Amsterdam's famous hash bars are in trouble. Not, mind you, because the Dutch government has reversed its relatively tolerant stance on marijuana possession, but because of new laws designed to protect employees from second-hand smoke. (They'll be even safer, one imagines, when the cafes where they work go out of business.) The laws were designed primarily to combat tobacco smoking, which summons to mind the possibility that in the Europe of tomorrow, heroin will be socialized and cigarettes banned. One cafe owner, incidentally, has come up with a novel way around the new rules:
We can set up a special fan that will waft a range of marijuana fumes through the premises. Customers can sit back and enjoy without actually smoking.
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Lefty|5.30.03 @ 3:54AM|#
When are they going to do something about those cooking fumes that permeate most restaurants?
|5.30.03 @ 4:54AM|#
What, they never heard of a smokeless bong?
Warren|5.30.03 @ 4:56AM|#
"Europe of tomorrow, heroin will be socialized and cigarettes banned"
Hee! Wouldn't surprise me in the least
Brian|5.30.03 @ 7:24AM|#
Lefty--
That'll get taken care of when they outlaw fatty, high-carb, or otherwise "unhealthy" foods. If restaraunts can't serve anything other than salads and raw fruit, the menace of cooking smells will be taken care of. Kind of a twofer. Give 'em time...
Funny thing is, when I visited Amsterdam, my Dutch friends told me they thought it was funny how Americans almost invariably partake of the "merchandise" in the establishment in which they purchase it. Apparently, the Dutch (at least the ones I was hanging out with) prefer to take it elsewhere, mix it with tobacco, and smoke in one of the many lovely open-air bars and cafes throughout the city. So I'm not really sure that banning smoking in the shops would necessarily put them out of business, though it would undoubtedly be a nuisance.
THX|6.2.03 @ 1:55AM|#
Restaurants? What a quaint idea. Like burlesque and face fans, I thought they went the way of the dodo. -- THX, June 29, 2025.
BonnerJackson Aaron|9.10.04 @ 12:24AM|#
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