xxdr_zombiexx

Cabinet moves to ban super-strong cannabis
Expatica | 9 April 2004

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch cabinet decided on Thursday to ban the sale of super-strong homegrown cannabis if a commissioned study reveals that the soft drug has become too powerful.

Ministers also decided to ask municipal councils to restrict as much as possible the sale of cannabis from coffeeshops near schools and political borders.

But opposition party Labour PvdA said the cabinet plan was "unwise" and that soft drugs should remain controllable. A spokesman said if soft drugs became illegal, authorities would lose supervision of their trade and use.

Research by the Trimbos Institute for Addiction indicates that the THC level — the workable agent in cannabis and hash — has increased significantly over the years, meaning that Dutch-grown marijuana, Nederwiet, could now be considered a hard drug.

Nederwiet is an extra-strong variant of marijuana. It is grown in professionally-equipped greenhouses and is often referred to as skunk. It is much in demand in Dutch coffeeshops.

And in its annual Drugs Monitor report, the institute said last month that the THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) level in Nederwiet has increased to 15 percent compared with 9 percent in 1999. The increase is due to professional growing techniques.

Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner, Interior Minister Johan Remkes and Health Minister Hans Hoogervorst urged the cabinet to conduct further research into THC levels and investigate a possible ban on the sale of strong cannabis.

Deputy Prime Minister Gerrit Zalm — who spoke on behalf of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who was on a State visit to China this week — said the cabinet's cannabis legislative proposal will be presented to Parliament next week, newspaper De Volkskrant reported.

The legislation proposes further research into the health effects of strong cannabis and toughening jail terms for large-scale cannabis cultivation from four to five years.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

__________________
Torture Good, Healthcare Bad, Marijuana Evil.

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

WNB

So by that logic, hard liquor should be banned too, right?

I don't see how this ban could be enforced, and I don't see the point of it. You can get just as stoned with lower quality weed as you can with higher grade stuff. And it's not like the high grade stuff is dangerous or something. You can't OD on THC, and apart from maybe getting an unpleasant case of the spins, what exactly happens if you smoke too much? Nothing!

__________________
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

xxdr_zombiexx

Amazingly stupid and ridiculous ain't it? Very American solution to a non-problem.

First - drinking is legal, and we all know LEGAL MEANS GOOD.

The Law is INFALLIBLE. Cigarettes are good - smoke up: they are legal too.

Cannabis is against the INFALLIBLE LAW so it's baaaaad, mmmm-kay? If it wasn't bad, why would it be against the LAW?

Next - I dont think I get as stoned off schwag as I do off midgrade, and I was toasted royally by that killer herb I had recently. (HAD...past tense) The less one smokes to achive a desired result, the better, really.

No - can't OD on THC - many people would have died at my college alone.

This is a glaring example of US influence, as far as I am concerned. The US Fed has hated the Netherlands freedoms for decades. Look at the lies that have been spewed about them under McCaffery - mr. Unmitigated Disaster.

I also think it has a lot to do with undermining the FACT that the less people smoke to schieve a desired effect, the more the comparisons with tobacco are shown to be empty hyperbole.

So often we hear the "1 joint is equal to 5-10 cigarettes" (or whatever: it's not like it's consistent), a propaganda ploy to both equate pot smoking with tobacco addiction while, wierdly enough, supporting the tobacco industry, in whom the Fed is deeply invested. (Pension funds, ect...)

It is the essence of ignorance for people to repeat this nonsense, but...that's Reefer Madness!

Johnyapplseed

And what about Hash with thc levels sometimes up in th 40% range?

Marijuana use tends to follow the same type of social paterns as alcohol use so that is a fair comparison I would say,
the smoke isdefinatly no more harmfull than that of tabaco with its nicotine and don't forgett the added chemicals. The smoke is often held in the lungs longer by the marijuana smoker, however the overall amount of material smoked is less. that is to say If your matching somone who smokes a pack or more of cigarets with a joint for each cig, it is no more harmfull and damb I'll be impressed.
like doc said stronger bud = Good buz without the weezing

JohnyA

__________________
Free A Mind Seed The Planet

DaDornta

Higher quality weed means less smoke in your lungs, and less time TRYING to get messed up....

Logically, super-potent weed is probably more healthy!

Marijuana has this neat little feature: you want to naturally quit when you've had enough. I've never seen anyone just got nuts with a bong and an ounce of weed and smoke themselves into the hospital. It just dosen't happen.

When you get high (if you do so more than a few times) you start to know when you've had enough, and when your just wasting the weed. After a certain point you just can't get any higher...

