Pubdate: Sun, 28 Apr 2002
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Anthony Browne

UPPERS AND DOWNERS OF UK'S DUTCH EXPERIENCE

Until 15 September last year, it had only been famous for its hat museum. 
But on that day, Stockport, on the outskirts of Manchester, suddenly 
featured in news stories around the world: in a quiet industrial area, 
Britain's first cannabis cafe, the Dutch Experience, had opened. It was 
raided by police on its first day, but supporters immediately reopened it. 
Seven months later, it has been raided four times but has remained open 
every day. Cannabis campaigners - including two MEPs - marched on Stockport 
police station carrying cannabis, and demanding to be arrested. After 28 
arrests, the police gave up, ignored anyone else possessing the drug, and 
campaigners declared that it had in effect been legalised. The Dutch 
Experience continues to attract hundreds of people from across the country 
every day, but its co-founder Colin Davis has been remanded in Strangeways 
Prison since December for breaking bail conditions on drugs charges.

The Dutch Experience has inspired other cannabis activists to open coffee 
shops in a planned programme of civil disobedience that effectively forced 
a change of law in Holland thirty years earlier. Many have taken a special 
'Cannabizziness' course set up by the Dutch co-founder of the second 
British cannabis cafe. The Dutch Experience 2 opened earlier this month in 
Bournemouth, and has been raided twice by police but immediately reopened 
each time. More than a dozen other cannabis cafes are planned, in Brighton, 
Liverpool, London and Edinburgh and elsewhere.
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