Dutch Government to Ban Tourists From Cannabis Shops

FLskwat

VAPOLITICS!
@ OhThe Agony: Thx for the info Bro'...and you see I was not that wrong! ;)
I'm telling you we are meeting this year!
 
FLskwat,

OhTheAgony

here for the chicks
Haha, that could be fun FLskwat, + it would also save me some shipping costs :lol:

But I think the keywords here are in the statement the local governement made which technically means you could just sue a coffeeshop if they refuse to serve you just because you're French. What it comes down to is that they have no legal grounds to refuse your bussines and until they find a legal way I just don't see any bans happening. It could take years before they work out a way to make this happen so that all parties agree, and in a few years we elect another governement and who knows, perhaps that one won't even support the whole idea.

I still think they have a long way to go before they can refuse your business my friend, enjoy the freedom while it's there ;)
 
OhTheAgony,

akwardsauce

gold all in my chains...dont believe me just watch
i dont know what happened, but the one & only time i went to amsterdam (5 day stop over on my way to india with a friend) BOTH of us really didnt get that high.

at that time, i usually smoked "regs" or "mids" and occasionally some high grade stuff. i was never an all-day every-day smoker...but probably like a bowl a day like 3-6 times a week. my friend was a heavy high grade smoker. sometimes he would pick me up on his lunch break & smoke 2 blunts of high grade stuff. this was not cali - this was michigan.

anyways, we went during like january/feb of 2005 i think. we stayed there for 5 days & 4 nights, smoked EVERYWHERE...pretty much this was our plan for all day every day. i didnt even make it to the heineken factory like i wanted to, but did go to ann franks house. went to barneys, rasta baby, grasshopper, blue bird, baba, and a bunch of others that i cant remember...all through the red light district & we were staying in the victoria hotel (or whatever is right across from the train station & little river). we hit ganja, hash, space cakes, brownies, hot chocolates, bowls, spliffs, blunts, joints, bongs...everything except vaporizers...smoked out the whole floor of our hotel room even...& could not get a SATISFACTORY high compared to the mid grade stuff of michigan.

i then went to india after, where i happened to get very poor quality weed (i believe it was the WHOLE plant all blended up) & actually got high from that. also the hash in india got me a buzz.

well we discussed it and were VERY confused by this...

he told me that he later went to amsterdam & got very high (i didnt go with him that time)...so can anyone relate to this or explain it?

its not like we didnt know how to get high at the time...it just DID NOT WORK!!! we still had a great time walking around & seeing everything but it just wasnt as fulfilling as we thought it would be...

and trust me we were thinking of every possibility of why it didnt work & evidence against those possibilities, too:
- we bought the wrong stuff: but we tried our own & the stuff that locals were passing around
- our tolerance was too high since we smoked before our flight: that didnt seem to matter in america, though
- we went during a bad time of the year when there wasnt good stuff: but i was getting way higher off of leaves/stalk/buds all crushed up together (in india)
- we didnt use the right method: we did everything except vaporize...we ate it, too
- we have a different reaction to amsterdams ganja: but we BOTH didnt get high

it was a weird experience...we both didnt really analyze it until we got back...we just kept buying & trying while there, didnt feel it, and just kept going along with it...we mentioned to each other a few times that we werent high, but we just went to the next place...

i heard stories from other people who went to amsterdam & got FADED, but it never happened to us. even my cousin told me he stopped there on his way to india, had a 6hr layover, took a taxi to centraal, made 1 purchase & had to smoke it all before he went back to the airport. he said it was white widow & he was sooooooooooooooo stoned...

still makes no sense to us...anyone care to try & explain?

trust me, we were looking for ANY explanation for it...just made no sense...
 
akwardsauce,

akwardsauce

gold all in my chains...dont believe me just watch
420Tom said:


by the way, by reading this article, it seems like it is done as an act of nationalism...its being pushed by the anti-immigrant party or something like that. i think there is a lot of that in europe where certain cultures want to "preserve" their way of life by not allowing immigrants to come in & bring pockets of their culture.

i had a long conversation with a german "nationalist" about this. at first i thought it was racism, but then he explained that he doesnt mind other ethnicities in their OWN land as long as they do not bring their way of life to his neighborhood. he even said that he encourages his countrymen to go to other countries to experience their culture.

not sure how i feel about this, coming from a melting pot country & being a different ethnicity within an "american culture", myself...but i have a feeling that is a little bit more stronger in europe because they feel like they have very old & traditional cultures that are fading away with immigrants. i love diversity but i can kinda see where theyre coming from...not saying i agree...
 
akwardsauce,

treecityrnd

Active Member
Interesting Update:

29 September 2011 Last updated at 14:08 ET

Marijuana-selling coffee shop owners in Maastricht have announced a ban on most foreigners in an attempt to prove wrong the conservative Dutch government's plans to restrict access to their businesses.

