Most people are aware of the fact that coffee shops in Amsterdam are not for drinking coffee. But you can find just about every variety of marijuana imaginable in these locals.
With the change of the smoking laws in Holland, these coffee shops found themselves in a bit of a legal bind. When the smoking ban was implemented a major question was whether or not it applies to coffee shops. The first answer was yes, as most marijuana smokers mix tobacco into their joints.
In Holland marijuana has been decriminalised for years, if you are carrying under 5 grams of pot, you will not get arrested. Wouter Smits a cop in the Red Light District says, "It's not worth the time and the paperwork hassle. If we spend our night chasing minor crimes, we cannot keep the area safe from pickpockets, burglars and other criminals."
Milo, a coffee shop owner, says about the new law "presents coffee shop owners with a conflict of obligations, their 1st is to abide by the tobacco law but on the other hand they also have to prohibit smoking marijuana on the street and cannot send people away smoking a joint. If these facts are somehow acknowledged in court then the owners would go free and coffee shops would be granted an exception."
However, coffee shop owners have still not been granted any kind of exception and it is causing them a lot of problems. It is very difficult to regulate the marijuana they receive, and they cannot control every customer that steps into their shop.
[Via: The Huffington Post]
