The CANNABIS JOURNALS

GODDAMN! I'm in Amsterdam!

CHAPTER FIVE

I have been to Amsterdam five times. But the first two times I went with the wrong people to really enjoy what Amsterdam has to offer.

TRIP #1 With my Father

I am not complaining that my father took me to Amsterdam the first time. Even though he is gone I cherish these memories. I was very lucky he took the 18 year old version of me to Europe. We went to Paris and Amsterdam.

Nevertheless, my father was not the most open minded person to Cannabis. Instead he took me to the Amstel Beer factory. And this started a long period of time in my life where I drank beer. That period of time is over, thank God. I no long drink. But my beer belly remains. And this is the most frustrating thing about my body.

I can't help but think if we had smoked weed together instead that I would still be thin down there. "Hey everyone! Let's drink a giant glass of wheat!"

It is true that every time I go on a trip and learn about alcohol in some sort of pseudo-educational tour I become addicted to that form of drink. What an amazing propaganda and socialization tool for alcohol products. It really works. It really makes you addicted and branded.

By the time 2016 rolled around I was addicted to red wine from a trip to wine country in France, tequila from a trip to Mexico and beer from this trip I am talking about right now.

The truth is Amsterdam would still be a beautiful city and an incredible place to visit without the weed. But, for sure, the weed helps. Although it does attract a lot of tourists that do not respect the plant or the city and there is always a movement to try and shut down tourists from the sex industry and cannabis.

The difference between Amsterdam and Canada right now is that in Amsterdam Cannabis was decriminalized. In Canada it was legalized. There is a significant difference here. If I had understood the difference I would have pushed for the decriminalization instead of the legalization. Somehow legalization came with a very intense government and police control.

Decriminalization seems to allow the culture to grow and flourish from the ground up like a flower. Legalization comes from above and crushes the people and the plant.

I sat in a square with my father drinking coffee as the weed smoke drifted by from the nearby Bulldog Cafe. My Dad was curious about it but not enough to want to partake. Alcohol was his thing. I'm not sure why I didn't just break away one night and go smoke it myself. It's not like I hadn't tried it at that point. But the trip was about my father and I - not me getting stoned.

We went to Anne Frank House and some of the museums. I was in love with the canals and I swore that I would come back one day and partake.

Trip #2: With Ahmed

As mentioned earlier, Ahmed  introduced me to weed through his friend Justin. This was when we were 15 years old. By the time he was 20 he had turned against this feminine flower.

We traveled through Europe for two months on a shoestring budget. And at the end of the trip we wound up in Amsterdam for two days. We were so broke we had to stay in a Christian hostel. The hostel was free but we slept in bunk beds in a huge crowded room. In the morning we were given portions of the New Testament and we ate quite delicious pancakes as I recall.

We went to the Heineken factory and there started a fascination with this particular beer. I have been called a fancy lad for even drinking it. I remember we sat with other tourists and drank the beer. We kept running into white South Africans who tried to tell us that our news media was biased against white South Africa. This was still the apartheid era and white South Africans were finding that the world was hostile to them and they were very defensive and racist if you pressed them to explain themselves.

The truth was we could barely afford to eat and probably couldn't afford much more than one joint but we still found money to go on this stupid beer tour. I tried to convince Ahmed. We went to a cafe and we looked at the menu. This was very exotic to me. A menu of weed? There are really that many kinds? Afghan, California, sativa, hybrids and indica? You name it it was there. I didn't feel like smoking it by myself with judgy Ahmed looking on.

I even have a picture of Ahmed smoking a cigarette and drinking at this cafe. I am still trying to figure out how he ever thought a cigarette was a better thing to smoke than weed. All I can think is he just smoked too much of it when he was younger and then succumbed to the propaganda at the time that it was very dangerous. And of course, society accepts cigarettes and alcohol - FAR MORE DANGEROUS AND CANCER CAUSING - and it still frowns on Cannabis. Even in the era of this sham "legalization" Justin Trudeau has foisted on us.

And so, my second trip in two years to Amsterdam left me without any experience of what it would be like to freely smoke Cannabis in a decriminalized situation. And what a stunning and historical city to do that in. There is a part of me that is still kind of angry at my father and Ahmed for being so close minded. Yes I could have done it on my own and I have no one to blame but myself and I have smoked thousands of joints since - but I feel like those were two opportunities that were missed.

Most people don't go to Amsterdam ever! And here I was two trips in with no Cannabis experience? Thankfully this would be resolved in the next three trips I took. Two were with my wife and one was a solo trip.

I look forward to revealing the stories of those trips when I write my next Amsterdam chapter.

By the way, this journal reads better if you are on WEED! Try listening to Bob Marley or The Beatles or something like that as well.

(Thank you for reading my Cannabis Journals so far. The next chapter will be called "JUSTIN SCREWS UP LEGALIZATION" and it is about how I voted for legalization and can't really blame the Prime Minister. I was stupid enough to vote for him. Coming next week!)