Joe Gouder sends this story from Holland about About 150 people smoking pot and wearing T-shirts with a cannabis leaf print gathered in Amsterdam Saturday as part of a world-wide action in favour of the legalisation of marijuana...
AMSTERDAM (AFP) — About 150 people smoking pot and wearing T-shirts with a cannabis leaf print gathered in Amsterdam Saturday as part of a world-wide action in favour of the legalisation of marijuana.
The peaceful protesters gathered on a square in the Dutch capital, listening to pro-legalisation speaches from a small podium as a strong smell of marijuana hung in the air and music pumped from several speakers.
Small stands sold T-shirts with pro-cannabis logos, as well as biscuits and other snacks containing marijuana.
"Prohibiting something that people will always want causes illegality and the emergence of criminal gangs," Daan Rosenberg Polak, a publisher of pro-legalisation books, told AFP at the gathering."In the Netherlands, we've had a good system since the 1970s, but recent governments have been trying to take us back to a more conservative system," he said, arguing that the moderate use of soft drugs held no danger.
The peaceful protesters gathered on a square in the Dutch capital, listening to pro-legalisation speaches from a small podium as a strong smell of marijuana hung in the air and music pumped from several speakers.
Small stands sold T-shirts with pro-cannabis logos, as well as biscuits and other snacks containing marijuana.
"Prohibiting something that people will always want causes illegality and the emergence of criminal gangs," Daan Rosenberg Polak, a publisher of pro-legalisation books, told AFP at the gathering."In the Netherlands, we've had a good system since the 1970s, but recent governments have been trying to take us back to a more conservative system," he said, arguing that the moderate use of soft drugs held no danger.
