SMOKING ON THIS BOARD - PLEASE!!!!!

Too late.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

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Max'sKansasCity
I did not hear of any incident which makes them want to change these laws. Is it simply pressure from other countries? When will they finally understand that they can not legislate morals... humans will do what humans do, legal or not.

It was a number of incidents of weekend warriors coming from other parts of Europe to irresponsibly party. Theft and other crimes increased from Non Dutch. And there was a running gun battle in a small village from a hit man (Russian) sent to off the competition. This stuff didn't happen when the boarders were not so fluid. So the right wing Dutch politicians decided to restrict the smoking. A shame.

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Max'sKansasCity
I did not hear of any incident which makes them want to change these laws. Is it simply pressure from other countries? When will they finally understand that they can not legislate morals... humans will do what humans do, legal or not.

It's two things -foreigners (mainly French, Belgiums and Germans) are flooding small country towns in the south of Holland. Literally thousands of people a day go to a little town of no more than 10.000 inhabitants. So, the tourist load to Amsterdam is irritating but tolerable, to the boarder towns it's not.

Second, by condoning weed to be sold to foreigners, and especially by condoning the red light district, the Dutch government is actually helping heavy crimes to be committed. As everybody knows by now, smoking weed is not the problem, but the industry behind it IS a problem. It is a billion dollar industry run by hard criminals. The same with the red light district. More than half of the women working there do it involuntarily. They are victims of women trade, and are being abused and held hostage.

So there you have it, The Dutch government is slowly waking up from this very romantic '70's idea about soft drugs and the red light district. The red light district in Amsterdam will be reduced to just a couple of streets, and the availability of soft drugs will be diminished. But to what extent nobody knows now, as this is complicated. It is part the responsibility of the government, part per province, and part responsibility if each town. And what ever works for Amsterdam probably does not work for Venlo and vice versa.

On a personal note -smoking weed used to be very common for Dutch people twenty years ago. Literally everybody between 16 and 40 smoked it back then. Nowadays it is considered truly a losers drug, only the socially depraved and some old hippy’s seem to use it these days.

Mathijs

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whitem8

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Amsterdamned
However, more importantly, playing anything by Toto is sure to cause massive brain damage <whitem8>

Did you smoke pot when Toto was a great band?

Clearly my stuff was nowhere near as good as yours if it enabled you to hear Toto as a great band. Hats off to your grower...

I quit the stuff 25 years ago though (I'am 50 now), as I realized it was really bad for my brains (focus, short-term memory) and lungs....and playing the guitar. No doubt alcohol abuse is worse a lot.

Mathijs quote:

On a personal note -smoking weed used to be very common for Dutch people twenty years ago. Literally everybody between 16 and 40 smoked it back then. Nowadays it is considered truly a losers drug, only the socially depraved and some old hippy’s seem to use it these days.



Who's gonna break the news to Keith, Macca, Neil, Willie et. al. that they're "socially depraved"? Or are they just old hippies?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-08-22 16:26 by andrewm.

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andrewm
Mathijs quote:

On a personal note -smoking weed used to be very common for Dutch people twenty years ago. Literally everybody between 16 and 40 smoked it back then. Nowadays it is considered truly a losers drug, only the socially depraved and some old hippy’s seem to use it these days.



Who's gonna break the news to Keith, Macca, Neil, Willie et. al. that they're "socially depraved"? Or are they just old hippies?

MitchFlorida?

I think it would be worth quitting if you found yourself smoking it every day, or enough for it to be a true impediment. As a weekly, or semi-weekly lark it's fine. And there are vaporizers now that make its very use comparably safer. The edible ingestion of small amounts of hashish is quite enjoyable. After many trips to Amsterdam, for the reasons described by Crumbling Mice, I would hate to see further restrictions enforced. It is nice to be able to enjoy the city infused with a little THC, and feel safe and happy.

That being said, perhaps there are smaller towns that could restrict sales in order to discourage being over-run by the residents of less enlightened countries. Amsterdam is large enough to handle these people, and I've never seen any problems there from coffee shops. The bad vibe is in the dark, unlit areas around the red light district where you're approached by sinister foreigners there to prey on the tourists who haven't learned the ropes of the coffee shops yet.

