Drugs in Amsterdam

Turns out that drugs are not even legal in Amsterdam. They are 'tolerated' here. I don't know how this works with the police - i.e. who decides what is appropriate or not but things are pretty standardized.

If a store is called a "Cafe", then they sell coffee.

If it is a "Coffee Shop" they sell pot as well as coffee. Different coffee shops have different menus of pot, hash and/or mushrooms. A good place will have about 10 different types of pot, 5 types of hash and about 5 types of mushrooms. Different places will have different selections or strains of pot. Most sell in 5 gram bags and will also sell pre-rolled joints.

Pot use is very open within the shops and the smell eminating outdoors. I think that you could spend alot of time in Amsterdam checking out all of the different varieties of pot each day. What is interesting is how legitimate and reputable it appears. You are very unlikely to get ripped off or provided with bad drugs because by maintaining such a visible presence the shops are held accountable.

On the street corners there are drug dealers offering cocaine. This surprised me because normally drug dealers usually offer softer drugs (e.g. if you walk in Gastown, you will often hear hushed offers for hash) first and then only the persistent dealers would then offer other things like cocaine. But I suppose when the 'legitimate' market is already providing pot and hash, the dealers have to move up the food chain. From what I have heard the cocaine is not very good.

I was curious to find out if their policy of 'toleration' reduces or encourage use. I was interested to know if by legalizing the marijuana if Dutch people were more or less hooked on it than North Americans. The Cannibis College had statistics that showed that experimentation rates were similar between the U.S. and the Dutch, but that chronic use was higher in the U.S.

I don't know if I really believe these statistics because there was little information posted about the source of their information. What I do know is that the Dutch are not all pot smokers and pot consumption is looked down on. The Dutch also have mixed feelings about the hordes of drug-tourists exploiting one aspect of their society.

At the Cannabis College I also read that there has not been any association between pot use and cancer, but there is a 6 fold increase in the amount of tar that you can inhale when compared to a cigarette of the same weight.

Amsterdam is interesting because it is a relatively safe place to experiment and the city is itself is a bit of an experiment.