Figured I drop this here with the rest of the hijack, fuck this thread anyway
That really is unbelievable. Nothing more than politics and an industry that went "mad", crazy.
Thanks for sharing. And that video of Arjan and Colombia is unreal!
Two days to go till the new growshop law goes into effect....
I was just about to order a new light at one of the largest, oldest and most popular growshops and noticed an image on their site... "we're ceasing all our activities permanently starting Feb 27".
In a city, Tilburg, in a province with many growers, the mayor already closed 3 out of 5 shops and he's convinced the rest will (have to) close soon too.
The ones in my area are still open, but some are reorganizing and some pages in their web shop are missing (HPS light at one for example).
The law is meant to make facilitating large scale grows illegal but obviously affects smaller growers too (the one I know that closed was also the cheapest). Lawyers expect the law won't hold up in court.
Remember that messed up scenario I painted...
Well, today, D66, the party that has a good chance to win the elections next turn but will definitely become large, proposed a new bill. The new law would make growing and trade in cannabis still illegal, except for a restricted amount of growers who under strict conditions can get a grow permit, and call it legalization.
There's actually a majority for legalization (about 2/3rd) amongst the population and politics.....
They are already very popular in every poll for a long time, while the leading parties dropped so far they should just quit, instead, they make deals with amongst others D66. To sort of get a mandate, enough public support. In practice that means trading, in this case the leading parties want to heavily change the tax system (a biggie), and D66 wants to cooperate (more) if they legalize cannabis first. That's new, so far no party really wanted to fully stand behind legalization when it came to negotiating other issues. Which is how they form cabinets in the first place, and if anything this shows it will be a hard issue the next elections.
While I'm not certain about the outcome, apart from a few decades ago when we almost legalized it entirely and france labeled us a narco state, we've never been this close to legalization and if the proposal gets a majority things will go very fast.
The same party also won the local elections in Amsterdam last year.
So... guess who will have greenhouses full with cannabis plants soon...
Google translated info.
Doesn't make home growing legal and isn't actually something many home growers (who currently supply coffeeshops) will be happy with. Taxes will be high and the consumer will pay for that. Recent reports showed supposedly 5-20% grown is for coffeeshops and the rest is exported so still plenty of business for growers.