Let It Grow

I left Amsterdam last week, after the shit hit the fan in Michigan, and the Dutch authorities were striving to match the sheer idiocy of the anti-marijuana crusaders in the United States by forcing 58 licensed cannabis coffeeshops out of business pursuant to a recent dictum that weed can't be offered for consumption within 350 meters of a secondary school. "The cabinet does not want pupils' education careers going up in smoke," puffed education minister Marja van Bijsterveldt.

These grandstanding plays aimed at the most regressive sector of the citizenry look noble and civic-minded on the surface, but, in fact, have no actual relevance in terms of public safety. The coffeeshops being shut down have existed in proximity to the schools for 30 or 40 years with no appreciable impact on the student population.

In fact, nothing is more difficult in the Centrum of Amsterdam than minors acquiring cannabis products at a coffeeshop — or even getting up to the hash counter to order up some smoke. Strict ID checks are conducted without fail, because minors on the premises are grounds for immediate suspension of the shop's cannabis privileges. Even if the school were next door to the coffeeshop, no students would be allowed entry in any event — ever.

Like raiding growrooms and linking growing to "serious crime" and "criminal violence," shutting down marijuana outlets because of their proximity to a schoolhouse is an entirely cynical political ploy directed at the addled denizens of the religious and secular right in a last-ditch attempt to stave off the ever-encroaching rule of reason. But the real shame is that these small, independent businesses are being hounded out of existence in increasing numbers. 

DutchNews.nl reports that there are now fewer than 650 coffeeshops left in Holland, with 214 remaining in Amsterdam itself. Four years ago, when the coffeeshops were ordered to stop serving alcoholic drinks where weed is offered for sale, there were 750 coffeeshops nationally including 250 in Amsterdam, but after the new regulations are effected there'll be less than 200 left in the capital city.

What is the public benefit of continuing to demonize marijuana and marijuana users — again, even state-certified medical marijuana patients — beyond bolstering the re-election prospects among a deluded electrorate of right-wing demagogues such as Attorney General Bill Schuette, whose rhetoric paints a lurid picture of "Michigan communities struggling with an invasion of pot shops near their schools, homes and churches."

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