Collapse of conservative Dutch government might be good news for Amsterdam coffee shops

[marmar]

from High Times:



Since the 1970s, the Netherlands’ legendary cannabis coffeeshops have been officially “tolerated” by the government, meaning that while technically illegal, they’ve nonetheless operated openly, with hundreds of locations in Amsterdam alone selling limited amounts of marijuana to the public.

Despite their being tightly regulated and contributing considerably to the nation’s tourism industry, however, the conservative government has been steadily working to curtail or eliminate the coffeeshops, specifically by proposing a “Weed Pass” plan that would restrict access to only citizens of the Netherlands willing to register as a member of a private club, with each coffeeshop allowed just 2,000 members.

The Weed Pass plan was passed into law in 2011 and was set to take effect starting with several locations in the south of the Netherlands on May 1 of this year. But this week several important developments have thrown the future of the law into doubt. Most notably, the coalition forming the Dutch government dissolved on April 23, amid an internal argument over budgetary priorities.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet have since officially resigned in advance of national elections to be held in the near future, with the possibility of a new government taking power that’s opposed to the Weed Pass. While at the same time, a group of Dutch coffeeshop owners and their allies have been fighting the Weed Pass in court, charging that the proposed new restrictions are in violation of the nation’s constitution. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://hightimes.com/news/bean/7648

[The Magistrate]

1. Collapse Of a Conservative Government Is Always Good News, Sir, For Everybody

[marmar]

2. True that, Magistrate. True that.

nt

[Turbineguy]

4. Now the question is

will the Dutch voters be smart enough to dump Wilders and his party of idiots or what? Have they done enough damage yet?

[Fozzledick]

12. They got elected on an anti-immigrant platform

pandering to an anti-Muslim backlash after an Islamist extremist murdered a popular filmmaker who made a documentary about women's lives in Muslim societies. Hopefully the next election will focus on their lousy economic performance in office.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. But people might come to Amsterdam to smoke TEH pot!!!!!!!

And spend money!

And smoke pot!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

[rhett o rick]

7. Good grief, let the tourists get high for criminy's sake. Yeah man! :wave: nm

[Warren DeMontague]

9. There is a simple solution to tourists traveling to Amsterdam to smoke pot.

Do the sane, long overdue thing and legalize it fucking everywhere.

[anti-alec]

14. I get mine legally here in Denver

and my dispensary got shut down yesterday by the Feds because the dispensary was "too close" to a school that's about 2.5 blocks away, up the damn hill.

I call BS on that, and I'll just go to another dispensary down the street, about 6 blocks from the same damn school.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. And that's all well and good

But it's time to stop fucking around and make it legal, regulated, and taxed for consenting adult use. Medical, recreational, whatever.

[rhett o rick]

16. But wouldnt that spoil the fun. Surely the capitalist would f it up. nm

[LadyHawkAZ]

11. Smoke weed and hire prostitutes!! OH NOEZ!

If the conservative leadership goes under it will be fantastic news for both industries.

[eridani]

5. DH and I were there in 1996

I succeeded in occasionally dragging him out of the "coffee shops" and into museums and the Anne Frank house. One shop, Hill Street Blues, was so named because it shared a building with a police substation, thereby allowing easy enforcement of their No Violence and No Hard Drugs policy.

[CTyankee]

6. Ha, I was there last October. Great city! Did you get to Rembrandt's house?

WOW! That was a high all by itself! I was in his studio!!

I walked around Amsterdam in a joyous cloud, but not because of weed. The Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum made me delirious with joy...

[eridani]

8. Didn't get to Rembrandt's house, but spent a lot of time in

the--Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. Also the De Poezenboot, for a furrball fix, missing our two at home.

[CTyankee]

10. The Van Gogh Museum reduced me to tears. I was depleted. It was a real moment for me.

I had never reacted to Van Gogh's art before but the moment I had in the VAn Gogh was signal. Perhaps dehydration, perhaps overload of art (very possible), but it was a moment. I cried.

I don't know what to make of it. As I said, could be other things...but it was a signal moment in my life, at least, if for no one else...

[eridani]

15. Didn't cry but was certainly awed. Loved the landscapes particularly

Biking in the rural areas, we remembered that he caught it exactly.

[CTyankee]

18. I didn't bike, altho lots of people do. I was on a little barge that had only 10 cabins (very tiny).

Going through the canals was a nice way to travel there. You dock right in the middle of towns, they put down a little gangplank and off you go, walking everywhere. Gouda was such a delight, probably the prettiest town I was in. I also loved the Hague (the Mauritshaus there has View of Delft and Girl with Pearl Earring) and Haarlem for the Franz Hals house/museum (stunning paintings of flowers and still lifes and a terrific museum gift shop where I bought one of a kind items to bring back as gifts).

[Uncle Joe]

13. Good, kudos to the great nation of The Netherlands.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.