cannabisnews.com: Smoking Ban Could Close Cannabis Cafés 





Smoking Ban Could Close Cannabis Cafés 
Posted by CN Staff on May 28, 2003 at 22:22:15 PT
By Andrew Osborn
Source: Guardian Unlimited
For the Netherlands' famous network of cannabis-peddling coffee shops the high times could be about to be stubbed out - for good. A tough new anti-smoking law due to take effect from January of next year is about to turn the Dutch work place into a smoke-free zone and coffee shops are not exempted. Under the new law every company in the country must ensure that their employees are not exposed to tobacco smoke. Lighting up a joint in one of 800 coffee shops therefore faces extinction from 2005. 
Coffee shops will still be allowed to sell joints but their customers will have to go outside to smoke. Unsurprisingly the country's marijuana retailers are not pleased. "We might as well just shut up shop," Dick Langereis, the manager of two Amsterdam coffee shops, told the daily Trouw. "Just let them try and enforce this in the Hague," added a man called Gilbert who runs a coffee shop in the city of Nijmegen. However a spokesman from the Dutch health ministry told the Guardian that the law will be rigorously policed. "Consumer authorities will carry out random spot checks," he said. "Coffee shops are just like any other companies - they will have to follow the law." Customers could scarcely believe their ears yesterday. "They've got to be out of their minds," said Annemiek van Royan, a regular at the Kashmir Lounge in Amsterdam. "The best part is coming here to relax. It makes my day." The first Dutch coffee shop opened in 1972 and although cannabis is technically illegal its use and sale has been tolerated ever since. "The point of going to a coffee shop is to smoke," said Arjan Roskam, chairman of the union of cannabis retailers. Some have floated the idea of heated outdoor terraces to get round the ban. "We only employ smokers," said Mr Langereis. "If you work for us you are a smoker and all our customers are smokers so this is just crazy." Coffee shops had a turnover of €300m (£220m) in 1999, the latest year for which figures are available. Source: Guardian Unlimited, The (UK)Author: Andrew OsbornPublished: Thursday, May 29, 2003Copyright: 2003 Guardian Newspapers LimitedContact: letters guardian.co.ukWebsite: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Related Articles:Dutch Ban on Smoking Hits Pot Businesseshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16428.shtmlDutch Marijuana Joints Take Hit from Smoking Ban http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16427.shtmlDutch Celebrate 30 Years of Legal Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14861.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by afterburner on June 01, 2003 at 15:01:44 PT:
reverend Ferre
Welcome to Cannabis News. I at least have not heard from you before. It's good to get the insider's view of events in Amsterdam and Holland. I look forward to future posts.ego transcendence follows ego destruction when the will of the people is recognized again in government.
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Comment #6 posted by rchandar on May 30, 2003 at 23:32:48 PT:
tobacco-free coffeeshops
wait a minute, respondent--also remember, the CDA is the only party against coffeeshops. last april all of the other parties called upon the cabinet to legalize cannabis outright--there's always been a kind of see-saw, left-right debate about what the dutch policy really should be. you can't expect one small country to uphold for the entire world the dream of marijuana liberation. the dutch know this, and they don't think they're "the center of the world," even though a lot of us would like them to think that way.every couple of years someone powerful gets mad about the dutch coffeeshop policy. it will probably survive, but making it work for other countries should be our immediate priority, and especially getting to where we could have a favorable UN vote on withdrawing from the UN treaties against cannabis. Countries should have the right to determine their own drug policies, plain and simple.i don't know. we always seem to lose at the moment when it seems slightly possible to draw victory.
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Comment #5 posted by Ferre on May 30, 2003 at 12:51:48 PT:
I don't think so...
All this is not "in place" yet! The Dutch government, at the moment there's hardly any difference between "our" ministers Balkenende/Donner/Zalm and Dumbya/Asscroft/Rumpsfelt. The formel Dutch governments have never in history "sold out" so clearly, and against the will of the people as this one now is doing. It's not only this "non-smoking" law they push down our throuths, it's also an agreement they have signed that give the DEA more rights on our grounds than our own police has!