The government says the specialised tourism brings criminality and social problems and wants to limit access to the shops to locals who have applied for a controversial card.

But Maastricht's shop owners say the plan will hit the local economy and drive the problems underground.
 
treecityrnd,

weedemon

enthusiast
wow how retarded is that? tourism is gonna plummet!

he told me that he later went to amsterdam & got very high (i didnt go with him that time)...so can anyone relate to this or explain it?

maybe the indian strain was very exotic and different from what you are used to? I like to keep many different strains on hand so that i get a different buzz/taste each time. also helps to prevent building a tolerance to any one strain.

not sure about hte nl buds. that sucks :(
 
weedemon,

akwardsauce

gold all in my chains...dont believe me just watch
weedemon said:
wow how retarded is that? tourism is gonna plummet!

he told me that he later went to amsterdam & got very high (i didnt go with him that time)...so can anyone relate to this or explain it?

maybe the indian strain was very exotic and different from what you are used to? I like to keep many different strains on hand so that i get a different buzz/taste each time. also helps to prevent building a tolerance to any one strain.

not sure about hte nl buds. that sucks :(

ya that amsterdam thing is wack...at least i got to go experience it while it was possible. too bad it just wasnt very effective for me.

weedemon, i see what youre saying but we were both consistently getting high from ANY strain we found in detroit/india...i mean, shit, i would get a buzz off of the tobacco that was inside the spliffs that the locals handed us...trust me, ive thought of explanations like that just to make sense of what happened...but if you were with us or something, you would be just as confused as we were. trust me, we were trying to convince ourselves ANYTHING that would allow us to make sense of it...but it just didnt add up.

well, at least, amsterdam will probably have a huge boost in tourism before this is enacted in amsterdam centraal, & lets face it, it really doesnt change much of our daily routines at the moment (unless you live in amsterdam & have to get that card)...who knows how this may change things in the future...all future cannabis cups held in denver/LA?!?!!?
 
akwardsauce,

wilf789

Non-combustion-convert
treecityrnd said:
Interesting Update:

29 September 2011 Last updated at 14:08 ET

Marijuana-selling coffee shop owners in Maastricht have announced a ban on most foreigners in an attempt to prove wrong the conservative Dutch government's plans to restrict access to their businesses.

The government says the specialised tourism brings criminality and social problems and wants to limit access to the shops to locals who have applied for a controversial card.

But Maastricht's shop owners say the plan will hit the local economy and drive the problems underground.

That story is just the BBC being very slow on the uptake of a story that was mentioned on here ( http://www.fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php?id=6073 ) a while ago already.

Like I said in that thread, I really can't ever see Amsterdam itself changing their laws.
 
wilf789,

treecityrnd

Active Member
Wilf, I must have missed the part in the story you posted that referred to the coffee shop owners move being a form of political activism against the government decision.
 
treecityrnd,

djonkoman

Well-Known Member
I heard they're going to implement it beginning of next year around here...
wich sucks, since you can only get a card if you live in the same municipality as the coffeeshop
the cloest city with coffeeshops around here is leeuwarden, the capital of the province, at 10 km(7 miles or so), where I often go since a lot of my friends live there too, 13 shops there
but, it's another municipality(leeuwarden has it's own municipality, including some smaller towns/villages around it, but not mine)
and my municpality doesn't have any coffeeshops(there are 27 municipalities in my province, and only 3 cities with coffeeshops)

btw, I heard from a friend the rules are a bit different around here, in the netherlands coffeeshops aren't allowed to have more then 500 grams present in the building, but according to that friend in leeuwarden it's 999 grams instead, that ome of the coffeeshopowners got an agreement with the local government that the 500 grams limit is AFTER subtraction of the 500 grams in 'het gedoogbeleid' (the tolerancepolicy, the name of our weedpolicy here in the netherlands, altough gedogen isn't literally to tolerate, it's more a kind of hybrid between ignore and tolerate)
 
djonkoman,

Purple-Days

Well-Known Member
9Samurai mentions , "I have heard that Maastricht already operates a "no tourist" policy (have read reports of French, Belgians etc. being refused entry recently) and the shops all have ID scanners. "


Today's BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-europe-15134669

"A ban on some foreign tourists has come into force in the cannabis-selling coffee shops of the Dutch border city of Maastricht."
 
