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dedbr

NETH: Dutch Ban Smoking Tobacco — But Rules On Marijuana Are Still Hazy

7/01/08/ The Times / Adam Sage

Coffee houses fear for their future as state allows marijuana to remain legal but bans mixing the drug with cigarettes.

Coughing and spluttering resonated around Tweede Kamer coffeeshop in Amsterdam yesterday as customers got to grips with new Dutch smoking regulations that prohibit tobacco but not marijuana.

“They're having to smoke pure weed now and they're not used to it,” Frank, working behind the counter, said.

“That's why there's all this coughing. It's going to be quite tricky.”

The Netherlands' unique approach to smoking was much in evidence yesterday as it became the latest European country after the likes of Britain and France to introduce a ban on lighting-up in public places.

Officials gave warning that offenders would face fines of between €300 (£240) and €2,400 (£1,900) if they were caught puffing on a cigarette in a bar, restaurant or café.

But government lawyers said that the legislation only applied to tobacco.

Cannabis remained subject to the country's famously liberal drug laws, which allow users to possess five grams without fear of prosecution.

Jurists added that the 750 or so licensed Dutch coffeeshops could continue to stock and sell a maximum of 500 grams of cannabis, and their customers could continue to smoke it on the premises so long as it is not mixed with tobacco.

“I'm going to be standing here watching them as they roll their joints now,” said Frank, who insisted that the new rules would be enforced at Tweede Kamer.

“If they put any tobacco in at all, I'm going to tell them to go outside.

“The only problem is that I'm a tobacco smoker

So I'll have to go outside myself for a cigarette from time to time.”

Not all coffeeshops were as laid-back as Tweede Kamer, however, as they reflected upon the impact of the ban on sales of pre-rolled joints, which cost €3.50 in most establishments, or hashish for up to €18 a gram.

Jason den Enting, the manager of Dampkring in Amsterdam, for example, was fuming.

“It's the world upside down,” he said.

“In other countries they look for the marijuana in the cigarette. Here they look for the cigarette in the marijuana.”

Amid fears that pure cannabis could prove too strong for users accustomed to mixing it with tobacco, other coffeeshops have been seeking alternatives.

Some have bought vaporisers that enable the drug to be inhaled without smoking it.

Others have been baking hash brownies and other delicacies containing their favourite plant.

But many have stopped customers from smoking altogether, which critics fear could signal the end of the coffeeshop industry.

( Sorry about your luck for the smokers of tobacco again......I never could ubderstand why a person would want to mix the two...... D )

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kinghelwig

Europe is Europe,The U.S. is the U.S. if we did anything that made any sense to the world, they would wonder what happened to the people over here and I would have to wonder myself.

LowRider

light weights lol. na but i guess if your used to mixing then ur used to mixing. however i like my pure

Buzzby

To people who have to worry about their marijuana consumption being discovered by the police, not mixing tobacco into your weed doesn't seem like a major sacrifice - if you can smoke marijuana legally. The Dutch, like most people, take for granted that which they're used to having, be it legal marijuana or smoking tobacco in public places.

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Researcher

On occassion I havemixed my sac of Kush with cigar tobacco I unbundled from a cigarillo---the sensation was a faster, racier type of high with immediaet onset. Also, I felt my lungs fill with smoke faster --maybe that the cigartobacco made the kush budz combust faster and my joint burn faster. It was like a sort of 'menthol' sensation. Does this count as legal or illegal in US? [I thinking Illegal] --in Amst. is this same?

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LiVeRpOoLFTW

i love those people~!~there my heros ~!~!~

dedbr

LLFTW.....

Who are your heroes? The guys who got busted or the Feds or the poor people who have to take their grief for them because even though they knew the consequences of their acts, they istead chose to snitch out their "partner's" and make grief for them and their families......

Also, when you post in the news forum, please, try to keep your posts understandable to all of us and on topic....................

Thanks.....


Some Where In Ded Land..............

Buzzby

Ded - Those things have nothing to do with the contents of this thread.

When you post in the news forum, please try to keep your posts understandable to all of us and on topic....................

SpiralArchitect

Ugh, I hate the misconception that marijuana is legal in the Netherlands. It's WRONG. It's still illegal because of international policies, it's just tolerated and decriminalized, NOT legal. You can't smoke in public, you can't sell it -- it's not legal.

That noted, I think banning all tobacco use in every cannabis shop is ridiculous. Why not allow the individual shops decide for themselves? Is it too much to give the individual responsibility and sole control of ones business to the owners?! Apparently so...

I don't smoke marijuana with tobacco (unless it's one of those rare blunts) so this wouldn't affect me, but I can see how it would affect those who have been 'mixing' their whole lifes, this isn't necessarily unfair to them, but it's certainly going to require alot of adaptation on their part...

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dedbr

Gee Buzz, I thought I was answering his question..... Did ya happen to think that maybe I was talking to someone else as well in this thread, old man?

Oh, and I don't have to keep 'em undestandable. As you've pointed out many times it's an impossiblity for me to do that.....

Please, now that we have the chit-chat over with.......

Can we continue....?

Or do you have any more jollies you need to get out tonight?


Some Where In Ded Land.............