Over a dozen Dutch-style coffee shops planned for the UK! In the Netherlands the first coffee shops opened *before* decriminalisation, and were a crucial part of changing the law. Here we go!
http://www.rebelinccoffeeshop.com/show_article.php?id=19
Includes the notable paragraphs:
"The movement has taken its cue from the Dutch Experience, Britain's first cannabis coffee shop in Stockport, which has been raided by police three times since opening last September. However, repeated mass protests made the police back off, and the coffee shop still attracts around 200 people a day. In the next fortnight, Dutch Experience 2, which is in the process of being decorated, is to open its doors in Bournemouth. Other coffee shops are set to follow in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cumbria, Liverpool, Rhyl, Anglesey, Milton Keynes, Braintree, Brighton, Taunton, Worthing, and Lambeth and Hoxton in London. Britain is on course to follow the Netherlands in having a public cannabis café culture."
and
"Ward (Bournemouth coffeeshop owner) has recruited pensioners to grow cannabis for him, supplying them with seeds and growlights, and has had expressions of interest from dozens more. 'It helps them to pay the winter fuel bills. They are angry about being lied to all these years about how dangerous cannabis is,' he said. A report last week from the Government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs concluded cannabis was less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco."
and
"The Deputy Mayor of Rhyl, Glyn Williams, said the plan 'beggars belief', prompting Ditchfield [Rhyl coffee shop owner] to name his coffee shop 'The Beggars Belief'. Williams said: 'We are not in the process of helping people break the law. I firmly believe that, if you downgrade cannabis, then there'll be so many more parents who'll come forward with tragic stories about their children.' However, the Chief Constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom, has publicly called for drugs to be legalised."
Incidentally, on the Mayor of Rhyl's point, when the Dutch decriminalised consumption went *down* for six years. Today, Dutch children are just over half as likely to use cannabis as British children.
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