Netherlands to ban tourists from marijuana 'coffee shops,' concerns over Amsterdam to

[Guest 10952]

Yes Moppel! I was one of those "tourists". 1 year. After that I seen Zeeland and the tulip fields. It also helps to learn a little dutch. Dank u wel and Alsjebleift well go along ways.

 

[BiG H3rB Tr3E]

i am getting so tired of all these tourists who went to amsterdam and stayed in the Warmoestraat and think thats amsterdam/holland.

I have said this so many times on icmag.....and still waiting on the first pm from someone to ask me for some info on other stuff in holland than the warmoestraat (read : Red Light District).

you guys are just lame tourist.....yea, i am sure your 20$ hotel isnt the best, and sure your 7,99$ meal wasnt the best you had in your life.

This coming HTCC we will organise a amsterdam smokeout , with dutch meals. Probaly 80 people will be "invited". To be continued........

Theres defintely fine dining and lodging available, not cheap but than again if you cant afford it, dont complain about it.

My only complaint with amsterdam is the poor qualilty of the herb. I dont understand why there isnt consistently high quality herb available. I know that its illegal to grow... but why grow shitty weed? ...and it amazes me how budtenders give such shit service.

i refuse to deal with any more coffeeshops. the people are pricks. the service is shit. the weed is trash. and the prices are unreasonable.

im from california. where for $50 you can get a medical marijuana card, come to my shop, be greeted by very friendly smiling beautiful women, examine and inspect as much weed for as long as youd like, try before you buy, purchase high quality, lab tested medical grade weed, hash and edibles at very reasonable prices. and leave feeling you just went to see a friend, rather than someone who just wants to take money out of your pocket

 

[Gastro]

After typing up the above...do you actually know @ what and whose expense they are what they are?

I do but I very highly doubt you do.

Because if you did you would not have written the highlighted above.

It certainly is absolutely nothing for the Netherlands to be proud of....and those reasons are veeeeery rarely published hence ppl with the limited knowledge such as you have like to believe what they are being fed.

No pun intended and no offense please.


But back on topic, not going to get in to a pissing contest here with anyone.


Edit/PS: I am going to give you one little hint, the rest you can figure out yourself:
Guess (since you did not know that while typing your little write-up) why Dutch Tomatoes, Cucumbers etc. for example look like they've been just picked - even weeks later and NOT coming from the fridge!
And you wanna eat that!?

LOL. Im sorry to say that GMO's are ILLEGAL in Europe to grow for food, you do know that? And if you are hinting at polish and romanian seasonal workers, that work in Dutch agriculture, heh everybody needs food on the table and they aren't working in some Chinese sweatshop with 7 year olds building iphones 18 hours a day.

Monsanto isn't as big in Holland as some people might have made you believe. Everything produced in Holland goes through good old fashioned selectional breeding in glasshouses that are 150 meters by 100 meters by at least 3 meters tall. The reason why tomatoes look and taste like they do is very simple they are strains to have been selected for high yields that look good and grow fast. If you dont believe me about that most of all industrial beans start there live in Holland, learn dutch and watch the following: http://beta.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1045373-boon
I would advise you to watch the entire series, plus the keuringsdienst van waren and Klootwijk aan Zee, and you will learn a little bit more about Dutch farming and Dutch foodculture.

Oh and yes i would happily eat Dutch Tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, strawberries, peppers etc.. etc.. grown in greenhouses, atleast i can be 100% sure they haven't been sprayed with Southern European or African Shit water and therefore covered with E. Coli.
Greenhouse growing is actually one of the cleanest methods of growing vegetables, it is a completely closed system, often rockwool (it might not be a strong point but given that bout 80% of the flavour of tomatoes is determined by the species and not by growing method it doesnt really matter) therefore extremely limited use of pesticides and herbicides.

Oh yeah you do know that when you keep tomatoes in the fridge it kills the flavour?
As for the "limited knowledge", look at our nickname and start puzzelling

 

[007.]

