AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Just what the doctor ordered? Pharmacies may fill prescriptions for marijuana and patients can get the cost covered by insurance, according to a law that went into effect Monday. Doctors in the famously liberal Netherlands have long recommended marijuana to cancer patients as an appetite enhancer and to combat pain and nausea. But it is usually bought at one of the country's 800 "coffee shops," where the plant is sold openly while police look the other way. [continues 79 words]
AMSTERDAM -- Pharmacies may fill prescriptions for marijuana and patients can get the cost covered by insurance, according to a law that went into effect Monday. Doctors in the famously liberal Netherlands have long recommended marijuana to cancer patients as an appetite enhancer and to combat pain and nausea. But it is usually bought at one of the country's 800 "coffee shops," where the plant is sold openly while police look the other way. "The health minister said, look, doctors are prescribing marijuana to their patients anyway, and there are many medicinal users, so we may as well regulate it," said Bas Kuik, a spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Health. [end]
AMSTERDAM -- Just what the doctor ordered? Pharmacies may fill prescriptions for marijuana and patients can get the cost covered by insurance, according to a law that went into effect Monday. Doctors in the famously liberal Netherlands have long recommended marijuana to cancer patients as an appetite enhancer and to combat pain and nausea. But it is usually bought at one of the country's 800 "coffee shops," where the plant is sold openly while police look the other way. [end]
AMSTERDAM.-- Pharmacies may fill prescriptions for marijuana and patients can get the cost covered by insurance, according to a law that took effect Monday in the Netherlands. [end]
Huge Illegal Trade Fuelled By Thousands Crossing Border Every Day VENLO, Netherlands -- Fed up with thrill-seeking German drug tourists, the Netherlands has decided to turn the hundreds of coffee shops which line its border into German-free zones. The plan - which would involve ordering coffee shops in areas bordering Germany to serve only Dutch residents in possession of valid "membership cards" - is causing a stir. But the justice ministry and local officials say they will press ahead. The problem, they say, is becoming unbearable. [continues 577 words]
"A high as a toad" has become a common expression in parts of the Netherlands, known the world over for its permissive attitude to drugs. Drug addicts have embarked on a new and cheaper alternative to LSD - toad licking. Dutch pet shops have been warned to be on the lookout after the theft of a number of South American giant cane toads (Bufo marinus) The toads, measuring up to 30cm long, excrete a milky white liquid from behind their bulging eyes which, when licked, causes hallucinations described as 12 times stronger than LSD. The effects can last for up to seven hours. [continues 254 words]
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch police are investigating whether drug addicts raided a pet shop and stole three exotic toads whose warty skin can induce hallucinations when licked. The animals were snatched from a pet shop near a drug addicts' center in the city of Leeuwarden in the northeast of the Netherlands on Wednesday. "There has been quite a bit of trouble with junkies and there is a drugs crisis center near the shop, so it is quite possible, naturally we are looking in that direction too," police spokesman Harry Oenema told Reuters. [continues 100 words]
HAARLEM, Netherlands -- The water pipe stood two metres tall, encircled by people puffing on its 64 mouthpieces. Elsewhere in the room, a new machine rolled out 300 marijuana joints in minutes. Free hash was passed around. It was the start of a three-day Hash and Weed Festival on Friday evening. The aging pioneers of the Dutch marijuana culture, watched by hundreds of young aficionados, gathered in a sports gymnasium to mark the 30th anniversary of the first "coffee shop" that openly sold reefers like cups of coffee. [continues 480 words]
30 Years Of Legal Marijuana HAARLEM, Netherlands -- The water pipe stood two metres tall, encircled by people puffing on its 64 mouthpieces. Elsewhere in the room, a new machine rolled out 300 marijuana joints in minutes. Free hash was passed around. It was the start of a three-day Hash and Weed Festival on Friday evening. The aging pioneers of the Dutch marijuana culture, watched by hundreds of young aficionados, gathered in a gymnasium to mark the 30th anniversary of the first "coffee shop" that openly sold reefers like cups of coffee. [continues 165 words]
HAARLEM, Netherlands (AP) -- The water pipe stood two metres tall, encircled by people puffing on its 64 mouthpieces. Elsewhere in the room, a new machine rolled out 300 marijuana joints in minutes. Free hash was passed around. It was the start of a three-day Hash and Weed Festival on Friday evening. The aging pioneers of the Dutch marijuana culture, watched by hundreds of young aficionados, gathered in a sports gymnasium to mark the 30th anniversary of the first "coffee shop" that openly sold reefers like cups of coffee. [continues 591 words]
Bloomberg News In a bright yellow room dotted with multicoloured suns, Barney's Breakfast Bar serves eggs, pancakes, and the house special -- Sweet Tooth, the best marijuana on sale in Amsterdam. At least that's what the judges at the Cannabis Cup decided last year. Now, Barney's and its coffee-shop rivals are gearing up for this year's contest. Beginning Nov. 24, close to 3,000 marijuana fans will spend five days in Amsterdam rating the very best in cannabis. That means a boom in business for the shop owners and for the Dutch economy. [continues 734 words]
