The MarijuanaNews Report

By Richard Cowan

When I am in Amsterdam I like to sit in a coffeeshop and watch the people who come and go.

One of the first things that one notices is that most of them do a lot of "take-out" business, particularly late in the afternoon and early evening. Also, it is interesting to note that the Dutch government estimates that at least half of the cannabis consumed by the Dutch is not bought in coffeeshops, but from underground networks, similar to that in countries with full-blown prohibition.

Of course that does not mean that they necessarily smoke it alone. Just as people buy wine to go, and enjoy it at home with friends and family, for most people cannabis use is social – and there is nothing more "social" than sharing a joint or bong.

On my last trip there for the NORML tour in January, I was in the Grey Area, owned by my two American friends, Jon and Steve. It is a small place, very popular with Americans in particular, but at the "rush hour" there was an international crowd waiting in a line that sometimes started at the door. Most of the buyers got their five grams (the legal limit) and left, but others settled in at the little tables.

One woman was especially interesting. She was about fifty, very nicely dressed, and very professional looking. I introduced myself and struck up a conversation. It turns out that she is on the faculty of a University in New England and was there with her beautiful 20-something daughter. After getting over her initial hesitation she ordered from the menu and took her purchase back to the table where she and her daughter shared a bong.

It was not the first time that either had smoked, but it was the first time that they had smoked together, so these two very sophisticated ladies from two generations had gone across the Atlantic Ocean to share a bonding experience. Real family values, Amsterdam style!

Although I only had a very brief conversation with her, we also shared an experience. The same is true of everyone in the place, or at any of the other coffeeshops I visited. We all shared the experience of using cannabis openly in a casual setting without any fear. We shared freedom.

If one wonders how fundamental that urge really is, then there is another story about a "cannabis café" – as the Brits call them – in a town called Lancing, in Sussex south of London. The scene is entirely different.

There the people share cannabis behind barricades that the police smashed down for the fifth time last week. On one raid the police accidentally started a fire that endangered the neighborhood and once they even used a two-ton tractor to smash their way in.

Last November, a jury took two hours to acquit the café's doorman of the equivalent of a conspiracy charge – after it took the prosecution two years to bring the case to trial.

Despite all of the raids, only five arrests have been made, but there have been no prosecutions, and only trace amounts of cannabis have been seized. It takes the police at least ten minutes to break in and by the time they get in the evidence has literally gone up in smoke in the incinerator.

The UK actually has a much higher rate of cannabis use than does Holland, so there is obviously no problem buying or selling cannabis there. Supposedly there are also quite a number of other "cannabis cafes" in Britain, but none operate as openly as this one.

Back in 2002 I went to what was supposedly the first attempt to open a cannabis café in the UK, it was backed by Nol van Schaik of Haarlem and was appropriately called The Dutch Experience.

It did not end well, but its purpose was to provide a social venue where friends could get together and share the cannabis experience. It is extraordinary the risks people take or the miles that they will travel to share the experience of freedom.

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