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[Adventurer]

Page last updated at 08:35 GMT, Tuesday, 1 July 2008 09:35 UK
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Dutch coffee shops weed out tobacco

By Dominic Hughes
BBC News, Amsterdam



Making joints with any sort of tobacco will be outlawed
It is a lazy weekday afternoon inside the Rusland coffee shop, one of the oldest in Amsterdam.

For years locals and tourists have been coming here to relax in easy chairs, roll up a joint and lose a few hours as they take advantage of Amsterdam's famously relaxed approach to marijuana.

But now, there is a cloud on the horizon. From Tuesday 1 July, the Dutch will impose a nationwide ban on smoking tobacco in cafes, bars and restaurants - meaning any joints rolled using tobacco will be illegal.

Strictly speaking, marijuana is illegal as well - but it is tolerated. So, perhaps oddly, the smoking of pure grass or hash will still be allowed.

Not for the coffee

The coffee shop owners fought the ban for months, but to no avail.

Esther Delahaige, who works behind the bar at the Rusland, says no-one is quite sure how the customers will react.


Exemption doesn't work - that's why we have to stop the abuse everywhere; that means also in coffee shops

Lung experts Pauline Dekker and Wanda de Kanter
"They don't come here for the coffee, you know," she says with a laugh.

"It's going to be really hard. Everyone is just waiting to see. We're all just really anxious to see what will happen. We don't know."

NOSMOKING

[ernie]

people who corrupt their sweet sweet green with tobacco should be severely punished... there's nothing worse than a buddy who chips in to the session with one of these half-breeds!

[sojourner1]

Europeans always add tobacco and use huge papers while the Americans smoke it straight in small rolling papers.

The law stating you can't use tobacco is an indirect measure to stamp out public weed smoking as the Europeans won't smoke tiny 100% weed joints like the Americans.

[Bibbitybop]

What about the outdoor patios of the shops in Amsterdam? People are allowed to smoke joints and spliffs there. Can they smoke tobacco there?

[Adventurer]