No More Pot in Amsterdam?
June 7th, 2011
But you go for the coffee I bet
Pot enthusiasts around the world today are bracing for a new law that will bar foreigners from the famed Dutch coffee-shops beginning at the end of this year. By order of the Dutch Parliament, coffee-shops throughout the country, more famous for the multiple varieties of marijuana than the varieties of coffee, will be turned into private clubs for Dutch citizens only. This act is in response to the rise in drug crime in neighboring Germany and Belgium, which Dutch authorities attribute to drug smugglers coming into the country to legally purchase marijuana and take it back across the border.
Should this law be enacted, it would be a blow to all those who saw the Netherlands, particularly Amsterdam, as a mecca for freedom and personal liberty, even if one disagreed with many of the institutions that made Amsterdam internationally famous, such as the coffee-shops and the red light district offering….uh…companionship. Since the primary visitors of these coffee-shops are tourists, though not marketed as tourist destinations, many Amsterdam public officials are calling for the bill to either exempt Amsterdam or be scrapped altogether, citing the sizable impact the bill would have on Amsterdam tourism.
Our rebels will be able to smoke pot in the USA by 2019, which could turn Boston into the new Amsterdam if this ban holds up. Break out your Dutch phrasebooks, business is going to be booming…though maybe not in Amsterdam.
Ah well, they’ll still have windmills and tulips. Those are fun, right?
