Question by Jenny Z: How do you feel about a Zero-tolerance policy on cannabis in Amsterdam?
Zero-tolerance on cannabis in Amsterdam
http://www.webcastr.com/videos/news/Holland-gets-tough-on-cannabis.html
So what would be the point of taking a vacation there now?
A symposium on Dutch Cannabis tolerance is being held this week which could spell the end of a liberal attitude towards cannabis.
http://www.webcastr.com/videos/news/Holland-gets-tough-on-cannabis.html
Best answer:
Answer by Paddy O’Furniture
People go there for the pedophilia also. Ain’t Europe grand?
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wow thats the only reason people go to holland lol they gona lose hella money
I think it’s ashame anywhere if they allow you to drink why not fire one up??????
I can’t view this video right now. I find it very interesting that they would take this stand on this. I would be very interested to know their reasons.
Pro-drug advocates have for years used Amsterdam as a model of how legalization can work. There would be a certain period (about 40 yrs) of excessive usage, but it did level out.
Anyway, thanks for this. I will check it out later and then form my opinion.
That would suck ! That’s the only reason I’d visit the Netherlands !!
I doubt it’ll pass. They might get more strict on it, but I don’t think they’ll ever ban it altogether for the following reasons:
1. Banning something does not eradicate it, it just causes it to go underground, and when it’s underground, nobody’s checking it, so it’s more likely to be contaminated with nastier stuff than if it’s sold from legitimate, licensed coffee shops.
2. If the drug trade goes underground, the level of drug-related crime will skyrocket. While the Dutch are very compliant people, that doesn’t mean that everyone in Holland will be willing to abide by this new proposed law against cannabis.
3. It could be detrimental to the economy to ban cannabis entirely. By no means does all of Holland’s economy depend on cannabis, but it is an important factor, especially as a sub-factor of the tourism industry.
4. There have been rumours about bans like this before, and they never amounted to anything.
The video was about one town in the Netherlands that was going to shut down its coffee shops. NOT Amsterdam, and NOT the Netherlands in general.
Netherlands as a country has a policy tolerating cannabis use. One town’s ruling will not affect the rest of the country, and most major cities there have coffee shops.
It’s also possible that this ruling will be overturned as it attempts to take away rights given by the federal government.
This is not really news.
Firstly the video is about closing coffeeshops in Bergen op Zoom (I know it very well having spend most of the working week there for about 1.5 years), and mentioning Rotterdam
So in short it is true that BoZ (and other towns close to the Belgian and German borders) are closing coffeeshops down- why? not because of locals, but because of drug tourists hopping over the “border” due to different regulations in neighbouring countries. So far many towns have done this and it did not “solve” the problem – merely shifted it further north to the next town
Rotterdam has had to close about 50% of it’s coffeeshops in the last year as they were located close to schools.
Personally I think the policy is sound and sensible and for those that want to have a quiet smoke in a relaxed environment then why not. This is (at least in my opinion) the intention of the toleration law (therefore allowing police resources to target the hard drug trade).
However there is a BUT – after having lived in Amsterdam (I moved a couple of months ago) and answering questions in the Travel-Netherlands questions, you see how tourists treat the policies with an excuse to get completely wasted on beer and then go and get stoned, and then stagger around town or jumping into canals – making a bloody nusiance of themselves and spoiling the peacefulness of those who appreciate and value these policies – well you start to get cynical. This is what has happened in Bergen op Zoom and I do fear that the wrong kind of tourism will end up impacting more and more of the general public.
Realistically I don’t see a zero-tolerance policy coming into effect anytime soon, but do hope that people who value the policies for their real intentions stand up and put these idiots that abuse it, in their place.
EDIT – Ah ha, now I understand – you are not interested in the answer, just in getting clicks for your site hence why all your questions link to the same site. Spamming is against the TOS of Y!A and could well earn you a violation or more.