Purple-Days,

t-dub

Vapor Sloth
Interesting article in Treating Yourself, issue #30 2011 page 110. Article title "The Coffee Shops Remain Open to Tourists" Since it is not available online yet I will quote directly from the article:

"Thankfully this is an attempt at global propaganda and is totally untrue. The shops are open and ready for a summer filled with nice weather and good smoke.

It seems for whatever reason, CNN, The Guardian, and various other news outlets have been falsely reporting the demise of the shops."

Good news. I would love to go over there but alas, I do not travel well any more . . . sigh.

t-dub
 
t-dub,

t-dub

Vapor Sloth
Further analysis of the article provides the insight that the shops are safe for at least another 4 years from rules coming down from the Hague. It appears that the individual Mayor for each city has the right to decide what is the best policy for each city.

t-dub
 
t-dub,

djonkoman

Well-Known Member
yes that's what a doctor in rights or so from groningen also said according to an article I read a few months ago, it has to go trough the APV(algemene platselijke verordening, the local law), and many cities/municipalities have already voted against the card, altough they voted symbolically since the minister continues with it even tough everyone is against

they have practically illegalised indoorgrowing a while ago btw, the old policy said that with 5 plants or less it's considered unprofessional and no prosecution, now even if you have under 5 plants and you aply to 2 or more points of a certain list you get prosecuted, and if you use a tent and lights indoor you already aply to 2 points
this is only one sentence that's written a bit different, but this is the effect

I wonder what will happen, the minister is going trough with it so it all depends on if the minister finds a way to get it implemented or that it comes to court and is dismissed...
 
djonkoman,

t-dub

Vapor Sloth
djonk, why is it that politicians around the world just can't seem to stop messing with people just trying to get along? I thought it was just a USA thing (brainless, corrupt officials) but it appears that a lot of politicians around the globe are dirt bags as well. I hate driving into California because you get to meet the "Fruit Police". Last time we were told not to take the little stickers off our pears before we "used" them. The guy was lecturing us! Filled with self-importance and very stern, what a joke. Now, contamination of the ecosystem is NOT a joke, I get it. I don't mind stopping at the agricultural check point, what I object to is the attitude from the staff at these places.

t-dub
 
t-dub,

djonkoman

Well-Known Member
jep the problem I often see is that there is a realworld problem, to solve that problem regulation is made that captures the problem, after that everyone strictly looks at the rules but loses the meaning behind it, forget about the actual problem

and ofcourse there are the plain brainless laws like the illegalisation of weed
 
djonkoman,

OhTheAgony

here for the chicks
I started a threat about this subject a while ago, but there didn't seem to be to much interest at the time:

Ban of foreigners in Dutch cofeeshops


Anyways, right now I'm more worried about another proposition that is made today. It's about banning marijuana with over 15% of THC to the list of hard drugs thus making it illegal again. CDA and PVV are already for it, as well as the VVD it seems.

Not sure if google translate can make anything of these but I'll post 'm anyways:

nu.nl

nog meer nu.nl

Most weed sold in our coffeeshops contains between 15 and 18% or so I've read, which means coffeeshops would be forced to go back to inferior quality and people who want high grade meds will be labeled as harddrug users in the future. For me it would mean I would have to go back to growing my own, which is still illegal here. I fucking hate politics.
 
OhTheAgony,

FLskwat

VAPOLITICS!
OTA: As stated by a few persons above it seems like the ban will not be effective as soon as stated in those different articles (November 2011) . Can you give us the last updates on the subject cause I'm turning 30 years old this sunday and we planned to have a few days in NL with my wife before the ban is running...but if it's still hypothetical...
 
FLskwat,

OhTheAgony

here for the chicks
Where will you be going FLskwat? I know they are running a test right now in Maastricht. But it's an initiative from coffeeshop holders who are against the new plans who's goal is to prove a ban on Foreigners in coffeeshops won't work with their temporary action.