It's funny how every time a country (any country) is mentioned in a thread title, a xenophobe with a bone to pick has to drop in.

It is really sad to know that the next time I drop by to visit, I won't be able to smoke in the coffee shops of my youth. Does anybody know if this will affect entrance to the coffee shops, or just the little detached area where they sell you the dope?

 

[Rednick]

It is really sad to know that the next time I drop by to visit, I won't be able to smoke in the coffee shops of my youth in Leiden and The Hague.

You'll still be able to buy it on the street and smoke it there
When I was at a hostel in Rotterdam (?fraternity house being rented for the summer?), I was rolling up a cig, and they guy told me "you can't smoke that here".
"It's a cig"
"Okay, just no marijuana"
"Why? Against the law in Rotterdam?"
"No, house rules. You'll have to smoke it in the street"
Then long conversation, all the regular chitchat...
Then me "could I smoke a bong in the street?"
"Sure, but they probably would think you are smoking crack."

Or the Bartender in the Hostel outside Breda.
"Hey you can't smoke that in here!, you gotta go outside"
"Oh don't worry it's just tobacco, I wouldn't want any trouble with the cops."
"The cops?! They won't do shit! Its the bartender you have to worry about."

Or Bartender in Amsterdam.
"Can I smoke a joint in here?"
"Only if you buy a beer. People smoke, then they don't drink."
"Don't worry, I'll have a few."

Yeah, I think it will be awhile before the Ecstacy producing nations crack down on reefer.
Just a lot of Germans driving back with weight, is my guess

Hell, when I bought a sac in Prague outside a disco kid said it was from Holland. Not sure if that is just like when as a kid you get caught with weed and say you bought it off a black guy or mexican. I got stoned, though.

 

[Piel]

Amsterdam is nice even without the herb BUT Dutch food isn´t very good compared to any other European countries food -except British "cuisine" which sucks ape balla.

I´m not saying this to provoke anyone, it´s just my personal taste.

People have always been friendly but some are friendlier than others. Some budtenders are pricks I´ll have to give you that.

I´ve been to Amsterdam twice and it was nice but I grow better weed myself and Europe is big and full of adventure!

 

[gaiusmarius]

Theres defintely fine dining and lodging available, not cheap but than again if you cant afford it, dont complain about it.

My only complaint with amsterdam is the poor qualilty of the herb. I dont understand why there isnt consistently high quality herb available. I know that its illegal to grow... but why grow shitty weed? ...and it amazes me how budtenders give such shit service.

i refuse to deal with any more coffeeshops. the people are pricks. the service is shit. the weed is trash. and the prices are unreasonable.

im from california. where for $50 you can get a medical marijuana card, come to my shop, be greeted by very friendly smiling beautiful women, examine and inspect as much weed for as long as youd like, try before you buy, purchase high quality, lab tested medical grade weed, hash and edibles at very reasonable prices. and leave feeling you just went to see a friend, rather than someone who just wants to take money out of your pocket

i tell you the fact that you can't legally grow the bud or even half way in peace grow the bud, means that you get less and less quality. saw this happen over the years in Switzerland. back during the boom in the 90s when shops were selling openly, the quality went up something amazing. people started to take extra care with trimming, curing, strain selection to be able to sell their product quickly. but as the powers that be started cracking down again and closing places down left right and center the quality started going down. decent Swiss business men were replaced by criminal elements from the ex eastern block countries and setting up with nothing but turnover in mind and no thought given to quality. so i can well understand the problems they have in Amsterdam supplying the coffee shops with perfectly grown bud when they are risking long jail sentences for growing in decent size. when you consider that growers face worse punishments in Holland then they do in Switzerland, it seems amazing that they manage to keep the selection as big and good as they do. after all with a bit of care and attention you will still find some decent bud. while here the average bud you can find is all the same and is all trimmed by machine and flowered in 7 weeks. if not growing your own or getting from other growers you'll smoke middle quality here.

your shop sounds nice

i do find the staff in coffee shops can be a bit distracted some times, they could often use more help to keep every one supplied with food and drinks. but once they see you come back a couple of times they start getting nicer.

