Pubdate: Thu, 21 May 2009
Source: FFWD (CN AB)
Copyright: 2009 FFWD
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: http://www.ffwdweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1194
Author: Patrick Boyle

REEFER SADNESS

The Dutch Start Getting All Uptight And Shit

We've all heard tales of Amsterdam: the great European city of bacchanalia.
Arriving by train, weary travellers walk along a canal that radiates outward from
Centraal station and venture down any of the many narrow side streets that splay
forth from each canal, leading to the city's best-known attractions. From the live sex
shows and scantily clad prostitutes of the red light district to the so-called "coffee
shops" where modest portions of cannabis and hashish can be bought and smoked,
the city's core is brimming with a degree of naughtiness that comparatively puritan
North Americans find jaw-dropping.

Nevertheless, as any recent visitor can tell you, there's something
strange in the Amsterdam air these days - a distinctly different kind
of stink than the acrid odour of an expertly rolled blunt. While the
culture of permissiveness remains intact, it has been thoroughly
rattled by a recent series of legal reforms. Nestled alongside
policies that would see the red-light district scaled back by half,
new rules designed to restrict the sale and consumption of soft drugs
are on their way down the pipe; some have already arrived.

"I don't think there will ever be no coffee shops in Amsterdam, but
there will be less in the future," says Prem Chitaroe, who manages
Youth Hostel Meeting Point on Warmoesstraat, a bustling thoroughfare
dotted with weed-friendly establishments. "There has been and there
still is a lot of pressure from other European countries to stop the
semi-legalization of soft drugs. But also in the last few years we
have a [leading] party in the federal government that does not like
the use of soft drugs in Holland."

Indeed, the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party,
largest of the four-party coalition that currently leads the Dutch
national government, has been the driving force behind the recent
backlash against the acceptance of soft drugs that has been the norm
in Dutch politics for almost four decades. Nevertheless, the most
crushing blow to coffee shop culture is legislation that has broad
support in countries throughout the western world: a smoking ban.

Since the summer of 2008, it is illegal to smoke cigarettes in the
city's bars and restaurants. Smoking pot in coffee shops is still no
problem, but a milder grass-and-tobacco blend favoured by a vast
majority of local tokers is now a major no-no. Believe it or not,
coffee shop patrons who used to purchase weed and roll it with their
own tobacco are now being asked to leave the premises if caught doing
so. Consequently, the once-booming business of serving snacks and
drinks - often non-alcoholic - to red-eyed revellers, has constricted
significantly. "Since the smoking ban, people spend less money at the
bar," says Chitaroe, gazing upon a room full of resin-coated tables
that used to be crowded 24/7. "Most of the time, people are inside our
smoking room or outside the hostel, but not in the bar."

In addition to the smoking ban, the CDA has pushed through new laws
banning the sale of dried and fresh psilocybin mushrooms, which used
to be bought at "smartshops" along with other paraphernalia. While
they are far from pleased with the new regulations, the staffers who
once sold these hallucinogenic fungi are hardly surprised, recalling
the "fratboy" antics of tourists who would demand - in spite of being
warned of the consequences - large quantities of the most potent
shrooms and go totally haywire, ending up naked in a nearby fountain.

Most recently, the government has imposed limitations on the renewal
and transfer of coffee shop licences and mandated a minimum distance
from secondary schools. These measures remain relatively unpopular
among the general population, but in a city where each shuttered
business creates new space for lucrative residential or retail space,
the restrictions appear to be gaining traction. Nevertheless, the
movement to suppress the saucy side is nothing new - in fact, past
reforms have helped ensure the survival of the system.

"In the '90s, the local government discovered that a lot of coffee
shops were under the control of organized crime, and they started to
scale down the number of them and introduced a licence system,"
recalls Chitaroe. "There were also new rules about the amount of
cannabis that was allowed to be stored at each coffee shop. And there
were a lot of police controls in the coffee shops. As a result, some
lost their licences and shut down."

So while there have been brighter days for the city's marijuana
subculture, it's certainly not the first time the powers that be have
flexed a little muscle to keep the system in check. After all, while
coffee shop purchases are unambiguously legal, Dutch laws still
prohibit the commercial trade of soft drugs - black market or
otherwise - and grow-ops are routinely busted. This unique approach,
commonly referred to as "legal front door, illegal back door," tries
to mitigate the role of large-scale criminal trafficking operations.

"I think as long as you can buy soft drugs in coffee shops, and they
are checked and controlled periodically by the police, there will be
no increase of people using hard drugs," says Chitaroe. "But if the
tourists have to go to the streets to buy soft drugs, you will have
street dealers selling marijuana for a higher price and pushing to
sell hard drugs, which will cause problems. I don't think this will
happen in Holland."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D


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