Drug Tourism In The Netherlands

[Woodman]

I'm sorry this post is not in Dutch, but I opened it here
because I wanted information that only people who
are actually in the netherlands would best know.

I learned recently that the government in the
Netherlands is moving toward cracking down on
drug tourism. It is my understanding that only pot
and pot-derivatives are sold openly in the coffee
shops, and mushrooms in smart shops.

I can’t see people traveling hundreds, or even
thousands, of miles just to smoke a little pot so I
suspect there may be another aspect to this that is
not being reported.

Are people actually going there to use harder drugs?

If so, what is it that attracts them (is it the quality,
availability, price, etc)?

[Benga]

well people do travel hundred or thousands of miles for being allowed to consume cannabis in a cafe, and they just hoard the coffeeshops especially in a town like amsterdam which has become some kind of cannabis merryland in some areas... Italians, in August, French, all year around, many others... it's not that far a people consider it worth it. Another motivation is the easier access to all drugs, generally of higher quality, safer prostitution and cheese...


Personnally i find this more depressing than not, like kids in a toy shop and the general tourist atmosphere in a town like Amsterdam i find terrible because of this ( fun for let's say 2 hours, then nauseating), but Holland has plenty of beautiful places, and dunes !


And SWIM used to drive 4 hours to Maastricht to buy weed and return the same night when he was 18, so...less drug tourist than a shopping spree, but still...


drug tourism is definetly a reality...

[freakybass]

Some friends of SWIM used to go to buy pills. Don't forget that holland
is one the greatest producer of MDMA in the world (It's not positive
<-- Fucking black market --> but it's a reality).

[Sick Jack]

The dutch coffeeshops are a real experience, there is a special atmosphere in Amsterdam for example. In fact I know too people who travelled to Amsterdam for XTC, but most of the people are travelling other there principally for weed and hash, and in some cases for shrooms too.

Amsterdam for example is a nice city, there are lot of things to visit. And on the other side, there are lots of coffeeshops, so in my opinion there are lots of reasons to travel to this country.

The former government in the Nederlands is a conservative one. They speak a lot, but I don't thing that they will really be able to stop the "drug" tourism, because lot of money is involved. This national government acts like this because of the pressure from their neighbour countries.

[Alfa]

The concept of strangers smoking joints and talking together in the comfort of a nice coffeeshop is very special. Talking about topics one would not in 'normal' social life. Good coffeeshops also offer a wide range of cannabis for the conneseur. One thing a drug tourist needs to be very aware of is that Dutch weed is STRONG. Tourists with white faces to stoned to be comfortable almost pasing out are a daily reality here. Many tourists are not used to this strenght and smoke to much. And those who do are normally not aware that in this situation they need to up their blood sugar level to get back on this planet again.

[Woodman]

Thank you, all, for the input.
I really do appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Sick Jack

...most of the people are
travelling other there principally for weed and hash,
and in some cases for shrooms too.

The former government in the Nederlands is a
conservative one. They speak a lot, but I don't thing
that they will really be able to stop the "drug" tourism,
because lot of money is involved.

This is similar to what I was thinking.

Unless people are dropping dead from O/D'ing on
the harder drugs, then I just can't see the validity in
trying to curb drug tourism.

If harder drugs (of higher quality) ARE more
available, and people are NOT O/D'ing on them as
much as they are in populations where they are
more heavily restricted, it stands to be used as an
example in statistical data that could undermine the
propoganda of drug control advocates.

In that case I can see Netherland drug control
advocates rushing to cover their asses on this issue
by enacting ineffective political policies then taking
credit for keeping the drug situatuion "under control".Edited by: Woodman

[Alfa]

The minister of Justice wants to ID all visitors of coffeeshops with a members ID pass. Yesterday, I have seen the first FINGERPRINT access machine inthe bestcoffeeshop of the province. After you place your finger on the machine it allows you to access the shop. I do not think I'll ever chill there again.

[armatitumor]

What purpose does IDing visitors of coffeeshops serve? Are only people
who live in Amsterdam allowed to visiit the coffee shops, or something
along those lines? Or are there certain laws against visiting
coffeeshops too often? If not, I don't understand the point of this.

[big-lester]

No they wan't ID because they can't sell to minors (-18).


You have to be 18 years old to buy weed in the netherlands (so stupid, you can buy alcohol here if you're 16)but if the coffeeshop does sell weed to minors and they get caught by police officers, the coffeeshop will get a warning and ahigh fine (at least I thought it was so)Edited by: big-lester

[Benga]

This summer I saw a few turnstiles outside coffeshops ( in Zandvoort and other places, not Amsterdam). They check you out and let you in if you look over 18, or card you if there is any doubt. Nothing like fingerprints, but still a change of atmosphere , especially when in most neighbouringeuropean countries you don't get carded for entering a bar or something, unless you really look young.

[Alfa]

Originally Posted by big-lester

if the coffeeshop does sell weed to minors and they get caught by police officers, the coffeeshop will get a warning and ahigh fine (at least I thought it was so)

No, the coffeeshop will get shut, if caught selling to minors. The idea behind the Donner(minister of Justice)pass for coffeeshops is to allow sales to Dutch people of legal age only. But I do not think that will ever work, because then he'd create a new market of private shops, where foreigners can buy. No government official wants that.

[armatitumor]

Originally Posted by big-lester

No they wan't ID because they can't sell to minors (-18).


You have to be 18 years old to buy weed in the netherlands (so stupid, you can buy alcohol here if you're 16)but
if the coffeeshop does sell weed to minors and they get caught by
police officers, the coffeeshop will get a warning and ahigh fine
(at least I thought it was so)

Oh, I didn't even think of that. That makes sense then I guess.

[big-lester]

Originally Posted by Alfa

No, the coffeeshop will get shut, if caught selling to minors.

But here in my town (Haarlem) there are sertain coffeeshops that have
been caught with selling to minors and they had get a "yellow card" and
a big fine and a warning that if they sell to minors again that they
will be shut. There's a nother problem with selling to minors,
sometimes there're minors who standing a few feet away from the
coffeeshop and asking adults if they could get something for them in
the coffeeshop, the problem of this is that the coffeeshop can only
send those minors away but if the police sees that some adult is
getting out of the coffeeshop and giving the minors weed that they just
bought in the shop, they will also get caught with selling to minors.

This is a big problem for coffeeshops, there's is even a coffeeshop
here that has its own people walking the streets around the shop
searching for these minors who are asking adults and send them away
with an angry message

[Woodman]

It is my understanding that the Netherlands has tried to separate the
markets for illegal drugs; to keep users of “soft drugs” (pot, hash
mushrooms, LSD) away from dealers of “hard drugs” (heroin, cocaine , meth,
etc), and to avoid marginalizing drug users.

Do you think that Dutch policies have succeeded in separating these
markets, or has the atmosphere of tolerance actually allowed these “harder"
drug markets to grow in such a way that has perhaps facilitated a greater
awareness of drug use (and safety) among the general population?
Edited by: Woodman

[Pinkavvy]

Is the same quality marijuana that is found in the coffeeshops also available on the streets for cheaper prices and/or larger quanities?

for example, if swim wanted to pick up a few oz's to last swim's whole vacation in the netherlands, would it be cheaper for swim to seek it outside of the coffeeshops? Is the quality the same? Is prices the same? Is the best deal just to stock up at the coffeeshops?

[daeron]

it is possible but for a tourist really not recommendable...swim personally saw how a couple of kids bought a shitload of purple haze, but they thought they were buying northern lights...anyho they both passed out like a catholic priests in a disneyland. plus it coulda been just homegrown.


if you want quality go to the cofeeshops. if ya want good value of money dont go to amsterdam


as for the drug tourism swim really dislikes it, holland is much much more than just weed,dude and if one is only inclined to visit the neds cause of the weed than one is a very poor man indeed.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />


plus swims kinda sick of looking at fucked up brits running into the canals, if youre there to smoke at least you should act like a homo sapiens

[Pinkavvy]

swim plans on going to the dam for some site seeing and to visit a few friends. the problem is swim partake in vaporized, smoked, and eaten cannibas all day long and does not expect to change his habbit while on vacation. it's a spiritual thing for swim to partake in herb from wake up to pass out. swim doesn't want to spend much of his vacation wasting away in a coffeeshop, so swim will probably just buy enough to last the whole trip when he first arrives. should swim buy a bunch from a coffeeshop or risk the streets? is the quality differance very big?

[daeron]

on the street the quality varies grately,especially in adam; swiy could buy enough weed for a couple of days in any cofeeshop. mind you weed in holland is VERY strong, when swim first came to holland a grm of WW would last a long time....and dont start rolling big fatties right away, damn these days swim smokes little tincey wincey joints.


anywayz have fun!

[Pinkavvy]

So how much better is the weed? I mean, swim is spoiled in the states. It's not like swim smokes regular chronic in the states, or wastes time with beasters (bud from BC.) Swim smokes bubble hash, hash oil, budder hash, and some of the best strains available in the states such as Pineapple Dogshit, Juicy Fruit, NYC Deisel, and Blueberry all the time. Swim is used to what known as a humbolt pinner which is joint rolled up to about the size of your middle finger, and just as fat or fatter. Having friends that grow some of the best strains in some of the best places in north america, is swim still in for a shock when he smokes weed from the netherlands?

[daeron]

well since swim is the only one spammin the thread here, he spent some time in SF bay area and had more than enough opportunities to smoke well about every stupid name the guys could think of (mind you swim doesnt know if it was the real thing,especially when he later tried purple haze in holland), so when he went to holland he thought "shit yeah, im gonna roll myself a fattie blunt..." and of course it was white widow, nedless to say that he went (back)to bed around 11am on his first day there.


but on the other hand swim doesnt enjoy weed as much as swiy does, so swiy may not be in for a shock but he is definitely in for a nice suprise. of course that also depends on the strain and the coffeeshop.





and getting back to the topic, woodman i really do think that this has helped a lot to take the market out of the hands of the criminals. everyday swim sees kids(well yknow 18-19yr olds) going happily to the coffeeshops, kids who have gullable idiot written all over their faces. same thing with the smartshops. then he thinks what would happen to them if weed wasnot decriminalized.


i am positive if there was some way to decriminalize mdma the % of the criminals involved in the whole process would drop immensely.


if swim was to answer this question as an objective observer the holland experiment was and is acomplete success!


there are a lot of things i dont like about the dutchies(in general)but for this i gotta give them 2x





PS sorry guys for all the eng chatter, but if i was to write in what i would like to imagine that is dutch, well....lets say i really cant go further than vlaai an dank u,*embarrassed*lolEdited by: daeron

[Boyv]

Originally Posted by daeron

on the street the quality varies grately,especially in adam; swiy could buy enough weed for a couple of days in any cofeeshop. mind you weed in holland is VERY strong, when swim first came to holland a grm of WW would last a long time....and dont start rolling big fatties right away, damn these days swim smokes little tincey wincey joints.


anywayz have fun!

I also think it's the quality and the availability that makes people come to the Netherlands (especially Amsterdam) to get themself some drugs. Most of the marihuana is of pretty nice quality, though I wouldn't buy Purple Haze (outdoor grown), I don't like it that much. For as far as I know spacecake is pretty popular with the tourists from the United Kingdom.


Another thing is of course the tremendous producing of amphetamine-derivates, with XTC as a main product. The quality and quantityof E can't be better in any other part of the world. Last year only 1% of the produced XTC (according to lab results) contained other substances than MDMA and binding chemicals.


As last I wouldrecommend you to contact someone in the Netherlands to get some E or other drugs for you if you want to, so you don't have to buy it at the streets. I think that of all countries, the Netherlands has the most availability of the most popular drugs, but you have to know how to get it. You can buy marihuana, psylocibine-bars and such in shops, but if you want to take some E, speed, coke or other drugs you have to hit the streets, and that can bring some risks. The little smelly dudes in Amsterdam that try to sell you XTC on every corner of the street don't have quality most of the time and probably hook you up with a pill that doesn't represent our quality of E.

[Alfa]

Originally Posted by pinkavvy

So how much better is the weed?

White Widow goes up to 26% THC. According to THC tests.By way of comparison; bunk weed is somewhere around 6%. Good weed is over 13%.


Amsterdam is 50% more expensive then the rest of the Netherlands. Other very nice places: Maastricht, Arnhem, Nijmegen &Haarlem. Place to avoid IMO: Venlo.

[daeron]

Originally Posted by Alfa

Maastricht

mmmmm "heaven"

[Pinkavvy]

Originally Posted by Alfa

White Widow goes up to 26% THC. According to THC tests.By way of comparison; bunk weed is somewhere around 6%. Good weed is over 13%.


Amsterdam is 50% more expensive then the rest of the Netherlands. Other very nice places: Maastricht, Arnhem, Nijmegen &*Haarlem. Place to avoid IMO: Venlo.

The Pineapple Dogshit strain out of oregon state (USA) has had thc tests indicate a mid-twenties range with the top cola's reaching 26% as well. This is a strain that swims smokes regularly. there's closeup pics of this strain in the curing section of the marijuana growing thread.

[big-lester]

there are also some sertain hash types in the netherlands like Ice hasj
that are very very VERY strong but also very expensive. 2 joints of
some very good Ice hash will get you wasted as 2 grams of WW. Don't
know the % of Ice but I think it will be like 30% or maybe more