Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: Netherlands Cannabis Details?
From: [e--ka--p] at [titan.arc.ab.ca]
Date: 16 Sep 93 12:31:21 MDT
Here is something I have from long ago.
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Bob Erkamp A L B E R T A
--> It Could Happen <-- R E S E A R C H
[e--ka--p] at [arc.ab.ca] C O U N C I L
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HEADLINE: The Corner Hashish Joint Amsterdam's 'Cannabis Cafe' Habitues Sip
Espresso, Nibble Pastries
Publication Date: Thursday December 10, 1992
BYLINE: JEFF KAYE
One of the great pastimes for many of the people who inhabit or
visit this picturesque city of tranquil canals and 17th-Century
architecture is to linger in a coffeehouse with a cappuccino , a
pastry and a big, fat joint stuffed with supercharged dope.
In hundreds of establishments, patrons can casually order up an
espresso, a chunk of Nepalese hashish and a side order of rolling papers.
Just say "Sensimilla," and you get a little packet of marijuana that the
purveyor promises will enliven the conversation at your table.
Marijuana and hashish are generally sold right next to the drinks and
snacks in the city's extensive network of "coffeeshops" or "cannabis
cafes," as they're also known. Sometimes the drugs are available at the
counter; sometimes they're sold by a guy sitting over in the corner.
There's always a menu specifying type, quantity and price, making
comparison shopping easy.
"It's just like going to a bar to have a drink," says Sue Medeiros, an
American belly dancer who has lived in Amsterdam for 17 years. "You go
into a coffeeshop to have a smoke. I don't do it myself, but I'm not
opposed to it. I think it's much better that it's all aboveboard."
Indeed, coffeehouses offering "soft" drugs have become so pervasive
and popular in Amsterdam that they've even splintered into sub-categories
that cater to different sorts of customers, like American bars.
At a dimly lit place called De Tweede Kamer (The Second Room), for
example, the atmosphere is reminiscent of a sports bar, with a noisy
all-male crowd sitting around smoking dope while watching Dutch baseball
on a TV affixed to the ceiling.
Chocolade has built its reputation around desserts such as homemade
cakes, fudge, chocolates and, for true snack connoisseurs, Rice Krispies.
The Otherside, decorated in high-tech modern, is considered the best gay
coffeehouse in Amsterdam and features 20 kinds of milk and yogurt shakes,
along with the full array of coffees. The extensive drug menu is
handwritten on a chalkboard at the front counter.
In many respects, Amsterdam's circuit of coffeeshops is similar to the
burgeoning coffeehouse scene in Los Angeles, offering a place for
people--mostly youngish--to relax, hang out with friends, listen to music
and consume something other than alcohol.
But where denizens of L.A.'s pik-me-up or Bourgeois Pig might
contemplate whether to get decadent and drop a couple of cubes of sugar
into their double-decaf capps, Amsterdam's coffeehouse habitues consider
whether they're in the mood for blond hash (a giddy high) or dark hash (a
serious zonking).
Although it's only 5 feet, 9 inches from floor to ceiling in this
stark basement room, the sign reading "Mind Your Head" is not necessarily
about avoiding a bump on the noggin.
This is the cellar of the Grasshopper coffeeshop, but not the part
where you buy coffee. This is where you buy the stuff to smoke upstairs
with your caffe latte and Earl Grey tea. Unlike most of its
counterparts, the Grasshopper has created a separate space for drug
sales.
The menu is distinctive: Push a button, and a wall-mounted display
case lights up, showing neatly organized little packets of cannabis, each
accompanied by the standard consumer information blurb.
There are 14 types of hashish, including "Kashmir," "Lebanon" and
"Zero-Zero," and a similar number of marijuana packets with names such as
"Grasshopper Special," "Skunk," "Purple Sensi" and "Thai." (Most of the
goods cost less than $10 a gram. As one police officer notes, "It's
cheap.")
An inflatable globe inside the Grasshopper's display case emphasizes
the international dimensions of the trade.
Over in the corner, behind a glass window like a bank teller, is the
friendly house drug dealer, Sander.
"I've got a secret for you," he says, smiling. He pulls out a
rectangular Tupperware container, which surely would have stored
yesterday's tuna casserole under different ownership, and opens the lid
to expose moist clumps of marijuana.
"You want a blast in your head?" he asks. "Just take a couple hits,
and in 10 minutes you won't know what you're doing."
The name of this off-the-menu special?
"Holland's Hope," Sander says.
