Farms: Government Crackdown on Marijuana in the Netherlands: Amsterdam's War on Weed
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Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News The Netherlands — and in particular its capital, Amsterdam — has long been thought to have some of the world's most liberal marijuana policies. But today, the country's government is clamping down on the weed industry. Police are raiding growers far more often, authorities are requiring "weed passes" to discourage marijuana tourism, and unprecedented numbers of so-called “coffeeshops” — where the sale of small amounts of marijuana is tolerated — are being forced to shut down. VICE News visited Amsterdam to see what effects the new restrictions are having. After speaking to coffeeshop owners — one of whom has to close his shop because he's technically too close to a school — we went to a weed festival and visited the home and greenhouse of Doede de Jong, one of the country's few outspoken growers. Watch: "Lebanon's Hash Farm Wars Light Up" - http://bit.ly/1FWvlJ0 Read: "Why the Netherlands Weed Industry Has Gone Underground" - http://bit.ly/1vhL7FF Check out the VICE News beta for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews
Comments
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You'd think at some point the police would have to reflect and ask themselves, 'why was it necessary for my partner and I to completely destroy someone's property over a plant?'.
Police, while brave and helpful, seem to have some type of disconnect which prevents them from questioning their pointless, yet damaging tyrannical behavior. -
the rise of conservatism and Muslim immigration/leadership
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7:40 i've been searching the song for hours!
plz can anyone help me?? -
free the weed .............
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One of the best cities in the world. There is not gonna change much tho. Weed will stay, coffeeshops will stay, the ammount will only reduce a bit.
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Lekker warm he yeah smells good
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I got a question, can a tourist still buy weed in the cofee shops? I'm belgian so my dutch is perfect but I think they'll hear my accent :/ do I need a weed pass or not?
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what a joke 😢 honestly just say war on drugs for more money for myself just at lest leave weed alone
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How's the rules for tourists now? i'm going in a few weeks...
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I'm only going to Amsterdam for weed. lol its sad but the truth. i dont think in alone. they can say goodbye to alot of tourists if they do it
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coffeeshops are forbidden if they are near 200 meters of a school, students below 18 are not allowed in anyway.
near 200 m of the school are allot of places were alcohol is sold, and thats ok.
Fack you Rutte, allang blij dat opstelten opgetyfft is. -
Netherlanders are too afraid, out of shame, to embrace and display their drug fueled cultural traits. The law or lack of law is sheer cowardice. The Prime Minster denounced the Netherlands for spreading junk to to other European countries. The Prime Minster knows damn well he and the ladies on that panel have smoked cannabis. Their hypocrisy is only overshadowed by their temerity.
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The Netherlands is going to lose a lot of money if they make marijuana illegal because the pot is making the Netherlands cash cow if they take that away there economy will go down the shitter
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What I find as funny in this, is that this stinks of US involvement, which is the very country, my country, that said cannabis ought to be illegal to start with. Now, several of the US states have told Uncle Sam to go get smoked, and those states are showing their state authority over the fed. The US is the worst country for saying any drug, natural or not, is illegal, especially if it can cause any euphoric effect. They tried it with alcohol, and the people rebelled, which created much of the organized crime that is here, now. It took a constitutional amendment to create prohibition, and another to douche it down the drain. All that, over a bunch of prudish old bible-thumping women, who didn't like the fact, that their husbands had to get tanked, in order to find them attractive. Remember the Church Lady on SNL? That actually is what happened.
After what the US forced Sweden to do, with those running certain websites, it is as plain as the nose on ones face, as to who is stirring the pot. All pun intended. The Netherlands and Sweden need to tell the US, Brits, and Germans to go drown in the sea. -
the state is "scince" the IRT schandal the biggest drugdealer. They are closing shops down to crick up the prices.
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Well wow, the Netherlands government going American... How can you make the output of a system legal and the input illegal? This is directly equivalent to calling on criminals to fulfill the input stream needs, not tax them, spend money to stop them and kill people in the process.
I support legalizing every substance, EVERYTHING. Because making something illegal is not going to stop people from doing it, especially if it's something easily hidden like doing drugs. However making it illegal will create criminal networks, create unnecessary wars and cause more troubles then the drugs themselves. -
Yes there is a crackdown becuase of all the tourists, becuase they can't handle amsterdam, they get drunk smoke up, and pass out in the street...this does not happen in other areas...if you go outside and check out coffee shops in Den Haag, Rotterdam, Leiden, Haarlem, Utrecht etc, the shops are opened till 2 am etc, and no id's requried nothing... there is nothing that is stopp...i call it propaganda as seen...if you follow the rules, there is no issues...people please keep in mind...the culture does not only revovle around amsterdam city centre and the de waalen...local speaking.
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haha, Jaap sounds like Goldmember.
Shmoke and a Pancake? -
Cigarets are worst than weed so why does he call it junk, asshole
Most a cop ever did to me was confiscate my weed if i had it in my car. Which is annoying. But if that's all i'll cope...