Amsterdam Smoking Ban!

What? nobody ever died from pot you ****ing idiot.

Only way you could die from pot is if a 50 kilo lump of it fell on your head
you bloody ignoramus.


"Mustafa Kamel" wrote in message
...
On 28 Jun, 17:04, Hackamore wrote:

German tourist Lars Schmit said lamented the possible end of an era.
Without coffee shops, he said, "a little bit of Amsterdam will die."

conversely, less people will....

Smoking inside stores such like 7-11 was voted against and made illegal in
Las Vegas, Nevada. I am not surprised they are doing the same for any public
places, except actual bars in Amsterdam. Smoking inside public places has
been illegal either ways in California, I was suprised that it was legal in
Nevada. Just because there are gambling machines in these certain places
does not give you the right to kill the children that enter such places to
purchase candies or toys. I was educated to not drink coffee either way when
I was a child, that it stuns your growth. I will not be suprised if in
Amsterdam they follow the same education, children shouldn't be drinking
coffee in the first place.

Amado Castaneda

"Hackamore" wrote in message
...
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - This city's many fine coffee shops have faced
many problems over the years and are still going strong. But, on July 1,
the Netherlands will be one of the last European countries to ban smoking
in bars and restaurants in compliance with EU law.

The Health Ministry says the ban will apply to cafes that sell marijuana,
known as coffee shops. But this being Holland, which for centuries has
experimented with social liberalism, there's a loophole: The ban covers
tobacco but not marijuana, which is technically illegal anyway.

But that still leaves coffee shops and their customers in a bind. Dutch
and other European marijuana users traditionally smoke cannabis (both pot
and hash) pot mixed with tobacco.

"It's the world upside down: In other countries they look for the
marijuana in the cigarette. Here they look for the cigarette in the
marijuana," said Jason den Enting, manager of coffee shop Dampkring.

Shops are scrambling to adapt. One alternative is "vaporizer" machines,
which heat weed smokelessly. Another is to replace tobacco with herbs like
coltsfoot, a common plant that looks like a dandelion and that smokers
describe as tasting a bit like oregano.

But most shops are just planning to increase their sales of hash brownies
and pure weed — and are hoping the law isn't enforced.

Michael Veling, owner of the 4-20 Cafe and a board member of the Cannabis
Retailers' Union, said he expected a small decline in sales as smokers are
forced to separate their nicotine addiction from their marijuana use.

But he expects the long-term effects to be minimal. "It's absurd to say
that coffee shops will go bankrupt in the second week of July. Nonsense,"
he said.

Veling is instructing his staff to send tobacco smokers outside, but he
doesn't expect all coffee shops to do the same. He said some owners will
ignore the ban — and will probably get away with it, at least for a
while... coffee shops were illegal for years after all.

But "if obeying the smoking ban becomes a condition of renewing your
business license, just watch how fast it will happen," he said. "That's
the way things work."

Chris Krikken, spokesman for the Food and Wares Authority, charged with
enforcing the ban, said his agency won't be targeting coffee shops in
particular.

"For the first month we'll just be gathering information about compliance
in a wide range of hospitality businesses. Depending on what we find, we
may focus more squarely on a sector that's lagging," he said.

But he said individual businesses caught allowing customers to smoke will
be warned and definitely checked again. "Repeat offenders will face
escalating fines," he said.

Marijuana possession is illegal but openly tolerated in the Netherlands,
but smokers are not prosecuted for holding up to 5 grams. Around 750
cafes — with almost half of them in Amsterdam — are licensed to have up to
500 grams in stock at any one time.

The Dutch "tolerance" policy recognizes that some people will smoke pot
regardless of laws, so it might as well happen in a safe orderly way.

Cannabis use in Holland ranks somewhere in the middle compared to other
nations and is lower than in the U.S., France and England, according to
statistics compiled by the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime.

The Dutch government, currently led by a conservative coalition with a
religious bent, is slowly squeezing back the number of coffee shops by not
renewing licenses when shops close.

Growers are arrested, leaving coffee shop owners struggling to obtain
their main product.

"The rules are being set to pester us out of business one by one, slowly
but surely," said Richard van Velthoven, manager at The Greenhouse, who
said he feared being shut down for tobacco violations.

"I've taken the cigarette machines out, I'm putting Coltsfoot on the
tables, I've bought extra vaporizers, the staff is watching out — what
more can I do?" he said.

German tourist Lars Schmit said lamented the possible end of an era.

Without coffee shops, he said, "a little bit of Amsterdam will die."

--

== Hackamore ==
http://www.hackamore.com/
http://hackamoretravel.blogspot.com/

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:32:33 +0200, Martin wrote:

Brown cafes aren't exempt. A legal action to make them exempt failed.

I just got back. It seems to be a big mix. Outside of Amsterdam I heard
that many of the coffee shops have reduced their floor space to just a
dispensary. In Amsterdam it is all over the place. There are four
variations found the

- no smoking at all
- pure pot only
- tobacco mixed with pot
- even cigarettes can be smoked

I think the first one is really rare. Outside of the big cities I believe
the pure pot only is about the only choice. The problem is the Dutch really
like mixing their pot with tobacco.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:43:36 +0200, Martin wrote:

Local newspaper says that coffee shops have turned into pot take aways.

That is correct outside of the big cities. But definitely not for
Amsterdam.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).