Clearly, not everyone is enamored by this flagrant consumption of
cannabis, and many consider Amsterdam a sister city of Sodom and
Gomorrah. But finding critics within Amsterdam itself isn't easy.
"It's rather accepted in our culture," says Kurt Van Es, who reports
on the drug trade for the Dutch newspaper Het Parool. "When there is
opposition, it's aimed at hard drugs, or too much noise, or other
criminal activity."
Both the Dutch Ministry of Justice and the Amsterdam Police Department
proudly point to the coffeehouse scene as a social system that has
reduced drug-related crime and limited the number of people who abuse
hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.
"We see no harm in possessing or using soft drugs," says Ministry of
Justice spokeswoman Jannie Pols. Government research has shown that "most
of the people who use soft drugs don't use hard drugs," she adds. "And
they stop (smoking marijuana and hashish) after a certain age. We know
that."
With those conclusions and stats in mind, the government set out to
discourage cannabis users from getting entangled in the world of hard
drugs.
"We want to separate the market," says Pols. "That's why the
coffeeshops are tolerated. We hope people who want to try soft drugs
don't go to people selling hard drugs."
Toleration is an important word here, because none of this is
legal. Under the current drug law, the 1976 Opium Act, the importing,
trafficking and possession of cannabis are illegal. But possession and
selling of amounts less than 30 grams are classified as misdemeanors and
given minimal--read: zilch --policing priority.
That's not to say that anarchy prevails. The police strictly enforce
rules against selling hard drugs, selling cannabis to minors and
advertising. And complaints from neighbors can shut down a coffeeshop.
Police also have struck back at attempts to exceed the boundaries of
their tolerance. A factory producing something called "Space Cakes" was
raided and closed, as was an enterprising dope-to-your-door delivery
outfit called Blow Home Courier Service.
Between 20 and 30 coffeeshops are shuttered by police each year for
one reason or another, says Klaas Wilting, spokesman for the Amsterdam
police.
Ironically, the illegality of the drug business means that cannabis
cafes cannot be licensed, so anyone can open one and little is known
about how many there are and how much they earn.
Wilting guesses there are 200 coffeehouses in Amsterdam, "maybe more."
Journalist Van Es believes there may be as many as 400 and cites Dutch
government figures estimating the nationwide value of the soft-drug trade
at 650 million guilders a year, or about $400 million.
How does all that dope get to all those coffeehouses?
Don't everybody raise your hand at once.
"I don't know," says police spokesman Wilting.
"I can't tell you that," giggles Sander, the dealer at the
Grasshopper.
The Bulldog is credited as the oldest cannabis cafe in Amsterdam,
starting up in 1975, a year before the current drug laws were enacted. It
also appears to be the big success story of the coffeehouse scene, with
three outlets around Amsterdam, including one in the main entertainment
plaza, the Leidseplein. There's also a Bulldog cocktail bar, a Bulldog
bicycle rental service and a Bulldog souvenir shop that sells T-shirts,
denim jackets, caps, ashtrays, lighters, rolling papers and shelves of
other items, all emblazoned with the company logo of a cartoon bulldog
with a studded collar.
At the main Bulldog on the Leidseplein, right next to a giant Burger
King, the "house rules" are spelled out over the entrance in Dutch,
French, German and English. "No alcohol--No hard drugs--No aggression. By
not following the rules, you will be thrown out."
Inside, it is dark, crowded and vibrant, with rock videos blasting out
of the TV and customers chatting and passing joints. There doesn't appear
to be a nonsmoking section.
At the front counter are two young guys from Zurich. One sips his
coffee while the other rolls a joint in a fairly complicated manner that
involves twisting the cigarette paper into a cone and clipping off a
protruding edge.
"They are tolerant of drugs in Zurich," says one of the guys. "But not
like this."
It is not immediately clear where the drug sales take place in here.
But closer scrutiny reveals a man with a long black ponytail sitting
discreetly in the corner alongside a counter with three drawers. A
printed drug menu is on the wall above him.
The dealer, who says his name is Rowdy, doesn't want to talk much
about himself or his livelihood but is willing to give a few insights
during a lull in sales. He is 34, he's been dealing drugs for 15 years,
and he's part of a dealers' cooperative that rents the counter space from
the Bulldog. Sensimilla, a particularly potent strain of marijuana, is
the most popular item on the menu.
Rowdy doesn't want to discuss much else. But he would like to get in a
plug for the Bulldog.
"High quality and atmosphere," he says, sounding like a TV commercial.
"In Amsterdam, we're still the first and best."
This article is copyright 1992 The Los Angeles Times Home Edition.