Dutch Conservatives Crack Down on Coffee Shops

[payitforward]

I was dismayed to read this article. Seems that no matter where you turn there's someone after your given rights to pursue happiness...


Dutch Conservatives Crack Down on Coffee Shops

[Ferre]

The CDA has always been opposed to legalisation and coffeeshops. Nothing new but they may be a big party, they are far from the majority and coffeeshops will never go away, whatever they try to do about it.

At a side note, This comment on that article made my day.

[Ferre]

The CDA has always been opposed to legalisation and coffeeshops. Nothing new but they may be a big party, they are far from the majority and coffeeshops will never go away, whatever they try to do about it.

At a side note, This comment on that article made my day.

[DdC]

"Individuals have international duties
which transcend the national obligations of obedience ...
Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty
to violate domestic laws
to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."
Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, 1950

Dutch Conservatives Crack Down on Coffee Shops By Dara Colwell
CN Source: AlterNet October 12, 2006 Amsterdam  

For international travelers, Amsterdam has long served as a kind of nirvana. Considered a forward-thinking capital light years ahead of the rest of the world, much of the city's exceptional status is due its coffee shops -- essentially marijuana bars -- where smoking pot is perfectly legal. Coupled with other liberal sex and drug laws that have ensured a level of tolerance no European city can rival, Amsterdam has acted for many as a role model of what an enlightened 21st-century city should be.

But things aren't always what they seem. In recent years the Netherlands, like many countries around the world, has witnessed a rise in conservative power and with that, a corresponding tightening of its once-famous looseness. The legendary Dutch credo "anything goes" is increasingly becoming a thing of the past, and nowhere is this more apparent than in its coffee shops. Snipped... Full story clcik title...



"This is not a battle we're going to win overnight,"
"But we will chip away at the coffee shops,
greatly reducing their number over the next two years
until hopefully we can get rid of them altogether."
-- Marcel Maer,
Christian Democrats (CDA) spokesman - Britain's Sunday Times, 2002
Much of the push towards more stringent control can be attributed to the (CDA), the most powerful party in the Dutch coalition government, which went on the offensive as soon as it won elections in 2002. Headed by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, a devout Christian who blamed growing juvenile drug use on the cannabis industry -- even though the minimum legal age to enter a coffee shop is 18 -- the CDA immediately promoted a "zero option" on tolerance.



topic
by rchandar on October 13, 2006

There's nothing to this article--every couple of months, someone writes a summmary about how coffee shops are in danger of being wiped out by "tough on drugs" thinking in the Dutch government. The article for example, made the point about shops reducing in number from 1500 to 737. Most of this happened BEFORE CDA was elected in 2002. (In 2001, the number was 800).

The notion of a "Patriot Act" styled emergency closure won't happen, either: Europeans are very unwilling to adopt Bush's casual link of drugs to terrorism; Blair's document at the outset of the War on Terror completely confirms that the link is a studied, researched link with narcoterrorists only in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Morocco. (Most coffee shop cannabis is Dutch, and no hard drugs are dealt).

The raid method and the policy of "closing a shop permanently" for three consecutive violations in a year was also instituted in 1995. To say that they're enforcing now and weren't before is an outright lie. And Chirac? He's been complaining about "de plaag" of cannabis smuggling into France since he took office in 1997.

Oh, I forgot to mention. I see a lot of articles on this page, on [url=uk420.com]http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?act=home[/url] on Amsterdam cannabis-friendly sites, misreading the "tolerance policy."

Some of them say that smoking marijuana isn't legal, or that prosecution of small amounts "is a low priority" or "usually not prosecuted."

NO!! Read the Dutch government's official statement, published in 2003 and available from the Netherlands Consulate website: police WILL NOT prosecute small amounts NOR will they prosecute coffeeshop owners who follow the rules. And it CLEARLY states: "the use of soft drugs is not an offence." MEANING that SMOKING marijuana is LEGAL and POSSESSION is, by law, allowed. You only get in trouble with weed if you commit other crimes in Holland! It isn't that you should take the Dutch for granted--just behave and it is in fact okay. And that's not changing.

This article is nothing new. It shouldn't scare you at all. In fact, it should encourage you and your friends to understand how the policy will work in the end.



Please don't be offended...
by lombar December 11, 2005 cannabisnews.com

The greatest cause of 'psychotic' symptoms in the world is not substance abuse but religion. A meth head may become desperate enough to engage in 'psychotic' behavior, he may assualt or rob yet it was not herion junkies that flew airplanes into the World Trade Center. Junkies do not organize into cells and work to disrupt authorities. Our history is drenched in the blood of those who would not adopt the 'beliefs' of others, the drug war is no different.

What is it that makes one human believe he/she has the right to kill because others do not agree? It is not cannabis consumption. Hearing most politicians talk about drugs has the mistaken underlying assumption that they, the 'government', have the right to choose for others things they are prejudiced against. Drug abuse may be harmful to your health, power abuse is harmful to us all.

It is as if they assume a paternal role of authority with little responsiblity to see to our health. I am sick of it. Will somebody please explain to me how exposing the 'vulnerable' to arrest and incarceration via prohibition protect them? How society is protected by ceding a massive overvalued market to criminals and terrorists? The drug war is a massive waste and abuse of power.