 

[Gastro]

Theres defintely fine dining and lodging available, not cheap but than again if you cant afford it, dont complain about it.

My only complaint with amsterdam is the poor qualilty of the herb. I dont understand why there isnt consistently high quality herb available. I know that its illegal to grow... but why grow shitty weed? ...and it amazes me how budtenders give such shit service.

i refuse to deal with any more coffeeshops. the people are pricks. the service is shit. the weed is trash. and the prices are unreasonable.

im from california. where for $50 you can get a medical marijuana card, come to my shop, be greeted by very friendly smiling beautiful women, examine and inspect as much weed for as long as youd like, try before you buy, purchase high quality, lab tested medical grade weed, hash and edibles at very reasonable prices. and leave feeling you just went to see a friend, rather than someone who just wants to take money out of your pocket

Its true, Quality has been at a constant decline for the last decade, but then the crime radar has shifted to weed the last decade under force of the christian parties, might also be a reason why every other part of safety and security has been wavering over the past decade.
I can understand the staff up to a point, coffeeshops are mostly busy, loads of people come over and becomes a bit of grind and pressure to get everybody served and keep repeating yourself the whole time, you know stoners , it can become annoying after a couple of hours. Its also a bit of Dutch nature to be direct and business minded.

The cali shop sounds awesome doh
I think the only shop that comes close to having top quality is Barney's at the mo, but then again you have to pay at Barney's aswell.

 

[elmanito]

LOL. Im sorry to say that GMO's are ILLEGAL in Europe to grow for food, you do know that?

Two varieties are allowed to grow in Europe, one is corn Bt and the other is a Soy variety developed by those Monsanto criminals.
All the non organic processed food in the supermarkets contains GMO ingredients, so buy organic which is also plenty available in the supermarkets nowadays.

Namaste

 

[Gastro]

Two varieties are allowed to grow in Europe, one is corn Bt and the other is a Soy variety developed by those Monsanto criminals.
All the non organic processed food in the supermarkets contains GMO ingredients, so buy organic which is also plenty available in the supermarkets nowadays.

Namaste

Only GM corn is grown in Europe, however it is Corn #2 and therefor not grown for human consumption but for livestock and as a base product for plastics and chemicals, but in europe its mainly livestock.

Hahaha hilarious, really do we get E.coli with that? 33 dead and rising - perhaps don't suggest to Europeans right now that organic shite is the bomb (other than a time bomb). We aren't particularly open to listening but try us again in 6 months PS last time I checked Bt wheat was allowed in the EU but perhaps they've allowed Bt soy. Last time I checked organic farmers use masses of Bt only through not dumping the shite on plants you reduce envrionamental toxins (i.e. Bt). Oh and as for Monsanto criminals - funny little story. Lived in Asia for years and had to put up with endless boring lectures about GM (mostly from American ex pats) but ask the locals and they're well chuffed because they now get an extra rice crop a year and have gone from impoverished to above impoverished and think Monsanto is a godIt's all a case of perspective.

33 grannies over the age of 80 died. In Morocco or Kenya these grannies would have never lived. As for GM Wheat it isnt grown anywhere, Monsanto dropped that idea in 2004, but most prolly will still be working on that.
Where in Asia did you live, it sure as hell wasn't India. The place where farmers commit suicide en-masse as a result of the Green Revolution brought to them by Monsanto. They were also well chuffed that they had loads of rice and grain, untill they had to pay the actual bill. Buying new seeds, pesticides and fertilizer every year, and getting less and less money for their crop. Like the American farmers, 1 by 1 they are going bankrupt, or in this case hanging themselves.