With alchohol or beer, you can drink to much to fast and die...I don't think even if you loaded a charcoal grill full of hash bricks and stuck your head inside you would be in any real danger.

Pot isn't dangerous. Ideas, words...people. They are dangerous.

__________________

reggie_the_dog

If this new proposal becomes law even hashish will be covered. Only hash with 6percent or less of THC will be allowed. Pure hash has betweeen 40 and 50 percent THC from what I have read so in order for hash to be less than 6percent the coffeeshops will have to sell polluted soap bar hash that has been cut with things like dirt, pine tar resin, animal crap, henna, shampoo or with other drugs like Ketemin, opium, heroin etc (there is some real ****ty black market hash in europe, by contrast the Netherlands produced nederhash is pure hashish in powder form (no agents added to get it to stick in a bar form), sadly this new proposal from the government of the Netherlands would forbid pure hashish and require that shops sell polluted hash that is cut with other things. This means of course that most Dutch people will just buy their weed and hash underground.

Personally I have gotten roughly as blasted off of an ounce of schwag as I have off of an eighth of top quality kind, so I think that low thc weed is worse for my lungs because I smoke so much more of it.

dapoopa

The latest from Nol van Schaik:

http://www.channels.nl/phpbb/viewtop...=5144&start=30

Minister Zalm, Finance, in on the coalition, but a VVD man, has stated the following:

"We have accepted Donner's proposals, but the main issue in this is the coffeeshops at the borders, and the coffeeshops near schools.
The THC percentage will be researched, but nothing will change until it has been proven that cannabis is causing physical and mental harm. It will take years to get all this research done, so there will not be a ban on high THC Ndereweed in coffeeshops for a long time, if it ever will be."

This means the measurements will not at all apply on Haarlem, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, Utrecht, etc. Only our colleagues in the border areas have to take care. Coffeeshaop had to move 200 meters from schools in 1997 already, they did, the few that did not, better do it now!

That's all for now, come on over, roll up strong THC joints and enjoy!

releafer

Well I guess they don't want me to search for the best, so I have to smoke less? Smoking low thc pot makes no sense unless its all there is! I'm real tired of all these concerned idiot citizens...........how big a gun can I buy? And where do these idiots live?

I'm getting real tired of the idiots that want me indebted to stuff and idiot politicians that want to distract me from the freedom of ingesting any thing thats natural to earth as we are! I'm tired of all the hysteria about education , war, and who's dumb-a$$ god is better!

WE ARE ONLY HERE FOR 100 YEARS OR LESS.....LETS MAKE IT A GREAT PLACE TO BE......rather than a fearfulcontrolingbiggoted THING!

ITS SUCH A SHORT TIME ON EARTH THAT ITS OVER BEFORE YOU KNOW IT!

Bellatrix

I have a friend who lives right next to the Dutch/German border and this kind of thing always makes him laugh. He says that the border coffeeshops are such a moneymaker that the courts or government wouldn't dare touch them. Maybe someone living in Europe can back this up (reggie the dog, s'il vous plait?)

Remember folks, the Dutch gov't is right wing enough to be part of the "Coalition of the Bribed, Threatened and Coerced" in Iraq, so this is probably just more lip service from them to their Prohibitionist overlords. Even the dreaded smoking ban barely touched the coffeeshops in the end. Hopefully by the time this useless study is finished (if they even really plan on doing it) the Dutch parliament would have returned to its normal, tolerant and non-judgemental self.

__________________

Marijuana.com Community Posting Guidelines
Marijuana.com Article Submission Guidelines

FREE MARC EMERY

reggie_the_dog

When I went on vacation to Maastrich (which is 1km from belgium and 35 km from germany (I think within 70 km of millions of germans). While in this town I met many people from Belgium and Germany who came to get their personal supply. In some towns they have a problem with finding parking because of all the people that cross the frotier so they have built coffeeshops near the frotiers outside of some towns. I know the the prime minister in Belgium said people could go to the netherlands and come back with their own supply of 5 grams or less (they can also grow a single plant in Belgium too) so lots of Belgiums spend money in the Netherlands, most people I knew didnt have a problem with these people spending money in their town. PS IF if maastrich i highly recommend Cafe Kosbar. I also recommend taking bus 420 (really) into Aachen Germany to see the difference in archetecture between the Netherlands and Germany. Its a 40 minute ride from downtown Maastrich to Aachen. The tomb of Charlemagne is there. In Maastrich Also you can go Kayaking in the river Maas that forms the frontier between the Netherlands and Belgium. Or you can rent a bike and ride to Belgium and cross the frontier on a bike. There are brothels here but it is not like the red light district so this is a cool place to take family members that dont like seeing the prostitutes in the windows, peace.