Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cannabis College (at #124)
This free, public study center explains the positive industrial,
medicinal, and recreational uses of cannabis. Books and news-
paper clippings tell about practical hemp products, the medical
uses of marijuana, and police prosecution/persecution of cannabis
users. The pride and joy of the college is downstairs—the organic
flowering cannabis garden, “where you can admire the plant in
all her beauty.” The garden (access by €3 donation) happens to fit
the Dutch legal limit of three plants per person or five per house-
hold (free, daily 11:00-19:00, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 124, tel.
020/423-4420, www.cannabiscollege.com).
The Hash, Marijuana, and Hemp Museum
(at #148)
Though informative and educational, this earnest museum is small
and somewhat overpriced. If you patiently read the displays, you'll
learn plenty about cannabis
and its various uses through
history. (Note: the museum
may relocate in 2009.)
The leafy, green can-
nabis plant was grown on
large plantations by (among
others) Golden Age Dutch
merchants. They turned the
f ibrous stalks (hemp) into
rope and canvas for ships,
and used it to make clothing and lace.
Some cannabis plants—particularly mature females of the
sativa
and
indica
species—contain the psychoactive alkaloid tetra-
hydrocannabinol (THC) that makes you high. The buds, flowers,
and leaves of the plant (marijuana) and the brown sap/resin/pitch
that oozes out of the leaves (hashish, or hash) can be dried and
smoked to produce effects ranging from euphoria to paranoia to
the munchies.
Some peoples, from ancient Scythians and Hindus to modern
Nepalis and Afghanis, have used cannabis as a sacred ritual drug.
Modern Rastafarians, following a Bible-based religion centered
in Jamaica, smoke cannabis, bob to reggae music, and praise God
for creating “every herb” and calling them all “good” (Genesis
1:11-12).
The museum's highlight is the grow room, where you look
through windows at real, live cannabis plants in various stages of
growth, some as tall as my mom. Grown hydroponically (in water,
no soil) under grow lights, at a certain stage they're “sexed” to weed
out the boring males and “selected” to produce the most powerful
