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Amsterdam 'No Toking' Signs Being Pilfered

Jahminded

Member
Amsterdam 'No Toking' Signs Being Pilfered
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/03/D8FHR5I00.html


If you can't beat 'em ... joint 'em? The City of Amsterdam has begun selling recently introduced "no toking" signs to prevent the official ones from being stolen as collector's items, a spokesman said Friday.

The signs were created as part of an experimental ban on smoking marijuana on the street in "De Baarsjes," one of the city's poorer neighborhoods. The measure, which went into effect Feb. 1, was intended to reduce loitering and petty crime.



"On Wednesday we placed the first sign, and it was gone the next morning," said Wim de Graaf. "We put up a new one Thursday, and it was taken the same night as well. That's when the idea came to us to just sell them."

The signs show two fingers holding a cone-shaped cigarette, with small white marijuana leaves on a black background _ all enclosed within a red circle.

The city is selling them for 90 euros each (around US$110), and plans to donate the proceeds to charity.

"We're selling them at not much more than they cost, so we expect profits will be modest," De Graaf said. But he added that the city has already had many requests for the signs, some from outside the city.

Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police don't bother prosecuting possession of small amounts. It is openly sold in designated cafes known euphemistically as "coffee shops." But people who smoke marijuana outside in De Baarsjes risk a euro50 (US$60) fine.

De Graaf said the signs can be ordered via De Baarsje's Web site.

"Now everyone can have his own 'no toking' sign simply by ordering them through the city," the site says in a tongue-in-cheek advertisement.





Just thought some would get a kick out of this.....
 

Jahminded

Member
See...being an American...I would take a look at that sign and think it was mandatory TO smoke there....or at least an invitation. Here in the states it would require a red line through the middle to make one think it was prohibited...:) I will plead ignorance.
 

guineapig

Active member
Veteran
yes i couldn't tell what it meant either.....i guess whatever is enclosed within the red circle is forbidden or verboten or whatever....

it kinda looks like a :ying: if you stare at it long enough....


-gp out
 
G

Guest

Damn GP, I almost used that tech ying yang as a top choice for my avatar. We must be on the same wavelength ahahah. Ever been to Adam?
 

Jahminded

Member
This is why discretion while smoking, even in Amsterdam, is a good idea. Lets all remember that cannabis is still technically illegal in the Dam and tolerated.
 

yum114

Member
maybe people were taking them cuz they didnt want the idea of not smoking in certain areas to come into play, not because they wanted one. By the way I also would think to smoke there cuz there isnt a line in the middle.
 
G

Guest

hey all

i hope that all of the anti marijuana stops. the us goverment needs to stop telling other countries what to do. they are behind all of it. good luck
 

Jahminded

Member
420KushMaster said:
hey all

i hope that all of the anti marijuana stops. the us goverment needs to stop telling other countries what to do. they are behind all of it. good luck


Ummm.....I dont think so. Not saying the US has not pressured countries in the past, but if the US had anything to say about cannabis in Holland it would definitely be more about the coffee shops, prostitution, pornography..etc..etc...

I dont think keeping people from smoking in public, IN HOLLAND, is high on the priority list of the US Government....but I guess anything is possible.
 

Ferre

Member
Those signs have only been placed at one spot by the Amsterdam authorities.

They have been taken down, the local government says they are 'stolen' but we locals know better.

Those signs are REMOVED by locals and we will keep removing them. If the town officials want to keep those signs there they'd better guard them 24/7

:pointlaug
 
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bloodshot

Member
Wow I really want to go to Amsterdam everytime I read I can legally buy/smoke it in a coffeeshop...thats just amazing.
 
G

Guest

These are actually cool signs, not like those crappy stamped metal lunch trays we call signs in the States. No wonder they were getting jacked. Hell, I want one for my toking room :D

Paz y mas...


 

Coverage

New member
Seems to me that they got a good thing going on in Amsterdam. And if there are a few 'rules' or laws set, like not toking in certain places, then it would be prudent to follow these laws. Why is that, you say?

Well, right now mj use/possession is technically illegal but not enforced - why risk messing up a sweet situation by taking advantage of the lax laws by overstepping the boundaries? Hell, if they allow me to toke in a coffee house - I'm thankful - and will do whatever I can to follow what few rules they set. Disobey the laws and they might end up shutting down the coffee houses for spite. That would bite big-time. :yoinks:


yum114 said:
maybe people were taking them cuz they didnt want the idea of not smoking in certain areas to come into play, not because they wanted one. By the way I also would think to smoke there cuz there isnt a line in the middle.
 

shopvac

Member
i see no problem with the no smokin in public, as far as i was aware it was uncourteous to smoke in public anyway. Children etc... even if we are allowed to choose weather or not to smoke it is still a good idea to teach a child properly imho before sending them out into the thick of it.

just my humble opinions :D
 

Ferre

Member
Coverage said:
Seems to me that they got a good thing going on in Amsterdam. And if there are a few 'rules' or laws set, like not toking in certain places, then it would be prudent to follow these laws. Why is that, you say?

Well, right now mj use/possession is technically illegal but not enforced - why risk messing up a sweet situation by taking advantage of the lax laws by overstepping the boundaries? Hell, if they allow me to toke in a coffee house - I'm thankful - and will do whatever I can to follow what few rules they set. Disobey the laws and they might end up shutting down the coffee houses for spite. That would bite big-time. :yoinks:


That's not how Dutch people think. not at all. And because we don't think like that we can have at least a little bit of freedom, we are not thankful for restrictions like that, and we are certainly not "thankful" for what our government "allowes", as far as Dutch people are concearned it's the Dutch people who "allowe" politicians to manage the country. It's bullshit anyway, there is no relation whatsoever between the problems that bored youth cause when they hang out on the same spot every day and their Cannabis use.

Instead of making those signs our local authorities could better have found a solution for the numbers of bored youth that hang around everywhere because there's nothing for them to do in a city.

the Dutch government has been cutting enormously in social structures since the Christian democrats are in power, most youth honks that used to exist were subsidiesed and most of them closed because of lack of fundings when the government desided that stuff like weapons and supporting Bush with troops was more important than social care and all they can think of to solve the problems they created themselves is restricting one area from smoking weed.

How stupid can you get?
 

ClosetMonster

New member
Heh.. Tommorow I goto neighboorhood with wrench and look for my new rolling table ;) I could probably turn profit... 2 sign a day 365 day 110 euro sign.. hmm... adds up to me
 
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