What an amazing thread, finally one worth posting about, (not that grasscity is full of boring threads, more concise to say, that I don't get on very much, and just stumbled across this post)
After reading every post before posting this I'd just like to say that I feel sorry for my American/Canadian friends being so far away from Europe, I feel that you may think upon Amsterdam as a kind of Mecca of weed, it's not like that, it's a great ancient cultural city............. a city of Art and Architecture, of street performers........ vibrant music, that just happens to have decriminalized Cannabis, you can almost say the same for Ecstasy as well.......... they even have shops that can test your pill for you to make sure it's not contaminated, door stewards even allow access with them into nightclubs, Amsterdam is a city of tolerance, of people all getting along just because they can, for most there, they don't hold weed in the same high regard as we do, maybe that is due to the fact that it's against the law in our countries, maybe not, for me, I like to smoke as part of my daily routine, I enjoy it, I enjoy it's effects, and at night when I smoke, I want to feel stoned, well stoned............but for them, it's more like going and buying cigarettes, some pop in for one joint and a talk to the bar staff, and then they're off.
I live in Scotland, I can jump on a plane anytime and be there in just over 70 minutes, I've been many, many times now, I've met a grower over there who grows for a coffeeshop which I'll not mention, and seen his grow room, 120 plants, a massive carbon filter extraction system, all under 600w HPS's, automatic watering system, separate ballasts ran into a different room to keep the heat down, and a room so clean you could have performed heart surgery on the floor.......... who is a very nice guy, and actually does love his plants..........but I know what you mean, I've seen the badly stored weed, the hardly cleaned bongs in some shops, the way that some of them treat it like shit, but some places do have really good weed, I'm no noob at smoking or growing, and I've quite a high tolerance, and I agree, most coffeeshops do have weed that will be weaker than some that's homegrown in the states, but recently Holland has been coming under ever increasing pressure from the White house, to shut the coffeeshops, it was only on the first of April this year that they stopped coffeeshops from having Liquor licenses, I used to enjoy, playing some pool, having a pint of Cider, and smoking some good green, but Amsterdam is struggling under so much pressure to change, it certainly doesn't help their cause, when the British and American governments are coming out with comments like "it's not the stuff your parents smoked, that was only 9% THC, this stuff is 19% THC" so the more potent they make it, the more pressure that they come under, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe it's not just a coincidence that the potency is lowering, what better way to silence the critics until they've moved onto being annoyed at something else.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel that Americans/Canadians go there loving the thought of the weed and the freedoms, and when leaving end up thinking, I've had better weed, but what a fucking city!! and what a great feeling to be able to smoke freely, and in public, without either feeling or being treated as a criminal, what a freedom that would be to have back home!
If you want to visit a country that is a beacon of how all races and religions can exist, then Holland is the place, it makes you think............how can the rest of the world not get along like the Dutch do?
that's the way I felt after I went........and I'm addicted to it now..........not the weed, the city! the weeds just a bonus, I get to go about 3-4 times a year now, I can fly there for about $100, when it's that close you get to see a lot of it, and the best weed I ever had there was "Oceans Haze" from Dampkring.
Coming back home's the hardest part, when you get back, you just feel........things are just better there........I'd love to live there, to feel a true part of it, to breath it in and exhale it out, and think I'm part of it, and it's part of me.
I hope it was a good experience for you, it certainly was/is for me.............Peace out............Sid
