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Soft drugs in the Netherlands
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Article: One hundred years of the war on drugs
One hundred years ago today, the war on drugs started in The Hague. On 23 January 1912, twelve countries met to sign the first international agreement regulating the drug trade, the International Opium Convention. Little has changed in...
Video: Coffeeshops go up-market
Dutch coffeeshops are getting increasingly chique with design furnishing and fittings replacing the inevitable Bob Marley posters and cool jazz instead of reggae or hip hop. Hi & Lo, newly-opened in Utrecht, prefers to call itself a...
Article: Netherlands to end sale of soft drugs to tourists
Dutch drugs policy is changing. The image of this country as a paradise for those wanting to enjoy soft drugs without looking over their shoulders is slowly but surely going up in smoke. The most far-reaching change is a new policy making...
Article: Maastricht coffeeshops turn away tourists
French tourists left the coffeeshops of Maastricht disappointed this weekend. Since Saturday the soft drug cafés have been refusing to sell cannabis to foreign tourists – except for Germans and Belgians. Visitors from...
Video: Cannabis fields in the quiet Dutch countryside
The Netherlands is famous for its cannabis – or at least, its coffeeshops, where tourists gleefully fill joints with decriminalised soft drugs. But in the northern province of Groningen, the plants in the cannabis fields stretching...
Article: Amsterdam tourists mad about truffle trips
The ‘trip truffle’ has replaced banned magic mushrooms in Amsterdam’s smart shops - outlets which sell legal ‘drugs’. Trip truffles aren’t against the law, but neither are they entirely without risk -...
Article: Weed pass: fewer foreigners, less trouble
The introduction of a 'weed pass', which will only be available to Dutch residents, will lead to a significant reduction in incidents, claims a report drawn up by a number of towns in the south of the Netherlands. According...
Article: Much more dangerous than XTC
New synthetic drugs are appearing in Europe at an unprecedented rate. While potentially much more dangerous than XTC, many are still legal because too little is yet known about their components. A record 41 new psychoactive...
Video: Clouds of marijuana smoke on Cannabis Liberation Day
The Netherlands' soft drugs policies are known the world over. People from all four corners of the globe are flocking to the Dutch "drugs capital" Amsterdam, to inhale the Dutch skunk smoke.
Video: Do-it-yourself dope
The municipality of Utrecht wants one of the city's coffeeshops to grow its own cannabis. The coffeeshop won't have any customers, just members. For every member, five plants will be grown in the nursery. The greater the number of members...
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