Calling Dutch Coffeeshops to strike

[cannabinol]

Dutch coffeeshops 'on strike' on election day

 

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch-co...ke-election-day

 

Published on : 12 March 2010 - 8:40pm | By Johan van Slooten

 

 

Dutch "coffee shops", a euphemism for outlets selling soft-drugs, have

announced they are going on strike on 9 June, the day the country will hold

parliamentary elections. The idea behind closing for the day is to encourage

all those who like to smoke a joint to get out and vote for the parties

which will ensure that coffee shops will not be banned in the Netherlands.

 

Nol van Schaik <http://nolvanschaik.info/index.html>, who owns a coffee

shop in Haarlem, launched the campaign because he feels the current

government is biased against "shops" like his.

 

“We have been under a lot of pressure in recent years because of a very

conservative government”, he says. “The pressure on us is mounting and with

the possibility of a new right-wing cabinet, I think we should mobilize

people to vote for parties that are cannabis-friendly”.

 

 

Restrictions

The last Dutch coalition cabinet – comprising Labour, Christian Democrats

and a small Christian party – introduced tighter

restrictions<http://www.wereldomroep.nl/english/article/dutch-soft-drugs-advocates-critical-new-cabinet-policy>

on coffee shops. It wanted to ban them within 250 meters of schools and

restrict the sale of cannabis and other soft drugs to local residents only.

 

If approved, the latter measure would be a major blow for coffee shops in

tourist areas such as Amsterdam, where their customers include many foreign

visitors.

 

Conservative parties

Mr. Van Schaik fears that the pressure on his trade will increase if

centre-right party CDA (Christian Democrats) or the populist Freedom Party

of Geert Wilders – not known for their cannabis-friendly policies - will

dominate the new coalition cabinet after the 9 June elections. “We can only

wait and see whether more coffeeshops will be forced to close”, he writes on

his website. “Maybe you and me are next, maybe all of us”, he warns other

coffee shop owners.

 

The strike is not just about closing for a day. It’s also a call for

coffeeshop clientele to go out and vote on that day. “We’re putting up

posters in our coffeeshops to warn our customers of the consequences of a

new right-wing cabinet”, Mr. Van Schaik says. “They’re people who normally

don’t vote, saying for them politics is just one big mess. But it’s better

to have a big mess and be allowed to smoke a joint than to have a mess with

the coffeeshops closed. I hope that’s enough encouragement to at least go

out and vote”.

 

 

Make a difference

Mr. Van Schaik thinks that the pro-cannabis vote by Dutch coffee shop

customers can make a difference on 9 June. “There are a million people who

regularly smoke cannabis and who are eligible to vote. That’s 18 seats in

parliament. If Labour wins four or five seats more, just because of our

votes, they’ll be bigger than other parties and they’re very much

pro-coffeeshop”.

 

 

Job Cohen

Mr. Van Schaik therefore welcomes Friday’s political

upheaval<http://www.wereldomroep.nl/english/article/labour-leader-wouter-bos-steps-down>

over the announcement by Labour party leader Wouter Bos that he's leaving

politics, with Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen almost certain to take his place.

“Mr. Cohen has been very good for Amsterdam's coffee shops, especially when

it comes to regulating the supply chain. He will have a major impact on

Dutch politics and we can only be hopeful about that”.

[Crunchy]

im planning to go to the cannabis cup this nov, so for my sake and all the others making the sacred pilgrimage to the herb motherland, i hope they vote those christian bastards out.

[Rocker]

It will only take a change of government in the Netherlands to change everything. That is, if it is a government with anti-cannabis attitudes.

I suppose that is why the coffee shop owners want to strike (close their shops) on election day June 9th.

Since they operate in Amsterdam one would assume they have a feel for what is going on.

 

It's the same with the new laws in the USA. They are all temporary. All it takes is newly elected politicians with a hard attitude towards cannabis to change the laws overnight.

 

South Australia is a prime example of how laws change. It wasn't that long ago citizens could grow several plants in their backyard.

 

Anyway I couldn't care less. Cannabis has been illegal for all the years I have been involved and apart from the nuisance value the illegality hasn't caused me any problems. If that's the way it stays so be it.