After all the logical arguments are exhausted, it simply comes comes down to the assertion that I (we-any person) believe I (we) have the 'natural right' to grow and use cannabis. No matter how many people die or are killed, our 'belief' cannot be changed by anyone but ourselves. Since my 'belief' is founded upon what I 'believe' is compassion, desire for freedom for myself and others, based upon knowledge and experience, my 'belief' will not change. I do not 'believe' in narco-fascist pee-upon-demand police states to insure someone is 'approved' by the government.

The government, not being a 'person' cannot have 'beliefs' but laws. Laws which are motivated by the 'beliefs' of those who are supposedly servants of the people. Creating a non-human that can never have 'compassion' that is at war with a permanent percentage of the population can only produce suffering. Which is all the war on drugs does produce...oh and plenty of cheap drugs.



Bush Puts Faith in a Social Service Role May 5, 2000
Bush Religious drug treatment in Texas
Warning To States on Funding Faith-Based Charities

"Drug Addiction Is NOT a Disease. It's a Sin."

Straight, Incorporated (Thread)

THE DEMONIZATION OF MARIHUANA

HIGH SCHOOL, youngsters who turn to banditry for thrills, girls who leap from skyscraper windows, striplings who chop their parents to death . . . .The list of holdups, sex crimes, murders and suicides by marijuana addicts could be multiplied indefinitely. 

In some districts, inhabited by Latin Americans, Filipinos, Spaniards and Negroes, half the violent crimes are attributed to marijuana craze.  Dr. Lee Rice of San Antonio reports that eighty per cent of all the murders committed by Mexicans are done while the killers are drugged by marijuana.

Investigator found abandoned in fields in Iowa and Minnesota between 12,000 and 15,000 pounds of harvested hemp -- enough to make thirty billion [Marihuana] cigarettes and to drug the whole population of the United States.

[Marihuana’s] bodily reactions usually include muscular-trembling, increased heartbeat, accelerated pulse and a ringing in the ears.  Often the user feels hot in the head, becomes dizzy and has sensations of cold in the hands and feet.  Later he experiences muscular contractions, constrictions in the chest and dilation of the eye pupils.  These effects lead to either vomiting or stupefaction, followed by restless sleep filled with bizarre kaleidoscopic visions.

The influence of marijuana as a cause of crime would be hard to overestimate.  With the victim experiencing hallucination and violent rages, he is likely to run-amuck and commit crimes he would not have nerve enough to attempt if he were in his right mind.
THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY   - June 29, 1938

Drug War: Covert Money, Power & Policy: Propaganda
Prohibition is about economic and military power, not health.
It was the geopolitical utility of medical monopoly that saw it come to pass.

I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature.

They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.

Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned.

What has been the effect of this coercion?

To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.

Christianity... (has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man....

Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus.

These clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.

The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves.
Thomas Jefferson: President of the United States

Cannabis News Articles: Dutch

Nearly One In Eight US Drug Prisoners Are Behind Bars For Pot --
Taxpayers Spending Over $1 Billion Annually To Incarcerate Pot Offenders
NORML's Weekly News Bulletin - October 12, 2006

[rainbowbeamer]

Any, CON serve a tive and every, lives to FORCE a value upon one other, yet not theirselfs. It is behavior like rape, bullying, murderers (any scars on their faces yet) and worse - steeped in the enormous and the first magic power, to get over surely, that cheap entropic shot, to say plain 'ole no. Sold through fear and punishment it is the worst thing going, sell arms and crates armys, but probably still a yang-yin thing. Life is "just perfect" to the enlightned angel teachers types.

I'm for a totally unbalanced existence situation if my yin gets a CON serve a tive yang.

My comments just based on the thread title ... will go read other input now.

Uninformed question ... How do we eliminate this posion of CON serve a tism without draging ourself down to the level of imp, demon and jerk ourselfs ?

Self defence is a what ? A: survival skill. And done how ? A: feet, knees, teeth, claws, rocks, sticks, bow/arrow, knifes, sword, gun, car, nuke, invoking GOD, moving, going on strike - WHAT. ???? DARNIT !!! And better done sooner than what ? A: Later or after the injury.

How do we preempt this when CON serve a tives show up twenty to one as cops with weapons in a population unarmed ?

Dutch and English and French underground come up and on line now !!!

Sadistic/Bondageistic evil doers so unbelievable a honest person cannot believe this goes and walk away from you or finds those charges in court so unbelievable an innocent verdict come from attempts to get justice.

Average person has no capacity to understand or believe this until just before they are executed, harvested for organs, mutilated in sex acts or just plain ole canabilized for the hell of it by the deep sixers in CON serve a tive arenas. JFK phucked me up for life.


UH OOOOOOHHHHHH

Perfect no, but where I'd like to go Amsterdam to be free again to toke ..... See it is about the money, serving the money, money, money, money. License me, me, me, me , me, not you, not you, not you, not you, no, no, never you, not you, just me - JUST US (no justice again for foundation - just snakes slivering differently)

Free hand of market place please and equality, no legislation is worth a darn usually, to establish equality, I'll take my equality, no time to wait for you to give me my rights lawmonster, so keep it to the absolute minimum.