THE Dutch, famous for their tolerant society, are starting to think it has all gone too far, with many complaining that they have ended up with an unacceptable free-for-all. And behind the increasing strident calls for more law and order is a growing tendency to blame crime on ethnic minorities. Just a few years ago, the police refused to register the ethnic origins of criminal suspects. But after a series of attacks in which black youths killed white people, the mayors of several Dutch cities have started to single out specific groups from North Africa and the Caribbean. [continues 396 words]
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Marijuana went on sale Monday at Dutch pharmacies to help bring relief to thousands of patients suffering from cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis. About 7,000 patients will be eligible for prescription marijuana, sold in containers of 0.16 ounces at most pharmacies. The drug will be covered by health insurance for the first time. Canada, Germany and Australia already allow restricted use of medicinal marijuana or its active chemical, but the Dutch go a step further by providing the drug and regulating its quality. In the United States, 14 states allow medicinal use despite a federal ban on the drug. [continues 126 words]
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AFP) - If pot is officially good for you in the Netherlands, it is proving even better for James Burton, a US citizen whose once semi-clandestine business grew to become one the Dutch health service's two official providers of medical cannabis. Not that Burton, 56, started out as a freewheeling child of the hippie era, quite the contrary. He first took to cannabis not on a rebellious campus, but serving in the Vietnam war. "It helped us to get on," he recalled. [continues 622 words]
America Takes A Hit In The Drug War As Legalized Grass Takes Root Across The European Continent Sept. 15 issue — Paul van Hoorn, 71, suffers from chronic glaucoma. His wife, Jo, 70, has painful arthritis. So every few days, the two septuagenarians shuffle to their local "coffee shop," ever watchful for robbers, to buy a little marijuana. Last week Dutch authorities decided that the van Hoorns, among many others, should change their ways—by going to their local pharmacy. Effective immediately, the government will begin dealing in Nederwiet, or Netherweed—cannabis, by another name, grown in state-sanctioned greenhouses and sold by prescription with official government approval. [continues 915 words]
Being drunk on duty is one thing, but the Dutch government is concerned that too many of its police officers are getting stoned on and off duty and is to ban them from "coffee shops", or drug cafes. The interior minister, Johan Remkes, fears that the spectacle of spliff-wielding police - in or out of uniform - is chipping away at the force's respectable public image. He also believes that the Netherlands' finest risk being accused of hypocrisy when they carry out spot checks for drugs if they are dabbling in the weed themselves. [continues 303 words]
The decision by the Dutch government to legalize cannabis prescriptions for patients suffering from serious illnesses has aroused the interest of countries in Europe and beyond. In a move that raised few eyebrows in the Netherlands and caused other countries around the world to turn their curiosity and interest towards the liberal European nation, the Dutch government legalized the medical use of cannabis on Monday, paving the way for doctors to prescribe the narcotic as a painkiller for those who are seriously ill. [continues 891 words]
The Netherlands yesterday became the first country to legalise the medical use of cannabis, allowing doctors to prescribe the narcotic as a painkiller for those who are seriously ill. In a move that is certain to put pressure on other countries to follow suit, chemists began selling the drug for a price of between Euro40 and Euro50 (UKP27 to UKP33) for a 5g (0.18oz) bag. Although that is approximately twice the cost of buying the drug in one of the country's 1,500 coffee shops, the government claimed that there was a huge difference in quality. [continues 222 words]
The Netherlands will this week become the world's first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug to treat chronically ill patients, a Dutch health official said. Pharmacies can sell cannabis to sufferers of cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis and Tourette's Syndrome in a ground-breaking acceptance of the drug's medicinal use. "It's a historic step. What is unique is that we are making it available on a prescription-only basis through pharmacies," said Willem Scholten, head of the Office of Medicinal Cannabis at the Dutch Health Ministry. [continues 134 words]
Amsterdam - The Netherlands is to make dagga available as a prescription drug to treat chronically ill patients. It would be world's first country to do so, a top Dutch health official said yesterday. The Dutch government has given the country's 1 650 pharmacies the green light to sell cannabis to sufferers of cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis (MS) and Tourette's syndrome from this week in a ground-breaking acceptance of the drug's medicinal use. "It's a historic step. What is unique is that we are making it available on a prescription-only basis through pharmacies," said Willem Scholten, head of the Office of Medicinal Cannabis at the Dutch Health Ministry. [continues 94 words]
Marijuana went on sale Monday at Dutch pharmacies to help bring relief to thousands of patients suffering from cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis. Around 7,000 patients will be eligible for prescription marijuana, sold in containers of .16 ounces at most pharmacies. Labeled "Cannabis" and tested by the Ministry of Health, the drug will be covered by health insurance for the first time under a new law that went into effect in March. Canada, Germany and Australia already allow restricted use of medicinal marijuana or its active chemical, but the Dutch go a step further by providing the drug and regulating its quality. [continues 275 words]
