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New rules for tourists

amsterdam | amsterdam, cannabis, coffeeshops, law, tourist information

The once so tolerent attitude of the Dutch governement has been altered last years. (Thank you EU). Due to new rules there are some restrictions for coffeeshops in Holland.

Because there are problems in border areas with drug offenders, all Dutch soon obliged to use a system with registered membership cards called a “weedpas”.

From 1 May 2012 these new rules will apply to the sale of soft drugs, so that tourists will no longer be able to buy soft drugs in the Netherlands.

Customers who live in the Netherlands and are registered with a Dutch municipality will only be able to buy soft drugs from a coffee shop if they are a registered member there.

  • The new rules will apply from 1 May 2012 in the provinces of Zeeland, North Brabant and Limburg.
  • They will apply everywhere in the Netherlands from 1 January 2013

Damn, it will soon become even easier in America to get a joint than in the Netherlands…

Oldest medical cannabis ever found

amsterdam | cannabis, medical marijuana, tourist information

In the Netherlands (out of all places) the oldest marijuana ever found is reported.
The weed is discovered during archaeological research. The old pot was found in a tomb from the Stone Age in the vicinity of Hattemerbroek (Gelderland).

Medical use
The tomb was found in 2007, but it took 5 years before it was scientifically determined which plants of the large amounts of pollen in the pit were. The yeti-weed is probably used medicinally due to the analgesic effect, as is now also happening again. Reason to assume this is because they also found  meadowsweet, a plant with a fever-lowering action. To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent.

oldest pot found in Holland4200 year old pot
The tomb has characteristics of the Beaker culture,
dating from the period 2459 – 2203 BC. 
Nearby was a child’s grave found in 2800 – 2400 BC. In the tombs are also cups, amber beads and jewelry were found. The Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen has these finds in  depot. Lets hope we can see more of this historic cannabis.

 

* to our knowledge the last mentioned “Oldest cannabis” finds – Gobi Desert about 700 BC –   were reported in 2008 by Discovery News.

 

how it started

amsterdam | law

History of the coffeeshops

How it started…

In the sixties you have got twelve months imprisonment for twelve cigarettes with marijuana. But when early seventies the exhausts of cars sanded on the Amsterdam streets because the boots were full of hashish, drug use was also for the Amsterdam narcotics brigade (two-man) unstoppable.

In 1970 there was a massive festival in a forrest near Rotterdam “het Kralingse Bos”, the European answer to Woodstock ’69.

One of the twelve undercover agents who was present at that festival, told how he saw a massive crowd “like Alice in Wonderland” walking, dancing and blowing.

 

Tolerance
It was then, for the first time in history, police decided not to intervene: too dangerous in a crowd of 90,000. And thus was born the tolerance.

Since 1976 the Narcotics Act has distinguished between drugs that pose unacceptable risks to public health (hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, XTC and amphetamines) and hemp products (soft drugs: hashish and marijuana). Possession, dealing, sales, production and so forth have been made punishable for all drugs, with the exception of medical, veterinary, instructional and scientific purposes, for which permission must be obtained. Offences against the Narcotics Act are punished severely, but the penalties for soft drug offences are less severe than those for hard drug offences.

Top priority is given to investigating imports and exports of hard drugs, and the heaviest penalties apply to these offences.
As far as its national legislation is concerned, the Netherlands is not only bound by UN treaties, but also by agreements made among the European states with a view to combating the narcotics trade.