BARCELONA, Spain - On a recent evening, two vacationing German college students, armed with addresses they had gotten off the Internet, were trying to get into one of Barcelona's new marijuana clubs. They were not members. But no matter. They quickly found a club near the city's central boulevard, La Rambla, that was willing to ignore the rules, helping them choose from a dozen strains of marijuana for sale in plastic bins before letting them settle into the cushy lounge area to light up. [continues 1241 words]
MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands - On a recent summer night, Marc Josemans's Easy Going Coffee Shop was packed. The lines to buy marijuana and hashish stretched to the reception area where customers waited behind glass barriers. Most were young. Few were Dutch. Thousands of "drug tourists" sweep into this small, picturesque city in the southeastern part of the Netherlands every day - as many as two million a year, city officials say. Their sole purpose is to visit the city's 13 "coffee shops," where they can buy varieties of marijuana with names like Big Bud, Amnesia and Gold Palm without fear of prosecution. [continues 1018 words]
VENLO, the Netherlands - Town officials here are adamant that their plan should not be referred to as "McDope." But that may be a losing battle. Under a proposal expected to be approved by the end of May, this modest town along the slow-moving Maas River, where barges regularly chug by, wants to open two drive-through shops where "drug tourists" can buy small amounts of marijuana and hashish without even getting out of their cars. Although coffee shops selling small amounts of such soft drugs exist all over the Netherlands, no one has yet done a drive-through. [continues 882 words]
VENLO, the Netherlands -- Town officials here are adamant that their plan should not be referred to as "McDope." But that may be a losing battle. Under a proposal expected to be approved by the end of May, this modest town along the slow-moving Maas River, where barges regularly chug by, wants to open two drive-through shops where "drug tourists" can buy small amounts of marijuana and hashish without even getting out of their cars. Although coffee shops selling small amounts of such soft drugs exist all over the Netherlands, no one has yet done a drive-through. [continues 882 words]
Magrieta Manus and her husband, Bastiaan, have lived and worked on the same vineyard here for more than 40 years, making do, with their nine children, in two dilapidated rooms set on such a steep hill that their rocky, slanted dirt floor is usually damp from the rain. They work in the fields for less than $18 a week and, until two years ago, when the farm changed hands, they were given free wine, too, under a system started centuries ago as a way of addicting laborers to alcohol and keeping them working for virtually nothing. [continues 1139 words]
