The Panther Newspaper: Ashley Tries Legal Weed in Amsterdam

Graphic by Georgina Bridger.

When I opened the door to Green House, one of over 150 coffee shops in Amsterdam, the pungent smell of marijuana immediately wafted out and put me in a dreamy haze before I even stepped inside. Although these establishments are known as coffee shops, the products that are sold have the exact opposite effect of your daily latte — instead, the menus are filled with different strains of cannabis in the form of typical green bud, more concentrated hash (which is presented as an oil or what looks like a block of brown paste) and edibles (snacks that contain THC, the active chemical in marijuana).

Coffee shops in Amsterdam have sold marijuana products to adults age 18 and over since the 1970s when the Dutch government added an amendment to the Opium Act that legalized the personal use of soft drugs, such as cannabis. Smoking weed in public is also permitted, as long as it doesn’t cause a nuisance to others.

Consumers who go into the coffee shops can purchase pre-rolled joints (which contain tobacco unless labeled as “pure” or “reefers”) and full buds by the gram, which can be used to roll your own joints or to smoke out of a glass piece such as a pipe or bong. Many shops have a small selection of the latter that are available to use for free.

My friends and I opted for a gram of Lemon Haze (15 euros), a sativa-dominant strain, which typically has an energetic effect through a cerebral high as opposed to an indica-dominant strain that induces a more relaxing body high. With 1 gram, I was able to roll three joints with the papers and filters provided by the coffee shop. There were also little jars on each table that contained ground up herbal tea to mix in with the joints that added a bit of complementary flavor.

Once the joints were rolled, I realized that we had made a rookie mistake by not bringing our own lighters and was hesitant to ask other patrons to borrow theirs. Thankfully, another person in my group took it upon himself to ask someone since he could tell that I was embarrassed about doing it myself.

After we had smoked and the effects started to take hold, I began to question whether we had actually purchased a sativa-dominant strain as we had been told. The three of us who had shared the joints all fell into an eerie silence and I personally felt like I couldn’t get out of my seat. The lack of music in the coffee shop made me slightly uncomfortable because whenever one of us did speak, I was positive that everyone else in the room could hear our slightly moronic conversation. Although it was probably due to the paranoia that’s typically associated with smoking pot, I felt like all eyes were on us since it was obvious that we were Americans who didn’t understand proper coffee shop etiquette.

Following this initial experience, I decided it would be better to buy a pack of four reefers (12 euros) from The Bulldog, Amsterdam’s first coffee shop, and smoke them elsewhere. A friend and I shared a joint from the pack in front of her hostel one night and then another in the smoking area of a pub the next day, which were more enjoyable settings because of the fresh air and background noise from the bustling activity on the street.

At the end of my trip, I had two leftover reefers but didn’t want to smoke before flying back to London. I couldn’t bring the cannabis with me, so I found a group of young men in the dining hall of my hostel who were eating breakfast and gifted the joints to them — hopefully I started their day on a high note.