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS -- This week the Netherlands will become the world's first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug in pharmacies to treat chronically ill patients, a top health official said Sunday. The Dutch government has given the country's 1,650 pharmacies the green light to sell cannabis starting Monday to those with HIV, cancer, multiple sclerosis and Tourette's syndrome in a groundbreaking acceptance of the drug's medicinal use. "It's a historic step. What is unique is that we are making it available on a prescription-only basis through pharmacies," said Willem Scholten, head of the Office of Medicinal Cannabis at the Health Ministry. [continues 58 words]
The move by Netherlands this week to start selling cannabis as a prescription drug to seriously ill patients is being closely watched by other European countries. The UK, Belgium and Luxembourg were particularly interested to see how the Netherlands fares as the first country in the world to sell the drug on prescription, the Dutch health ministry said. The Dutch move is the latest pioneering social reform in a country which was first to legalise euthanasia and where cannabis, although illegal, is widely available in licensed coffee shops. [continues 345 words]
Dutch pharmacies began sales of marijuana to help patients suffering from nausea or pain associated with cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis. About 7,000 patients will be eligible for prescription marijuana, sold in containers of about one-fifth of an ounce at $48 for a dose with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of 15 percent, and $60 for an 18 percent version. Canada, Germany and Australia allow restricted use of medicinal marijuana, but the Dutch will also provide the drug and regulate its quality. In the United States, 14 states allow medicinal use despite a federal ban on the drug. [end]
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Marijuana went on sale at Dutch pharmacies yesterday to help bring relief to thousands of patients suffering from cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis. Around 7,000 patients will be eligible for prescription marijuana, sold in containers of .16 ounces. Labeled "Cannabis" and tested by the health ministry, it's covered by health insurance. Canada, Germany and Australia allow restricted use of medicinal marijuana, but the Dutch go further by providing the drug and regulating its quality. Dutch patients are recommended not to smoke the plant, but to use vaporizers or make marijuana tea. It will be prescribed to those suffering from nausea or pain associated with cancer, Tourette's syndrome, AIDS or multiple sclerosis. Two varieties offer a lower or higher content of Tetrahydrocannabinol, the active chemical. It costs $48 for a THC content of 15%, and $60 for an 18% version. [end]
From Monday, Dutch doctors will be able to prescribe medicinal cannabis to patients. Soft-drug use is tolerated in the Netherlands, but for the past two years the government's Bureau for Medicinal Cannabis (BMC) has been researching the effect of the drug on patients. Other countries, including the UK, are also considering allowing the sale of the drug in pharmacies. Medicinal cannabis is intended as a pain reliever for cancer and Aids patients, and for people suffering from other illnesses, such as multiple sclerosis. [continues 130 words]
ALEX CHADWICK, host: As of yesterday, certain medical patients in the Netherlands can ease their ailments by buying government marijuana in pharmacies. The Dutch have long been known for their socially tolerant ways. But the Netherlands was also a bastion of the austere religious tradition of Calvinism. And the Dutch have a reputation as hardworking, clog-wearing types. DAY TO DAY's Madeleine Brand explores the contradictions. MADELEINE BRAND reporting: Remember Pim Fortuyn? He was the Dutch politician who was assassinated last year. He was openly gay yet politically hard right, and his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant stance was embraced by many in the Netherlands. Perhaps the embodiment of a kind of social schizophrenia among the Dutch? [continues 612 words]
Pharmacies in the Netherlands will stock cannabis from today. The Dutch are the first to permit cannabis to be legally dispensed to those with a doctor's prescription, and other countries - including Britain, parts of the US, Australia and Canada, where plans for a similar system are at an advanced stage - will be watching the Dutch experience closely. More than 2,000 pharmacies in the Netherlands are legally obliged from today to stock medical cannabis and dispense advice to users on the merits of brewing the mixture of dried parts of the hemp plant as a tea. They are also expected to provide instruction on how to become high by using it in combination with an inhaler. [continues 521 words]
Pharmacies To Sell Medical Marijuana To The Chronically Ill In 'Historic Step' AMSTERDAM -- The Netherlands this week will become the first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug, allowing pharmacies to sell it to chronically ill patients, a top Dutch health official said yesterday. The Dutch government has given the country's 1,650 pharmacies the green light to sell cannabis to people who have cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis and Tourette's syndrome in a ground-breaking acceptance of the drug's medicinal use. [continues 480 words]
AMSTERDAM - the Netherlands this week will become the first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug in pharmacies to treat chronically ill patients, a top Dutch health official said yesterday. The Dutch government has given the countries 1,650 pharmacies the green light to sell marijuana to sufferers of cancer,HIV, Multiple Sclerosis, and Tourette's, syndrome in a ground-breaking acceptance of the drugs medical value. [end]
AMSTERDAM - This week, the Netherlands will become the first country to make prescribed cannabis available at pharmacies, a top Dutch health official said Sunday. The Dutch government has given the country's 1,650 pharmacies the green light to sell marijuana to people with cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis and Tourette's syndrome. [end]
Inside Netherlands