I've been going to mooi Amsterdam since 1994. I've seen many changes in my usually bi-annual return. The proliferation of prostitution has indeed gone down. I rarely see a windowed prostitue anywhere but on a few streets centered around the Red Light District. I remember the Libery Hotel on the Singel Canal had a girl in every window, but that was a few years ago. It is most likely true that some of the girls are pressured into what they do, but I always thought many of the women were independent and in control of what they were doing, with ample avenues of escape if they wanted another kind of lifestyle.

I always found the biggest pain in the ass in Amsterdam was not pot/hash, but A-L-C-O-H-O-L. Louts in large groups on the weekends flying in on cheap flights to over drink and sing their football songs at high volume while tapping coins on the ladies windows while they're trying to make a living. Can you imagine a group of twenty stumbling out from the 420 Cafe and hassling people? The only people I ever bothered was the first time I was there in '94, hashed out, unknowingly standing in a bicyle lane while people furiously ching-chinged at me with their bicycle bells.

As for the Dutch government 'Waking Up' from this romantic 70s idea of soft drugs and prostitution, I hope they go back to sleep. I've never seen a more mature approach to these issues than Hollands. Holland, whether it wants to be or not, is a beacon for Freedom. Pot legalization is slowly coming to fruition in some states in the U.S., with the half-way step of 'medical marijuana' and pot shops in places like California. Maybe it's silly to think human freedom is advanced because you can buy pot legally, but there's a fundamental issue here. Why should people be allowed to buy a much more dangerous, and 'Loser Drug', like alcohol, and be denied their own preference, the relatively more benign marijuana?

Long live Holland, home to my ancestors.

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24FPS
Why should people be allowed to buy a much more dangerous, and 'Loser Drug', like alcohol, and be denied their own preference, the relatively more benign marijuana?

Because the government gets about 50% on tax and duties for every liter of alcohol that is sold, while they get only 20% of the total profit a coffee shop makes. And the 'official' turn-over of a coffee shop is only 20% of the actual turn-over of a coffee shop....

But its strange indeed. In Holland you can buy weed freely, but if you like a sleeping pill once in a while you have to be acknowledged a patient by a doctor, and then you only get a couple pills and you have to go through it all again. It is easier to get coke, heroin and amphetemines here in Holland than sleeping pills. In the US you simply go to a drugstore, and buy whatever sleeping pill you want. But if you like some weed...

Mathijs

Umm, that is not true about the US being able to buy any sleeping pill you want. You cannot buy Ambien, zopoclone or any other of the "good" sleeping pills over the counter. You need a perscription. For good reasons.

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whitem8
Umm, that is not true about the US being able to buy any sleeping pill you want. You cannot buy Ambien, zopoclone or any other of the "good" sleeping pills over the counter. You need a perscription. For good reasons.

The ones I bought in NY knocked me over for 8 hours straight. Why would anyone need anything heavier is beyond me.

Mathijs

[www.coffeeshopsamsterdam.com]

Situation has eased. (Sorry if already posted before.)

There is good news for all the cannabis connoisseurs who like to visit Amsterdam and enjoy the wide variety of weed and hash that is available from the Dutch capital's many coffeeshops. The Dutch Tolerance Policy, that provides the legislation under which the Dutch coffeeshops can operate, will be renewed from 1st July 2011 and will be valid until June 30th 2015.

This means that the feared 'Weedpass', a card only available to Dutch citizens that would factually ban foreigners from buying marijuana at coffeeshops, can only be implemented through local legislation. Since City Councils like Amsterdam do not want the Weedpass scheme and local politicians such as the Mayor of Haarlem have said they do not want it either, it means it will not be possible to implement for at least 4 years during which visitors from abroad can still freely and openly buy hash and weed from Dutch coffeeshops.

Mathis, everyone reacts to medication differently.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-16 18:34 by MingSubu.

"American right wing politicians here describe Amsterdam as a depraved place where everyone's a junkie and rape is certain."

Oh?? Interesting, care to cite a source for that statement??

Hmmmm, or maybe we were supposed to know you were using hyperbole??