Amsterdam

Law Enforcement

Amsterdam has a reputation for tolerance, but lighting up on a quiet residential street can still rub people the wrong way. For the rules on where you can smoke, see Marijuana Laws.

Where to Buy Marijuana

At a coffeeshop counter you can see what’s on the menu, from weed by the gram to a ready-rolled joint.

“The best places to buy marijuana are the coffeeshops. It isn’t wise to buy on the street because you never know whether it’s laced. I stayed for five days and found the best weed of my life. Very easy to find.”

The street scene in the Red Light District was different. There were offers of cocaine, too. The five-day visitor made a sweeping claim about Black men selling it there, a stereotype that tells you nothing about the people you pass.

Marijuana Prices

Average prices per gram from Koos Zwart’s Dutch VARA Radio broadcasts, updated 22 June 2006:

• Royal, Morocco 0-0+: $10 (€8).
• Temple Balls, Nepal: $10 (€8).
• Ketama, Morocco 0-0: $9 (€7).
• Kashmir, India: $9 (€7).
• Super Polm, Morocco: $9 (€7).
• Manali, India: $8 (€6.50).
• Polm, Morocco: $8 (€6.50).
• Yellow, Lebanon: $7.50 (€6).
• Red, Lebanon: $7.50 (€6).
• Afghani: $6 (€5).

More per-gram prices from Koos Zwart’s VARA broadcasts:

• Edelweiss, Dutch: $10 (€8).
• Punto Rojo, USA: $9.50 (€7.50).
• Golden Acapulco: $9.50 (€7.50).
• Skunk, Dutch: $9 (€7).
• Purple Haze, Dutch: $8 (€6).
• Van Vollenhoven, Dutch: $4 (€3).
• Schelto Skunk, Dutch: $2.50 (€2).
• Beatrix Bleu, Dutch: $1.25 (€1).

More Information

Amsterdam is a smoker’s dream: an amusement park of coffeeshops among canals and parks. People came from all over for the hash and pot and went home with some wild stories.

“The best high I ever had was on my last night in Amsterdam,” said a smoker calling himself Lawnmower. “I smoked a bag of Northern Lights and some other stuff I don’t even remember buying, then finished with a slice of space cake. And then I floated away to a land of many colors.”

Carl Lavin, an American visiting over the winter holidays, said the average bag was “as good as or better than anything I’ve ever gotten here in the U.S.” His first purchase came from a reggae-themed coffeeshop: “It was €9.07 for a bag that lasted longer than our trip. It was called K2, and it’s simply the best weed I’ve ever had.”

Lavin smoked before Christmas dinner expecting the munchies, but got a surprise. “I never got hungry with this stuff. I didn’t even finish my first plate. It didn’t make me hungry or sleepy. Just high. Damn high. Rocky Mountain high!”

Gedogen means tolerance. When the Dutch policy came in in 1976, the idea was to keep casual users out of jail, protect their health and steer them away from the trade in cocaine and heroin. NORML’s account at the time distinguished use and acquisition for personal use from possession, which it said remained an offense even though it described prosecutions as rare to nonexistent. A five-gram threshold was cited, with reports of leniency under 30 grams. Those figures describe policy discussions from that period.

“We see no harm in possessing or using soft drugs,” said Jannie Pols of the Dutch Ministry of Justice. “We want to separate the market. That’s why the coffeeshops are tolerated. We hope people who want to try soft drugs don’t go to people selling hard drugs.”

At the time, the city of 725,000 bike-riding residents was said to have about 300 licensed outlets, mostly around the historic center and Red Light District. Each shop had a menu and prices varied by strain. The city’s rules then barred hard drugs, sales to under-18s and advertising, and capped purchases at five grams per customer per transaction. More than 500 grams on the premises, hard-drug sales or a public nuisance could trigger closure by order of the mayor and aldermen. See Marijuana Laws for the legal overview.

The Smoking Team, an anonymous group of online reviewers, liked Blue Bird, Homegrown Fantasy, Dutch Flowers and Frontpage. Other names on the circuit were The Grasshopper, The Bulldog, Energy Coffee Shop and Barakka.

The Smoking Team was scathing about poor value: “Lots of coffeeshops in the Red Light District sell the same grass regardless of the type you order. You pay the price of White Widow, but in most of these shitty coffeeshops you’ll get an ordinary bag of skunk.”

A traveler named Kara warned about tourist traps. “You didn’t travel to Amsterdam to meet other Americans and smoke bad, overpriced weed,” she said. If unsure where to go, she suggested a Greenhouse shop, which she associated with “killer bud.”

Sativa was just as picky. Her picks were Greenhouse, Yazooh and Blue Velvet. “Let the staff know you aren’t just some tourist and that you plan to be a repeat customer. Go back and bring more customers, and they’ll take to you like a stoner to weed.”

“Everything seems to rely on personal responsibility,” Lavin said. People would tolerate a lot “so long as you don’t bother anybody.” Coffeeshops and designated areas were the places to smoke. Locals frowned on tourists lighting up in places such as restaurants. And leave your favorite bud behind when you go: police and customs checked borders and trains, including for small quantities.

Need a change of scene? There’s the Hash and Marijuana Museum at Oudezijds Achterburgwal 148. Then there’s Keukenhof, described at the time as the world’s largest flower garden, with more than six million blooms. A sight for reddened eyes.