Coffeeshop Report (or, How I Spent My Summer Vacation)
A helpful substance has been provided and I'm in much less pain than I was yesterday. Like probably 80% less. It ain't Amsterdam, but it beats the hell out of writhing in agony. Gosh, this U.S. War on Some Drugs has just worked out so well, hasn't it? Did you hear about the man in Slidell who was recently sentenced to life in prison for possessing and distributing marijuana? Our tax dollars at work. I told this story to a few people in Amsterdam who asked why I don't buy some Dutch seeds and grow my own weed, and their minds were appropriately boggled.
This seems like a good place to discuss what I learned about the changes/non-changes in Amsterdam's coffeeshops. My understanding of Dutch politics is necessarily limited, so if you know I've gotten something wrong here, please do correct me. Basically, Amsterdam is to the Netherlands rather like New Orleans is to Louisiana: an island of liberalism and tolerance in a sea of conservatism. The sea resents the shit out of the island, but knows it is the economic engine that keeps the whole deal afloat (boy, is this metaphor getting tortured or what?). Several years ago, after the assassinations of politician Pim Fortuyn and filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and a general backlash against Muslim immigrants, even Amsterdam voters began skewing more conservative. Now, however, in the words of my friend Jason (who isn't Dutch but has lived in Amsterdam for eight years), "they're sick of the conservative government and there's a backlash against the backlash."
Whenever I asked someone about the coffeeshops banning tourists, the word I heard was "Maastricht." This is a town near the German border where, apparently, German people often visit, buy cannabis, and take it back across the border to sell illegally. I can't say I blame them, but this has caused Germany and France (which is having the same "problem") to pressure the Dutch government to at least close or ban tourists in the border town coffeeshops. This may happen, but hasn't yet. As for Amsterdam, a number of coffeeshops have been closed, but there really was a glut, many of them sold the same mediocre products, and some were certainly involved in money laundering. The numerous coffeeshops still open are doing business as usual; if anything, the scene seems more relaxed than it has in some time. The government banned alcohol sales in coffeeshops about ten years ago, but a few seem to be serving it again, and there are plenty of bars with smoking rooms. Incongruously, but in accordance with the widespread European policy of banning smoking almost everywhere, the government banned tobacco use in coffeeshops in 2008. Yes, you could smoke all the weed and hash you wanted, but absolutely no tobacco. These days, you still can't openly display a tobacco cigarette or a pack of them, but in most coffeeshops, nobody cares if you roll up some loose tobacco in your joint.
The current mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, is a strong ally of the coffeeshops and finds the idea banning tourists ridiculous. He knows his stuff, too; when a reporter tried to zing him by asking how much a gram of weed costs in an average coffeeshop, he answered promptly and correctly. As far as I can tell, no one in Amsterdam believes this ban is going to happen in the foreseeable future, and if somehow it should, the coffeeshops will find a way around it as they have done with numerous other misguided regulations.
... I just realized that the above is probably the best-researched and most coherent thing I've written in years. No mistaking where my interests lie these days.
This seems like a good place to discuss what I learned about the changes/non-changes in Amsterdam's coffeeshops. My understanding of Dutch politics is necessarily limited, so if you know I've gotten something wrong here, please do correct me. Basically, Amsterdam is to the Netherlands rather like New Orleans is to Louisiana: an island of liberalism and tolerance in a sea of conservatism. The sea resents the shit out of the island, but knows it is the economic engine that keeps the whole deal afloat (boy, is this metaphor getting tortured or what?). Several years ago, after the assassinations of politician Pim Fortuyn and filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and a general backlash against Muslim immigrants, even Amsterdam voters began skewing more conservative. Now, however, in the words of my friend Jason (who isn't Dutch but has lived in Amsterdam for eight years), "they're sick of the conservative government and there's a backlash against the backlash."
Whenever I asked someone about the coffeeshops banning tourists, the word I heard was "Maastricht." This is a town near the German border where, apparently, German people often visit, buy cannabis, and take it back across the border to sell illegally. I can't say I blame them, but this has caused Germany and France (which is having the same "problem") to pressure the Dutch government to at least close or ban tourists in the border town coffeeshops. This may happen, but hasn't yet. As for Amsterdam, a number of coffeeshops have been closed, but there really was a glut, many of them sold the same mediocre products, and some were certainly involved in money laundering. The numerous coffeeshops still open are doing business as usual; if anything, the scene seems more relaxed than it has in some time. The government banned alcohol sales in coffeeshops about ten years ago, but a few seem to be serving it again, and there are plenty of bars with smoking rooms. Incongruously, but in accordance with the widespread European policy of banning smoking almost everywhere, the government banned tobacco use in coffeeshops in 2008. Yes, you could smoke all the weed and hash you wanted, but absolutely no tobacco. These days, you still can't openly display a tobacco cigarette or a pack of them, but in most coffeeshops, nobody cares if you roll up some loose tobacco in your joint.
The current mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, is a strong ally of the coffeeshops and finds the idea banning tourists ridiculous. He knows his stuff, too; when a reporter tried to zing him by asking how much a gram of weed costs in an average coffeeshop, he answered promptly and correctly. As far as I can tell, no one in Amsterdam believes this ban is going to happen in the foreseeable future, and if somehow it should, the coffeeshops will find a way around it as they have done with numerous other misguided regulations.
... I just realized that the above is probably the best-researched and most coherent thing I've written in years. No mistaking where my interests lie these days.
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