SOMA’S STORY:

BY SOMA

On Sept. 10, while I was in Spain, the police of Amsterdam raided my living space, where I had 11 magnificent cannabis plants growing on my roof terrace. I’d written several articles about them and the last thing I was doing was hiding them.

On Sept. 9, a young Frenchmen jumped out of the top window of the French Embassy. The Embassy is a block away from my apartment. The next was warm and sunny. My friend Asia, who was staying in my space while I was away, decided to climb onto the top of the roof from the terrace with a friend of hers who was over visiting. That was when my problem started.

Police and neighbors seeing two people on a strange part of my rooftop thought someone else was going to jump. They sent a team onto the adjoining roof, climbed onto mine and, finding no one who was committing suicide, were amazed to see my green beauties. They thought the 11 were 20. I had supercropped them all and they had many branches each. I trained them with stakes so they’d grow wide instead of tall. They could not be seen from off the roof. The police had no idea they were there.

Using the excuse that I had too many outdoor plants, they entered my private dwelling with no search warrant and started to search. They then arranged for a legitimate search warrant. The way the law is set up in Amsterdam these days, officers are allowed to enter your home if cannabis plants are seen outside (on a roof or terrace). The enforcers of the law use outdoor plants to get promotions. At least seven grows a week are busted in Amsterdam. As a result, cannabis is starting to get wiped out in Holland. When the day comes that cannabis can’t pay the rent anymore, the banks will crash, and tulips won’t be able to prop them up, not chocolate either; not even Royal Dutch Shell will be able to save the economy without the cannabis trade thriving.

The Netherlands has become a firm ally with George. W. Bush. All the dirty dealings that America is involved with are shared by Holland. Now this place is starting to feel like just another state in America, where police corruption is an everyday occurrence, and cannabis injustice abounds.

Soma Seeds is moving to Spain. I think the Spanish government will be more appreciative of my public relations and medicinal cannabis genetics, not to mention their economy. That’s why I was in Spain.

When the bust went down I was in constant communication with my lawyer Adel van der Plas. She’s the person who’s responsible for helping make ayahuasca legal in the Netherlands. I returned to Amsterdam on Sept. 23. Two weeks later I was ordered to appear at the Prinsengracht police station at 8 am on Oct. 7. I arrived five minutes early. I brought 50 grams of cannabis from the apotheek (pharmacy) that I have a doctor’s prescription for to treat the tongue cancer I’ve been fighting for many years. It works; it hasn’t spread or gotten any worse as long as I consume vast quantities of medicinal cannabis. Before going in I lit up a huge spliff in front of the police station. Photographer Ed Borg was there clicking pix. I entered the building, letting the last of my exhalation enter the foyer, and was immediately placed under arrest.

I was not allowed to wear my drawstring hemp pants for fear that I might hang myself, and was given a Chinese paper uniform instead. They placed me in a tiny one-man cell. I told them I needed my medicine. I’m in the jail for cannabis, and the jailers themselves have to administer cannabis flowers to me while I’m in police custody!

Two hours later they took my statement. Three officers, two men and a woman, interrogated me. I told them that cannabis is my medicine of choice and that I have a doctor’s prescription for 10 grams a day. I explained that cannabis is the sacrament of my religion and that I’m an ordained minister of the Church of the Universe (my Mission of Sacred Plants is an extension of the Church of the Universe of Canada).

I was also arrested for dried mushrooms. I had bought them all fresh from smart shops that are quite plentiful in Amsterdam. The Dutch government collects taxes on mushroom sales. However, when the mushrooms dry (they are sold “fresh”), you can be arrested for hard drugs in the same category as heroin and cocaine and be treated very badly. I told the police that the sacred mushrooms bring me closer to God and that at a monthly ritual my friends and I come together to pray and play.

I was handcuffed for the first time ever in the Netherlands, behind my back, and made to sit in the small backseat of a police car. I was driven to a jail where I was placed in solitary confinement for four days, over the weekend.

After hearing my side of the story, Judge T.J.M. Gijsberts ordered my release rather than keep me in jail for another 10 days as the prosecutor requested. Now I have the first religious cannabis case and mushroom case in Holland and I will fight it to my last breath.

Don’t get me wrong, I still adore the Netherlands. My beautiful granddaughter was born here in Amsterdam. The country enjoys great health care, good schools, very fine public transportation and cannabis freedom like nowhere else. Take that cannabis freedom away and Amsterdam becomes cold and damp, without enough nature or sunshine.

I’ve always looked at Amsterdam as the light of the world when it comes to sane drug policy, but not any longer. These laws in are so incongruous that the police don’t really understand them or know how to enforce them. I pray everyday for someone of high intelligence to lead the government to some sanity before it’s too late.

Soma Seeds will be competing in the 17th Cannabis Cup. Last year, Soma's NYC Diesel took 2nd place.