T
The420Guy
Guest
The latest news from the Mecca of marijuana users may sound like a
bad joke, but it's not. Under a new ban on smoking in public places,
Dutch coffee shops will be allowed to sell joints, but their
customers will have to go outside to smoke them.
To the chagrin of the owners of the country's popular smoking
establishments, national health guidelines due to take effect next
January seem to be inadvertently striking the heart of the liberal
Dutch drugs policy.
The law targeted tobacco, not marijuana. The ban on smoking in public
places met fierce resistance from the catering industry, which argued
the prohibition in restaurants, bars and cafes would result in the
loss of 50,000 jobs and 1.3 billion euros (US$1.5 billion) in
revenues annually. The industry has been granted a one-year extension
until Jan 2005.
Opponents say the ban will drive smoking customers at regular bars
and cafes - about one in three of the Dutch smoke - across the
borders to Germany and Belgium where it will still be allowed next
year.
The first coffee shop selling marijuana and hashish opened in the
Netherlands in 1972 and they now number more than 800 countrywide.
Growers and sellers compete in annual taste-testing competitions in
Amsterdam, where millions of tourists a year sample the vast
varieties advertised on menus.
In addition to selling small quantities of what the Dutch call
"soft-drugs," many coffee shops also offer patrons comfortable
couches, fresh fruit juices and board games. Alcohol is generally
forbidden.
Reactions in Dutch coffee shops ranged from utter amazement to
concern about what will happen to the three-decade-old tradition in
Amsterdam of social pot smoking.
"They've got to be out of their minds," laughed Annemiek van Royan, a
regular at the "Kashmir Lounge" coffee shop in West Amsterdam.
Lighting up a joint of Dutch "skunk weed," she said she comes every
day to hang out and talk with other visitors who can lean back on
colorful embroidered cushions while puffing.
"I bought a joint for now and a little more for later at home. The
best part is coming here to relax. It makes my day," she said, asking
the dealer jokingly if he was going to start selling hash cake.
"Cake is so strong, it's too dangerous. People never know how much to
eat," said Johan de Vries, the bartender at the Kashmir Lounge. He
suggested building a heated outdoor terrace to get around the new law.
Health Ministry spokesman Bas Kuik said the law was not intended to
target coffee shops, and - as in all public areas - they could have
designated smoking areas.
The sale of marijuana is officially illegal, but its use has been
decriminalized. Authorities allow the coffee shops to operate under
strict guidelines as a way of exerting some control over behavior
that they argue would happen anyway. Studies show that use of such
drugs is no greater in the Netherlands than in countries where its is
banned.
Even the head of the anti-smoking lobby Clean Air Now, Willem van den
Oetelaar, conceded that banning smoking in coffee shops had not been
the intended purpose of the campaign to stop public smoking. But he
still backed the move. "It's not our priority, but it is a good
thing," he said.
Van den Oetelaar said the organization's telephone hot line had
received more than 2,000 complaints about smoking in public places
since October, but that not one of them had been about a coffee shop.
ANTHONY DEUTSCH; Associated Press Writer
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands
bad joke, but it's not. Under a new ban on smoking in public places,
Dutch coffee shops will be allowed to sell joints, but their
customers will have to go outside to smoke them.
To the chagrin of the owners of the country's popular smoking
establishments, national health guidelines due to take effect next
January seem to be inadvertently striking the heart of the liberal
Dutch drugs policy.
The law targeted tobacco, not marijuana. The ban on smoking in public
places met fierce resistance from the catering industry, which argued
the prohibition in restaurants, bars and cafes would result in the
loss of 50,000 jobs and 1.3 billion euros (US$1.5 billion) in
revenues annually. The industry has been granted a one-year extension
until Jan 2005.
Opponents say the ban will drive smoking customers at regular bars
and cafes - about one in three of the Dutch smoke - across the
borders to Germany and Belgium where it will still be allowed next
year.
The first coffee shop selling marijuana and hashish opened in the
Netherlands in 1972 and they now number more than 800 countrywide.
Growers and sellers compete in annual taste-testing competitions in
Amsterdam, where millions of tourists a year sample the vast
varieties advertised on menus.
In addition to selling small quantities of what the Dutch call
"soft-drugs," many coffee shops also offer patrons comfortable
couches, fresh fruit juices and board games. Alcohol is generally
forbidden.
Reactions in Dutch coffee shops ranged from utter amazement to
concern about what will happen to the three-decade-old tradition in
Amsterdam of social pot smoking.
"They've got to be out of their minds," laughed Annemiek van Royan, a
regular at the "Kashmir Lounge" coffee shop in West Amsterdam.
Lighting up a joint of Dutch "skunk weed," she said she comes every
day to hang out and talk with other visitors who can lean back on
colorful embroidered cushions while puffing.
"I bought a joint for now and a little more for later at home. The
best part is coming here to relax. It makes my day," she said, asking
the dealer jokingly if he was going to start selling hash cake.
"Cake is so strong, it's too dangerous. People never know how much to
eat," said Johan de Vries, the bartender at the Kashmir Lounge. He
suggested building a heated outdoor terrace to get around the new law.
Health Ministry spokesman Bas Kuik said the law was not intended to
target coffee shops, and - as in all public areas - they could have
designated smoking areas.
The sale of marijuana is officially illegal, but its use has been
decriminalized. Authorities allow the coffee shops to operate under
strict guidelines as a way of exerting some control over behavior
that they argue would happen anyway. Studies show that use of such
drugs is no greater in the Netherlands than in countries where its is
banned.
Even the head of the anti-smoking lobby Clean Air Now, Willem van den
Oetelaar, conceded that banning smoking in coffee shops had not been
the intended purpose of the campaign to stop public smoking. But he
still backed the move. "It's not our priority, but it is a good
thing," he said.
Van den Oetelaar said the organization's telephone hot line had
received more than 2,000 complaints about smoking in public places
since October, but that not one of them had been about a coffee shop.
ANTHONY DEUTSCH; Associated Press Writer
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands
