cannabisfarm.org
Going Dutch

Holland appears to have its own version of our prohibition pushing Souder and Walters. Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Health Minister Hans Hoogervorst, under pressure from outside governments including the US, have been messing around with Holland's 30 year old defacto legality of cannabis coffeehouses.

Nol van Schaik, owner of "Willie Wortel Cannabis Shops"; and its Hempcity website sent out a translation of the latest news. Donner and Hoogervorst attempted and failed to get the cannabis cafes shut down by promoting legislation restricting smokers to outside the establishments, and then by restricting them to local consumers only.

Their latest scheme is to ban cannabis with high content THC called Nederweed in the cafes and reclassify the plant as a hard drug. At the same time the Amsterdam City Council is calling for legalizing the production of Nederweed to get it out of the hands of criminals.

Donner and Hoogervorst propose further US style provisions such as increased penalties for possession, school zone enhancements and eliminating all cultivation of the plant, which is now allowed by licensed growers. These proposals are promoted as based on health and safety concerns of course, however their practical effect would be to put supply into the hands of a few big criminal organizations and create a prison gulag of non-violent consumers, not unlike our own.

The good news is the Amsterdam City Council will present it case to the legislature a day before Donner and Hoogervorst push their prohibition plans. One hopes the contrast in logic will continue to be apparent. Meanwhile the Willie Wortel's Sativa Shop is still in business and is building a bed and breakfast on top of the shop.