The MarijuanaNews Report

By Richard Cowan

Well, my friends at HIGH TIMES may be a bit bleary-eyed today – from jetlag, of course – having just returned from the 2007 Cannabis Cup. I couldn’t make the trip this year, but I know that a trip to Amsterdam can leave one clear-eyed in a more important way. One can see that freedom works.

Unfortunately, there are still those who simply will not see. The prohibitionist party line insists that any reduction in penalties for anything related to marijuana will “send the wrong message,” and inevitably lead to everyone becoming addicted to something. Indeed, we are constantly told that even criticizing the drug war sends the wrong message. That may be why we seldom see anything in the US media about Dutch cannabis policies, unless it is wrong.

For example, earlier this month, the Dutch government announced that it was extending its medical cannabis program for another five years. With all of the controversy about medical marijuana in the US, an inquiring mind might wonder what was happening in other countries, but there was almost nothing reported in the US media.

We couldn’t make this up, but the most complete story about it that I found actually came from Pravda's English language Website.

The Dutch medical marijuana program actually began back in 2003, but as Pravda noted, “few patients, even armed with a doctor's prescription, bought the regulated weed since they could buy it at a third of the price in ‘coffee shops…’"

What Pravda did not explain was that long before the Dutch government launched its program, dozens of coffeeshop owners, led by Nol van Schaik of Haarlem and Wernard Bruining, the founder of the first coffeeshop, launched the MediWiet program, which allowed patients to buy at a discount of up to 50%.

Dutch Health Minister Ab Klink told parliament that pharmaceutical companies had “made progress in drug development,” and he wanted to give them more time.

"This development track will take years, but it can yield scientific evidence and give insight into the balance between safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis," he wrote.

"By making medical marijuana available as a raw material for five years, I want to give this track a serious chance."

How different this is from the US, where patients are still being arrested for using whole cannabis, but Marinol (synthetic THC) is on Schedule 3, and is advertised as being better than medical marijuana.

Two more points from Pravda: They accurately report that “after 30 years of the Dutch tolerance policy, usage rates here are somewhere in the middle of international norms - above those in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, but below those of France, Britain and the United States.” (See: MarijuanaNews: International “Prohibition Situation Report”)

But they also have a howler worthy of the UK press, saying that Amsterdam’s “emergency services are taxed by smokers who experience panic attacks after trying unexpectedly strong weed.”

Over-stoned tourists are a minor problem for coffeeshop owners, but they know how to deal with them without calling the “emergency services.” (An ice-cold Coke is the best “antidote.”)

Also, last July, the Dutch government said that smoking cannabis will not be threatened by the ban on tobacco-smoking in restaurants and bars which takes effect on July 1 of next year.

The Health minister said, “If we want to stop our policy of toleration, we should just do so, and not use the ban as an excuse.” However, Klink insisted that the counters where cannabis is sold must be smoke free. This is a bit silly, but it remains to be seen how it will be enforced.

As with medical marijuana, the Dutch approach is both pragmatic and humane. It is obvious that we could learn a lot from their experience, if we only would look and listen.

For those of you who did not make it to the Cup, there will be another opportunity to learn first hand about the Dutch experience early next year. I have been asked to help lead NORML’s Sensible Amsterdam tour January 18th to the 25th.

It will be a much smaller event than the Cannabis Cup, but that is not all bad. In any case, the most important thing that anyone will learn is simply how it feels to be free. Join us if you can.

Richard Cowan is the former National Director of NORML and currently the publisher of MarijuanaNews.com. Email him at Cowan@MarijuanaNews.com