Sorry to piss on your crunchy buzz.....seeing as it is 4/20 and all....but just a reminder to all who want pot legalized; it may not be the cure all answer to society's ills. Let's look at the Netherlands, who outlawed it not long ago and are in the process of reducing the coffeshops that sold the stuff:
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - This city's famed marijuana bars have weathered many challenges over the years and are still smoking. But now they face an unwelcome blast of fresh air: On July 1, the Netherlands will be one of the last European countries to ban smoking in bars and restaurants in compliance with EU law.
The Health Ministry says the ban will apply to cafes that sell marijuana, known as coffee shops. But this being Holland, which for centuries has experimented with social liberalism, there's a loophole: The ban covers tobacco but not marijuana, which is technically illegal anyway.
But that still leaves coffee shops and their customers in a bind. Dutch and other European marijuana users traditionally smoke pot in fat, cone-shaped joints mixed with tobacco.
Marijuana possession is illegal in the Netherlands, but smokers are not prosecuted for holding up to 5 grams. Around 750 cafes — half of them in Amsterdam — are licensed to have up to 500 grams in stock at any one time.The Dutch government, currently led by a conservative coalition with a religious bent, is slowly squeezing back the number of coffee shops by not renewing licenses when shops close.
Growers are arrested, leaving coffee shop owners struggling to obtain their main product.
*remember kids, a gram weighs the same as a dime....so five dimes= the amount of pot you may legally possess in the Netherlands. I also understand that they have had a lot of problems with mafia-like gangs controlling distribution to shops, almost putting a chokehold on the pot biz over there.*
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