This past invasion of Iraq has turned the majority of the Dutch people to question the motives of the U.S. politics in general, Only those asslicking c*nts that are in charge now(also due to a political trick btw) are even giving our rights away to a, for most Dutch citizens, fascist regime. This is what's happening here in Holland, NOT JUST AMSTERDAM folks, the Netherlands is a little bigger than that, and as long as a Dutch government doesn't have the support of the people here,..in practical terms,..very little they can do.I really don't see how they would ever succeed in making coffeeshops smoke-free. I'm a member at some Dutch "stoner" boards and I can assure you from the sounds I pick up there the people are not going to let it happen, just the same as the people don't let them "criminalize" The Herb. And yeah, there have been MANY "friendly" trips to NY by our latest two majors, they are using the NY "zero-tolerance" system in Amsterdam now, having "raids" in the streets, getting stopped on every corner with your car, razzia's in places where people go out in the weekends, it's all getting common now in Amsterdam.Btw, I'm reverend Ferre, Dutch and rev. at the Amsterdam Cannabis Ministry. Besides the pleasant buzz, the medicational use, we also use The Herb as sacrament.Have a Happy day,Ferre
Amsterdam THC-Ministry
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Comment #4 posted by rchandar on May 30, 2003 at 01:55:31 PT:
tobacco-free coffeeshops
the law calls for workplaces to be tobacco-free, not "smoke"-free. the people responsible for the law and the Ministry of Health say this specifically is in reference to tobacco, NOT marijuana. the coffeeshops will just have to stop people from smoking tobacco. maybe they should sell "pure" joints and encourage more pipe smoking.of course it stinks!!! the cafe is part of history!
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Comment #3 posted by Jose Melendez on May 29, 2003 at 09:01:05 PT
Smoking Linked to Memory Problems
from:http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA7T3UUAGD.htmlSmoking Linked to Memory Problems
The Associated Press 
Published: May 29, 2003WASHINGTON (AP) - Another study suggests smoking is bad for your brain: Researchers tracking the health of almost 2,000 British adults found heavy smokers had poorer memories in middle age. 
People in the British study are in their 50s, far too young to know if the memory decline will translate into dementia when they're elderly. But testing so far suggests that heavy smokers who survive smoking's bigger threats - lung cancer and heart disease - into old age may be at risk of serious cognitive decline, the researchers report Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health. (Snipped)
complete article
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Comment #2 posted by lag on May 29, 2003 at 06:30:14 PT
Think about the kids
That's all fine and good, 312, but what if my sister wants to bring her kids there...she certainly doesn't want to expose them to the harsh second hand smoke.Oh wait, it's not like this is a bowling alley, it's a place where people go to smoke...expect it. Sorry, I was just trying to think of their argument for making it mandatory even for places made for smoking. I wonder if a location can petition to get smokers status. Did they get this idea from New York, or did NY and Amsterdam get talked to by the same Americans that are fueling our drug war.Again, I will say this...stop wasting research on the negative affects of Cannabis...something people willingly smoke despite the negative affects of burning material in general, and start looking into more subtle issues like Partially Hydrogenated oils, something people can hardly avoid.
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Comment #1 posted by 312 on May 28, 2003 at 22:59:45 PT
Problem 'solved'
Maybe coffeeshops will become like banks, with glass screens separating the customers from the vendors. The goods could be passed through a mini air lock and whenever the staff wanted to clean up in the room, they could put on enclosed breathing apparatus so they could only breath in smoke free air while working. Then, on their breaks they could wander in and have a smoke with the rest...Coffeeshops could employ a policy of allowing only vapourisers, hash or weed smoke, and if anyone did smoke tobacco, then the owners could say, "I told them not to smoke tobacco," or, "I had a sign up." The residual smell of weed in the paint in these places is usually so strong (nice) that you can't tell if anyone has smoked tobacco.Do those coffeshops in the Dam that sell alcohol get an extra year to change?All these passive smoking 'problems' really are a non issue. I have smoked in a room that had a fan in the ceiling which filtered the air. I laughed at first when I saw the smoking corner was open on to the rest of the room (a cafeteria) and thought that all the smoke would fill the room. You couldn't even smell the person next to you smoking, they were that good.
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