Bloomberg In a bright yellow room dotted with multicolored suns, Barney's Breakfast Bar serves eggs, pancakes, and the house special -- Sweet Tooth, the best marijuana on sale in Amsterdam. At least that's what the judges at the Cannabis Cup decided last year. Now, Barney's and its coffee-shop rivals are gearing up for this year's edition of the contest. Beginning Nov. 24, close to 3,000 marijuana fans will spend five days in Amsterdam rating the very best in cannabis. That means a boom in business for the shop owners and for the Dutch economy. [continues 568 words]
AMSTERDAM - The Supreme Court of The Netherlands Tuesday reaffirmed lower court rulings in two cases in which the parties were convicted of manufacturing and selling hallucinogenic dried mushrooms. The grower and the owner of a shop that sold the mushrooms were convicted in 2000 and sentenced to community service for growing and selling dried mushrooms in various ways, such as in prepared food. After taking their convictions to an appeals court last year and losing, they appealed to the Supreme Court. [continues 336 words]
AMSTERDAM - The United States' anti-drug chief and a Dutch police commander were touring Amsterdam's red-light district recently when a man approached the U.S. law enforcement delegation. "Ecstasy? Viagra? Cocaina?" he whispered to a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman. The Dutch cop shrugged. DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson grimaced. Drug dealers are bold here. Drugs, especially the club drug Ecstasy, are cheap and plentiful. Dutch police mostly look the other way, preferring to focus on property crimes and public nuisances. [continues 894 words]
AMSTERDAM -- The United States' anti-drug chief and a Dutch police commander were touring Amsterdam's red-light district recently when a man approached the U.S. law enforcement delegation. "Ecstasy? Viagra? Cocaina?" he whispered to a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman. The Dutch cop shrugged. DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson grimaced. Drug dealers are bold here. Drugs, especially the club drug Ecstasy, are cheap and plentiful. Dutch police mostly look the other way, preferring to focus on property crimes and public nuisances. [continues 893 words]
PARIS -- The center-right political coalition set to take power later this month in the Netherlands announced plans Wednesday for tough new restrictions on immigration and a crackdown on drugs, including limits on the famous coffeehouses where marijuana is openly sold. The coalition will create a new Ministry of Immigration and Integration, to be run by a minister from the party of Pim Fortuyn, the maverick politician who was assassinated in May during a campaign for strict limits on immigration. His party and others with anti-foreigner platforms received a wave of sympathy votes in an election nine days later. [continues 276 words]
The three parties expected to form a coalition government in the Netherlands have offered parliament a 45-page blueprint for reform. Coalition programme The programme includes radical plans to tighten immigration policy - the legacy of the murdered politician Pim Fortuyn, whose fledgling party took second place in elections six weeks ago. The coalition, headed by the Christian Democrats (CDA) with the free market VVD as its third member proposes: * A crackdown on immigration * Deploying more police to curb crime * Review of euthanasia law * Moves to discourage "drug tourism" * Shortening hospital waiting lists * Improving public transport * Decreasing social welfare spending [continues 354 words]
THE coffee shops of Amsterdam, where cannabis and other soft drugs are sold openly, are under threat after the swing to the right in last Wednesday's general election. The Christian Democrats, likely to form a coalition with the radical anti-immigration Pim Fortuyn List, have vowed to close such cafes across the Netherlands, blaming them for the growing drug use among the young. The party leader, Jan Peter Balkenende, a devout Christian who is expected to be prime minister, promised to end tolerance of cannabis. [continues 580 words]
THE coffee shops of Amsterdam, where cannabis and other soft drugs are sold openly, are under threat after the swing to the right in last Wednesday's general election. The Christian Democrats, likely to form a coalition with the radical anti-immigration Pim Fortuyn List, have vowed to close such cafes across the Netherlands, blaming them for the growing drug use among the young. The party leader, Jan Peter Balkenende, a devout Christian who is expected to be prime minister, promised to end tolerance of cannabis. [continues 585 words]
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- A fledgling party leader was poised to become the Netherlands' prime minister Wednesday, after a dramatic shift to the right in elections that swamped the governing socialists. Wednesday's balloting marked a major defeat for Prime Minister Wim Kok's liberal coalition. The group was credited with steady economic growth since taking power in 1994, but was punished for ignoring growing concerns over drugs, immigration, welfare and tax abuse. In the swing to the right, the upstart party of slain anti-immigration populist Pim Fortuyn -- Pim Fortuyn's List -- swept into the legislature with 26 seats. A few months ago, the group did not exist. [continues 396 words]
Inside Netherlands
