Pubdate: Wed, 18 Apr 2012
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Mark Haskell Smith
Note: Excerpted from Heart of Dankness (c) 2012 by Mark Haskell 
Smith. Published by Signal, a division of Random House of Canada 
Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

GOING SOFT ON DRUGS

In a New Book, Mark Haskell Smith Travels to the Netherlands' 
Infamous 'Coffeeshops' To Find the Perfect Joint

Cannabis, artisanal or not, is technically illegal in the 
Netherlands. Not that you'd know it from walking down the street. The 
Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains Dutch drug laws and 
the rationale behind them on its website.

They make a distinction between hard drugs, "substances which involve 
an unacceptable health risk, such as ecstasy, cocaine and heroin," 
and cannabis. Possession of cannabis for personal use - up to 30 
grams - is a minor offense that is rarely, if ever, enforced.

One of the Dutch government's aims is to "separate the markets for 
hard drugs and cannabis." The government wants to protect casual 
cannabis users from "exposure to more harmful drugs." In other words, 
when I go to my local drug dealer to buy some weed, she usually has 
cocaine, LSD, mushrooms and other substances for sale, but if I go to 
a coffeeshop, it's just cannabis and soft drinks. You can't even get 
a beer - the ultimate gateway drug - in a coffeeshop. It's a sensible 
and pragmatic approach that understands that people like to get high 
and that marijuana and hashish are not any different from alcohol.

Here's how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it: "The main aim of 
Dutch policy is to reduce both the demand for and supply of drugs, 
and to minimize any harm to users, the people with whom they 
associate, and the public in general." I especially like minimize any 
harm to users.

Although I'd prefer outright legalization of cannabis, if you have to 
have restrictions, what the Dutch call their 'soft drug" policy seems 
to be a reasonable compromise. There is no rational reason why an 
adult should face fines and jail time for consuming a nontoxic plant 
in the privacy of his or her own home. The fact that, in the United 
States, there are people serving 10-year prison terms for growing 
"marijuana plants in their backyards while Wall Street racketeers, 
who have defrauded millions of people and destroyed the global 
economy, walk free is a kind of bizarre hypocrisy that boggles my mind.

But if weed is technically illegal in Holland, what is, technically, 
a coffeeshop? Again, I turn to the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"A coffee shop is an establishment where cannabis may be sold subject 
to certain strict conditions, but no alcoholic drinks may be sold or consumed.

Although the sale of cannabis is an offense, coffee shops are not 
prosecuted provided they sell small quantities only and comply with 
the rules listed in C2." Here are the rules: They may not sell more 
than five grams per person per day.

They may not sell ecstasy or other hard drugs. They may not advertise 
drugs. They must ensure that there is no nuisance in their vicinity.

They may not sell drugs to persons under 18 or even allow them on the premises.

In addition to that, "coffee shops may stock up to 500 grams of 
cannabis without facing prosecution," which, as a busy coffeeshop 
will tell you, isn't that much weed. That's why most coffeeshops keep 
apartments or storage units nearby, and send runners for resupply 
when their inventory gets low.

According to Dutch government figures from 2008, there are 730 
coffeeshops in the country, more than 200 of them in Amsterdam. It's 
hard to walk through the city centre and not see a coffeeshop or two; 
they're right next to restaurants, bars, hair salons and retail 
stores. If you don't see them, you can smell them - the sweet aroma 
of burning weed drifts in the air.

Amsterdammers don't try to hide anything. Like the hookers in the 
red-light district, coffeeshops are part of the fabric of the city 
and a big part of the local economy. In 2008, coffeeshops in the 
Netherlands paid approximately 400-million euros in tax on gross 
sales of more than 2-billion euros. That's more money than the Dutch 
transportation system earns, and makes coffeeshops one of the biggest 
industries in the country. And that's not counting the four million 
tourists who come for the weed and stay in hotels, eat at 
restaurants, drink in bars and visit museums, or the tens of millions 
of dollars generated from the sale of cannabis seeds.

Putting aside the humanitarian aspects of the Dutch policy, that's 
some serious financial incentive to keep the bongs bubbling.

But why do the Dutch have this policy and every other country is more 
like the United States? "We Dutch don't like authority." With that 
pronouncement, Joop Hazenberg, journalist, former Dutch government 
insider, founder of the political think tank Denktank Prospect, and 
author of the book Change: How the Millennial Generation Will Conquer 
the Netherlands, spread some liverwurst on a piece of brown bread.

Judging by the current standards of modern American journalism, Joop 
is CNN anchor handsome, with olive skin and dark eyes that flash with 
an intelligent, mischievous twinkle. "We're always finding little 
ways around the laws. Not because we're criminals, but because we 
don't like to be told what to do.... Like the tobacco smoking ban in 
bars and cafes. Two-thirds of them don't care. People smoke. When the 
government tries to catch them, everyone sends SMS messages on their 
cell phones to warn that the inspectors are coming."

I was having lunch with Joop because I was curious how Holland had 
become such a tolerant society. Here's a country that is a right-wing 
American's worst nightmare. Holland has socialized health care, gay 
marriage, legal prostitution, euthanasia and coffeeshops where you 
can smoke marijuana. And, just to rub it in, its people are ranked 
among the happiest in the world.

"From the beginning we have always worked together. We had to. You 
tolerate a lot of differences when you're fighting to keep the sea 
from flooding your country." I nodded and took a bite of my cheese 
sandwich. Netherlands means, literally, "low lands." It's a country 
that's mostly at or below sea level, the ocean held back by a series 
of dikes, embankments and canals.

Joop held his liverwurst sandwich in the air - he was caught 
mid-thought. He put the sandwich back on the plate. "I think that's 
where it began. But then we have always been a country of successful 
traders and businessmen. The Portuguese Jews came here in the 16th 
century, the Huguenots after them.

There are always communities of people coming. You can't be a 
successful trading nation without being open to the world and 
tolerant of other cultures."

It clearly annoyed him when I asked about the coffeeshops. His face 
contorted in irritation and he heaved a weary sigh. 'Why is that the 
first thing people ask when they come here? ' Where are the 
coffeeshops?' Why? Don't they know that Amsterdam is much more than 
sex and cannabis?"

While it's a bit like someone from the Bahamas complaining that 
tourists only want to go to the beach and drink rum, this concern 
about the world's perception of the city is common for native Amsterdammers.

"You can't blame the tourists. Amsterdam has the best cannabis in the 
world," I told him.

This, apparently, was news to Joop. "Really?" I pointed out that 
millions of seeds and hundreds of thousands of kilos of nederwiet - 
Dutchgrown cannabis - are exported out of Holland every year. He 
considered that fact and, although he tried to hide it behind his 
sandwich, I detected a hint of pride.

Joop continued. "In 1996, we had a purple parliament." "What?" "The 
socialists were red, the liberal democrats blue. They formed a 
coalition government.... But the liberals here are not like liberals 
in the United States. Here they are more like libertarians. They 
don't want people telling them how to live."

Like the prostitutes in the redlight district, coffeeshops had been 
operating illegally, but without any serious enforcement, since the 
late 1970s. There was never any formal regulation in place.

"The purple parliament licensed the coffeeshops and legalized gay 
marriage, euthanasia, prostitution - all the social reforms that we have now."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom