Friday, June 22, 2007

The land of the free buzz

Via Claudio:

Dutch Cannabis Buyers Face Biometric Testing

"All 15 coffee shops in the southern city are spending about 100,000 euros ($134,000) installing a security system that makes it harder for an under-age cannabis smoker to enter than a terrorist to set foot in Europe, according to Marc Josemans, head of the local coffee shop union."

This reminds me something I’ve always think about: the odd absence of data about the consequences of “drug liberalization” in the Netherlands. For such a unique and grand experiment one would think that loads of data would be available.

Now considering the message sent by this type of measure and also considering the fact that the so called liberalization has not moved forward (Why 5 grams? Why only pot?) I assume that not everything is roses in the land of the free buzz…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the problem is called European Union. that's why they have ever stronger legislation, and why you see so little being said about its results (which, as far as I know, are very positive).

last I heard they were facing threats of getting kicked out of the EU if they didn't start cracking down on coffee shops and such. but I'm sure, if you're really interested in knowing about it, you could Google it before writing your next post on the subject ;)