I live in the Netherlands, once a open minded liberal country where Cannabis has been decriminalised since the early 70. We were the first country where you could openly buy your Cannabis in a so called coffeeshop.
We had Growers that grew 9th generations of high quality strains. Our Weed was famous all over the world.
And now? Now it turned into a complete joke. What I am about to write is not a fictional story it is 100% true. So we used to be first in line with our decriminalisation of Cannabis and all law enforced agencies around the world came to visit us to see how we did it. Because hard drug abuse and criminality went down after allowing coffee shops to sell Cannabis.
Then it all changed, when the so called liberals from the VVD ( the corrupt right wing political party that has been in charge for decades and screwed this country up big time) decided that our Cannabis sytem was way to liberal and decided to do something about it.
First they locked down the amount you could purchase pp which these days is a merely 5 grams. Then they decided that a coffeeshop could have not more than 300 grams in their shop.
But the worst and most stupid thing they did was to make the growing of Cannabis illegal.
Yes you have read it correctly, the growing of Cannabis is illegal!
What does this mean? It means that coffeeshop owners who received a permit from the council to legally sell Cannabis, are forced to get their product illegally. It means that they need a secret place where they store their product because it is not allowed to have more than 300 grams in the shop. This also means when a coffee shop owner is getting a new batch of Cannabis for his store he will be arrested when he is stopped by police outside of his store.
Inside he will be okay. As a result the Cannabis cultivation has moved from semi- professional growers with a love for the cannabis plant to Organised Crime. With all dangers attached. They rent houses, steel electricity and are creating a dangerous situation that have resulted in houses going up in flames.
Because Cannabis is big business for Organised crime they try anything to make crops heavier by adding lead, glass wool and all kind of other poisons. Making it for the user impossible to know for sure if your Cannabis is clean.
This of course is a bad thing especially if you’re depended on your Cannabis for medical reasons.
Another stupid rule is that when you decide to grow some plants in your garden (which is still forbidden) and the police is catching you than you will not be prosecuted when the amount of plants is below or equal to 5. However if those 5 plant are in a growtent under a lamp or you add some nutrients to the soil than you are considered to be a professional grower and are prosecuted as being an organised criminal.
Since Cannabis is not cheap (yes the price has doubled since this policy) many people who are depended on clean Cannabis for the medical benefit are now being prosecuted for 6 plants.
But with even less than 5 plants you are not going to keep them when the police is catching you.
The police who always whining that they are understaffed will come to your house with a complete hempteam (often 5 officers or more) to confiscate 3 plants. You will be trown out of your rental house and treated like a criminal. At the same time when you get robbed in your own house they do not have the time for you to press charges (I kid you not).
So it is like being allowed to buy milk but forbidden to milk a cow.
We went from being progressive and unique in the world to being a joke given that many countries and states are legalizing Cannabis.
It is making me angry and sad.
Read my other blogs in this series:
https://steemit.com/cannabis/@funkie68/cannabis-education-the-endocannabinoid-system
https://steemit.com/cannabis/@funkie68/cannabis-education-the-failing-dutch-system
https://steemit.com/marijuana/@funkie68/cannabis-education-cannabis-could-save-the-word