 

[Gastro]

Bali, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao and India. 5 years in total. I currently do a lot of business in India and China. Really have you ever been there and witnessed this yourself or is this just some organic propaganda you got from a website? Funny that because the Indos are paying their bills just fine And your facts are wrong on all counts. Oops the number just went up to 35 and they aren't all grannies as you would pitch it (not that that would matter in the death by organics fiasco). Latest breaking news...

Many are seriously ill with bloody diarrhoea and potentially life-threatening conditions such as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a serious kidney ailment.


The WHO said on Saturday that 812 people had HUS, 773 of them in Germany.


In Germany, some 100 patients have such bad kidney damage that they need an organ transplant "or will require dialysis treatment for the rest of their lives", said Karl Lauterbach, health expert for the Social Democrats party.


After several frantic weeks of searching, German authorities on Friday said they had identified the source as being vegetable sprouts from an organic farm in Lower Saxony, northern Germany.
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/german-e-coli-death-toll-hits-35-20110613-1fzl0.html

No, I get my information from slightly different sources; Navdanya, Vadana Shiva, and Indian activists. That these sources may be a bit coloured to fight their cause, is obvious, as does any business, like monsanto claiming GMO's are safe even if we have been only using them for barely 10 years.

But there is simply no denying the effects of the Green Revolution on India farmers, and there livelyhood. I don't call 17000 farmers commiting suicide a year, for nearly 10 years straight, paying the bill. Do you?

Neither, can you deny the effects of subsidies on corn in the USA. Or the subsidies in Europe on greenhouse farmers. The simple conclusion is; being a farmer nowadays means almost automatically that you are fucked. Most farmers have got huge debts, and no possible way to ever pay them off. Thats the price they pay for the people wanting ever cheaper food, and a food market that doesn't uphold economic principles anymore.

As for the German situation, Even if the E.Coli is a stronger variant than normal, the main reason for so many people dying is the obsession of cleanliness in the Western world.
It is like they say "When Europeans go the Egypt they get sick, when Russians go to Egypt they dont get sick." Too much cleanliness hurts your immune system to cope with even the most basic bacteria. And if it is an organic vegetable sprouts, then where the fuck does the e.coli come from? Vegetable sprouts aren't grown on open soil, there are no fertilizers, and its unlikely that it could be manure. It would be more likely that somebody didn't wash their hands properly, while handling those sprouts.

 

[elmanito]

Only GM corn is grown in Europe, however it is Corn #2 and therefor not grown for human consumption but for livestock and as a base product for plastics and chemicals, but in europe its mainly livestock.

This is the livestock which most people eat or the dairy products from.

BTW most GMO for the livestock comes from countries like the US or Argentina.

http://www.naturalnews.com/032407_Bt_insecticide_GMOs.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/032510_unborn_babies_GMOs.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/031977_GMOs_food_chain.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/031868_GM_soy_food_chain.html

Namaste

 

[Gastro]

This is the livestock which most people eat or the dairy products from.

BTW most GMO for the livestock comes from countries like the US or Argentina.

http://www.naturalnews.com/032407_Bt_insecticide_GMOs.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/032510_unborn_babies_GMOs.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/031977_GMOs_food_chain.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/031868_GM_soy_food_chain.html

Namaste

Yes that is true, but you should look more in the area of chickens and pigs, rather then cows. Luckily in Europe there is barely a culture of feeding Maize (corn) to cows, it is close to animal cruelty and endangers public health. Because cows can't process maize properly they get indigestion, which raise the stomach ph of cows (<< this is the animal cruelty part) in such a way that natural existing E.coli in Cows actually survives thereby potentially infecting meat and dairy.

 

[Gastro]

Reasonable points - to answer the latter question shit contaminated water and optimum temps and humidity for biomass proliferation.

"It would be more likely that somebody didn't wash their hands properly, while handling those sprouts."
Not possible given the numbers but possible in very rare circumstances and a few may become ill under these circumstances. I mean if a worker decided to shit in the water tanks perhaps but what typically happens is water is drawn from streams where bovine or ovine faeces have contaminated the supply. And no I can assure you that Russians would have become ill also. E coli strains 0104:H4 and its much better known close relative 0157:H7 produce Shiga-toxin.