Sorry if that has been mentioned before already btw, I didn't read most of this thread.

You'll most likely be fine in any other Dutch city anyways. Just come to Leeuwarden and I'll show you guys around ;)

Oh, and a very happy birthday in advance in case I don't run in to you again before Sunday! 30 is a wonderful age man.
 
OhTheAgony,

FLskwat

VAPOLITICS!
Probably Dam...no Maas planned. Damned you live North...How long from Amsterdam to your place more or less by car?
Thanks for the B-day greetings bro'!
 
FLskwat,

OhTheAgony

here for the chicks
You should be fine then.

My country isn't that big, I can do it in an hour or so if i want to. A little more perhaps during rush hours.
Paris is about 6 hours for me if I step on it.
 
OhTheAgony,

wilf789

Non-combustion-convert
OhTheAgony said:
I started a threat about this subject a while ago, but there didn't seem to be to much interest at the time:

Ban of foreigners in Dutch cofeeshops


Anyways, right now I'm more worried about another proposition that is made today. It's about banning marijuana with over 15% of THC to the list of hard drugs thus making it illegal again. CDA and PVV are already for it, as well as the VVD it seems.

Not sure if google translate can make anything of these but I'll post 'm anyways:

nu.nl

nog meer nu.nl

Most weed sold in our coffeeshops contains between 15 and 18% or so I've read, which means coffeeshops would be forced to go back to inferior quality and people who want high grade meds will be labeled as harddrug users in the future. For me it would mean I would have to go back to growing my own, which is still illegal here. I fucking hate politics.

Here's a BBC story on what you mentioned mate: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15225270

Actually starting to get me a bit more worried than the initial stories about just banning foreigners in Maastricht.

When are your next elections - ones that will influence those who have the power to make these decisions? (I'm not sure if it's local/national government or a mix of both who decides)

Let's hope that the influence of the far-right parties has lessened by whenever the next elections are!
 
wilf789,

OhTheAgony

here for the chicks
Our next elections will be the 13th of May 2015, a bit longer then I hoped for to be honest, but I guess our current society may need some time to get fed up with this right winged conservative bullshit before they can make the right choices again. History shows it seems to come in waves here, every other decade or so our government seems to tighten up and become more right winged, but they usually loosen up again over time & protests. I think The Netherlands is just to liberal in general to put up with this crap for too long (it's not just mj related, just look at the recent ban of the burka in public for instance). Lets just hope our society hasn't changed to much over the last few years and it's still that way.

It seems like the coffeeshops will be the first to be held accountable for the THC content of their product. There will be random tests across the country for THC levels and if a coffeeshop sells anything containing more then 15% THC they will fined largely. I still don't get how they expect the shops to check the THC levels, I doubt everyone has the means to do so but we'll see. Big changes usually take time which gives us a window to look for loopholes and such.

I can see this lead to government controlled growing and distribution of marijuana eventually though. I don't know how long that will take but imo it's just a matter of time. Fuckers.

As for me, I already ordered some feminized 22% THC producing Vanilla Kush seeds to start with, screw this bullshit. Lets hope it won't lead to a harddrug conviction in the end, lmao.
 
OhTheAgony,

FLskwat

VAPOLITICS!
So had 2 days in Dam for my 30 years old.
So, it's like Giuliani became mayor of Dam after NYC, LoL... no more crackheads, no more hardcore travelers and street dealers trying to sell you whatsoever... and I must say, I appreciate that !
ABout the tourist ban...nothing yet over there, I went to all the coffees I wanted to, no ID scan, nothing!
Had a great time over there as usual, and the discovered a new coffee I would recommend: The Resin. Very nice hashes, concentrates and flowers for affordable prices! ;)
 
FLskwat,

OhTheAgony

here for the chicks
Back already aye? Sorry we couldn't get together this time, but glad you had a good time!

I've been talking to several coffeeshop owners, but so far no one has heard anything form the government about the 15% rule yet and all seem very skeptical about it. No word about the ban of tourists either, but that's probably less of a concern here in the north of the country.

Did you happen to see any hash oil in that resin place and if so, do you remember any prices?

My fav place when I'm in Amsterdam is Siberia btw, but it's been a while since I been there so I'm not sure if it's still the same atmosphere.
 
OhTheAgony,
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