My Dutch Advocaat Zwolle Experience

Ahhhh yes, Amsterdam. Of course I would one day go there. The beautiful city of Amsterdam is a temple of reggae culture. Well, certain parts of reggae culture that is. Of course I love to smoke some weed once in a while. Don’t tell anybody. But in all honesty I have wanted to visit Amsterdam in a long time. Now coincidently my favorite band and the subject of this website played in Amsterdam. So of course I had to go. Of course I also wanted to see some of the scenery of Amsterdam and enjoy the culture. Yes I am a very cultural man, man. It has always fascinated me how the legalization of weed came to be and why it is. Lawyers or ‘advocaten’ in Zwolle and other little places in the Netherlands are still very much busy with trying to change legislation. I say Zwolle because I have in fact a friend there who works as a lawyer. I asked him about the weed policy in the Netherlands.

Although many say weed is legal in the Netherlands it is in fact not. I know, such a shame right? But there is good news. The Dutch government thinks that soft-drugs are a problem but it is a problem that is so ingrained in the culture of the Netherlands that it would be impossible to ban it out by making it illegal. So according to the law weed is illegal, but the law is simply not enforced. This means that no cop will stop you if you have weed on your person. You can smoke weed anywhere and anytime in Amsterdam. Of course there are the coffee shops where you can smoke inside but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Me myself I love to smoke inside the coffee shops because in many of them they play reggae music. I spoke to one of the coffee shop owners and asked him where they got their weed. Here is something interesting, they won’t tell you. Because although you won’t get arrested for selling or smoking weed in Amsterdam. You will get arrested for growing it. Well sort of, a citizen of the Netherlands can grow five cannabis plants by himself for personal use. Any more than five and you will be arrested. So although coffee shops can sell weed they will never tell their source of weed supply to people or the police. They have to act like it ‘just appears’. I know, it is such a weird system. But millions of Dutch people and tourists from all over the world are enjoying its benefits. It makes Amsterdam the city it is and brings in millions and millions for the government because of all the tourists that visit. Other cities in the Netherlands just don’t have that special international appeal that Amsterdam has. My lawyer friend which in Zwolle they call ‘advocaat zwolle’ told me that nobody smokes weed in Zwolle and it has no tourists whatsoever.

But I am going to stop talking about weed. I came to Amsterdam for another reason. Our favorite band was playing in ‘Melkweg’ and I was stoked to see them. I did smoke a little before to get in the best vibe I could be in. Off course some people say that your experience of music will be less when you are under the influence of drugs. I completely disagree. When I’ve smoked a little the music becomes even better. The Melkweg is a beautiful club and very good for concerts. I heard it also functions as a nightclub. I met some awesome people while at the concerts and they showed me around in Amsterdam the days afterwards. Then I spent 2 nights at my advocaat friend in Zwolle.