Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SMOKING
Tobacco
A third of Dutch people smoke tobacco. Holland has a long tra-
dition as a smoking culture, being among the first to import the
tobacco plant from the New World. (For a history of smoking, visit
the Pipe Museum, listed on page 84.)
Tobacco shops, such as the House of Hajenius (see page 81),
glorify the habit, yet the Dutch people are among the healthiest
in the world. Tanned, trim, firm, 60-something Dutch people sip
their beer, take a drag, and ask me why Americans murder them-
selves with Big Macs.
Still, their version of the Surgeon General has finally woken
up to the drug's many potential health problems. Warning stickers
bigger than America's are required on cigarette packs, and some of
them are almost comically blunt, such as: “Smoking will make you
impotent...and then you die.” (The warnings have prompted gag
stickers like, “Life can kill you.”)
Since 2008, a Dutch law has outlawed smoking tobacco
almost everywhere indoors: on trains, and in hotel rooms, restau-
rants, cafés, and bars.
Marijuana (a.k.a. Cannabis)
Amsterdam, Europe's counterculture mecca, thinks the concept
of a “victimless crime” is a contradiction in terms. Drive under
the influence of anything and you're toast. Heroin and cocaine are
strictly illegal in the Netherlands, and the police stringently enforce
laws prohibiting their sale and use. But, while hard drugs are defi-
nitely out, marijuana causes about as much excitement as a bottle of
beer. When tourists call an ambulance after smoking too much pot,
medics just say, “Drink something sweet and walk it off.”
Throughout the Netherlands, you'll see “coffeeshops”—pubs