I think who ever has told you about the evil Monsanto and their GM crops is full of it myself. I myself have issues with the ethics of GM crops (and definitely with Monsanto) but one thing I do know is that starving people aint starving no more so who am I to judge. One thing that particularly bores me is when no nothing do gooder tree hugging westerners get up locals and tell them what is good for them. Never heard of any of the people you are talking about - they obviously aren't too respected in academic and research fields

My knowledge of microbiology might limited, but i know my gram negatives from my gram positives, and can say that E.Coli isn't the strongest or most lethal when it comes to foodborn pathogens and toxins.
If it indeed is the sprouts a contaminated watersource would seem the most likely. It is an unlucky and very rare occurance, which could still be accounted to otherwise negligence of farmers and/or of the instances controlling food safety (which wouldnt be that weird, the Dutch VWA barely has a right to exists the way they are handling any food situation at the moment.

As for the names I mentioned, if you haven't heard of them, then that means you might not know a lot about the Indian Green Revolution. Since Vandana Shiva is one of the more important scientists and activists on this front.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva

And if you are looking for no good westerner treehuggers, you should be looking into Slow Food and their leftwing communist extremist antiglobalist dictatorial leader carlo petrini.

 

[gaiusmarius]

gm crops will produce 1 abundant crop, after that the soil is so screwed up that you can't grow anymore without lots of roundup and fertilizers being applied regularly making any benefits in yield vanish and worse, because now they have to buy monsanto seeds due to the gm seeds not ever producing more seeds that are viable.

farmers that had hardy land-races that thrived in the local environment with no ferts nor pesticides year after year. always getting next seasons seed as natures gift. are now getting into debt to buy all this expensive crap and end up committing suicide if they happen to have a bad season due to the unbearable shame of not being a good provider. when in fact they have fell for a Monsanto sales rep promising the moon and delivering a red hot poker up the ass. in form of their trans-genetic terminator seeds and the poison they sell with them.

having said all that, this thread is about the dutch coffee shops legal situation, not monsanto, lol.

 

[Gastro]

having said all that, this thread is about the dutch coffee shops legal situation, not monsanto, lol.

Yeah, we might have drifted a bit off topic

 

[Gastro]

Lol true - Holland has fallen but then I expect Europe will swing left again sometime in the near future (nothing like a good recession to get things straightened up where conservatism is concerned).

PS Verdana Shiva - yes look last time I checked a PhD in philosophy isn't a great grounding in science and research.

17.000 farmers that commit suicide each year, enough said.

 

[elmanito]

Is the wietpas legal? No, says lawyer Maurice Veldman. "The legal framework of the tolerance lacks the option of a pass system to which some people in government are invited to engage in criminal activity by their access to a place for soft drugs to buy." The mayor, predicts Veldman, has the judge on his way when he is forced by the minister to provide the wietpas.NRC Handelsblad

Namaste

 

[elmanito]

Cows in NL are given GMO-soy as additive besides grass.It was approved by the minister of Agriculture, in the US the cows get chicken shit to eat , but enough said about this issue, let's go back to the wietpas issue.

Namaste

 

[elmanito]

Love the way people try to have the last word by chucking in their piece and then pointing out others are off topic I mean what more is to be said on Holland? They came second in the world cup (whoop! whoop!), have good swimmers and used to have tolerant mj policy Holland is over...go Spain and Portugel!! I think it's great - I much prefer Spain anyway and the weather is much nicer. As they got sucked into the euro hopefully they can see the sense of ditching it (along with Greece) and cash in on the tourism they lost as a result of the euro.

We call that in Holland self-regulation, before this topic will be closed by a moderator, but be my guest to go to Spain, indeed the weather is so much nicer and the social climate is much nicer today than Amsterdam, although i hope you can stand the temperature right now.Try to get to Formentera, a very nice island nearby Ibiza.

Namaste & Adios