Amster-Damn!

[JackLuis]

Amsterdam is done. Where will potheads turn now?

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands — Learning to grow their own weed or finding a dealer: French and Belgian potheads are seeking alternatives to the famous Dutch coffee shop as The Hague plans to cut off drug tourists.

I wonder how much money they expect to lose in tourist revenue?

 

[AllardChardon]

What a horrible turn of events. This is the wrong direction to go, in my opinion. The underground will take off and so will the prices.

 

[SlickTony]

Hopefully, they'll learn their lesson and reverse this dumb move. Let's hope they don't decide to emulate the US, who takes great pride in not having learned the lesson.

 

[oggbashan]

This might increase tourism in Portugal.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Any possibility of a sudden new interest in greenhouses on Malta?

 

[TE999]

Maybe California will reverse itself on legalizing pot. They could sure use the revenue.

 

[harding]

We were out there last year for a week, and the really great American woman who ran out hotel with her weird (but great weird) Dutch husband said the locals were also wanting to shut down the sex clubs as well.

Personally, we didn't partake of either coffee shops or sex clubs, but the place was amazing anyway. If this happens, then Amsterdam's tourist revenue will just plummet - and who loses out then?

 

[elfin_odalisque]

The delicious irony is that smoking tobacco is banned in all public places in Holland and most of Europe. This includes bars, hotels and licensed Coffee Shops.

So it is illegal to smoke grass mixed with tobacco inside and you either smoke pure cannabis and cough your guts up or go and stand on the sidewalk to use tobacco.

 

[Verdad]

Dunno if they’re serious this time, but they’ve been saying the same thing for twenty years. If it’s a ploy to draw tourists, it worked on me—the first time I heard it, I rushed to visit “while the coffee shops are still there.”

 

[amicus]

The Amsterdam Dutch, the Rotterdam Dutch and the Goddamn Dutch....what ever happened to the Dutch East Indies; an Empire in Asia that flourished...?

I have a novel working in my head...wherein the Muslims in Asia take power, as they are about to anyway, with or without my fiction...but...I propose a new colonization of Asia by the Dutch....I don't trust the fucking French and they were in Asia also...I too, call upon Australia to colonize nearby Muslim strongholds and impose Democracy....whadayathink?

My central thesis is, are we not tired of continual religious wars wars around the globe? If we could put an end to it?

Amicus

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Probably those not involved in the tourist trade could care less . . . until they find out how much non-tourist business is generated by the tourists! But in the end I personally feel that it's a short term loss for a long term gain. Tourism is a parasitic industry and really doesn't properly replace honest industry and commerce. And as a Californian I know only too well . . .

 

[amicus]

Well, I guess I have had enough fun for one night and morning....back and forth between the AH and the GB, but hell, the GB is way more fun than this moribund menagerie...so...goodnight all....be well....

Amicus

 

[AllardChardon]

The Portuguese decriminalizes ALL drugs in a forward moving strategy to correct the problem of drug abuse in their country and the Dutch head back to the 60s thinking of American Drug Czar Anslinger, who helped to make Marijuana a Schedule I controlled substance drug in Europe as well as the U.S. WTF

Note: Anslinger was a teetotaler appointed by FDR during Prohibition.

 

[estragon]

As Amsterdam Has Become Medina West

It is not surprising that drugs and sex will be prohibited. The Netherlands, indeed all of Western Europe, has been targeted by the Islamics for conquest, reversing the decision of 732. As Islam has been at war with the West for 1400 years, this should surprise no one.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

It is not surprising that drugs and sex will be prohibited.

And these two statements are related? How?

The Netherlands, indeed all of Western Europe, has been targeted by the Islamics for conquest, reversing the decision of 732. As Islam has been at war with the West for 1400 years, this should surprise no one.

 

[SlickTony]

ote: Anslinger was a teetotaler appointed by FDR during Prohibition

...who saw his job slipping away when Prohibition was repealed, and whomped up a big campaign against weed.

 

[AllardChardon]

Someday, people may stop fearing the "gateway drug" aspect of the anti-marijuana propaganda and see that is has more good things about it than bad, unlike beloved alcohol.

 

[JackLuis]

Someday, people may stop fearing the "gateway drug" aspect of the anti-marijuana propaganda and see that is has more good things about it than bad, unlike beloved alcohol.

"But, But, It brings in all those foreign dope smokers, with Euros,"

 

[Hislittlefucktoy]

This has been done in the past, but never with the citizenship requirement, that I know of.

The difference was that (at least in Maastrict) you had ask at the former coffee shop where to find a dealer, and then go down to the river to score. Much less safe, and much less comfortable.

And, I can honestly say that I understand where the Dutch are coming from. Being known as very tolerant people is a good thing. Being known as the illicit sex and drug capital of western Europe is not.

The coffee shop system actually had some social costs, as well. For years, Amsterdam and Rotterdam had the highest violent crime rates in western Europe, and they might still. I haven't checked lately. Tourists catching early trains were well advised by hotel staff to be careful, especially in the early morning, as jangling junkies, desperate for their fix, would often accost those tourists violently. I have never known whether this can be traced as a cause to Pot being a gateway drug, or to the nation attracting every scumbag in Europe. I was hoping that Vancouver and Portugal's decriminalization would shed more light on that.

All in all, it does mean that Adam is going to be moved down a notch or two on my "fun destinations" list.

Dave

 

[AllardChardon]

I was planning on going next year about this time, but now I will see what happens there first.

There have been several cities over the millennia that served as the hot spots for whoring and substance abuse. There does seem to be a need for a place to go to let it all hang out, but those places are getting fewer and fewer. No one wants their city to be the most depraved one on earth.

It is just a shame, poor little marijuana smoking coffee shops in Amsterdam are getting that kind of action, but their notorious red light district had more to do with that than the shops, in my thinking.

 

[squarejohn]

what ever happened to the Dutch East Indies; an Empire in Asia that flourished...?


My central thesis is, are we not tired of continual religious wars wars around the globe? If we could put an end to it?

Amicus

The Dutch East Indies became Indonesia. When I first visited there, you could buy the equivalent of a pillowcase full of exceptionally good weed--"not a seed or a stem in a sackful"--for $10.00. You can still buy it there in the same quality and quantity, but at a much higher price. Rubber, oil, and coffee are the foundation for the economy there. Colonialism is dead. The Colonial system survives but is ruled by indigenous top dogs rather than foreign powers. These Indonesian top dogs have themselves colonized West Irian.

There will never be an end to religious or any other kind of wars. You can go back even further than the crusades, through the Thugs and Assassins to the present day. From time to time there is a pause while both sides lick their wounds and scheme for the next attack, but none of that will ever end.

The same holds true of ending the use of intoxicants. The demand is just too big. The tourists who are habitues of Amsterdam should just bide their time. Like the weather, that situation will change.

 

[squarejohn]

And these two statements are related? How?

Probably because drugs and sex are de jure prohibited by Islamism, and there is strong Islamic influence in Europe.