John Sinclair and His Amsterdam Blues Scholars at cafe 420 (I)

Mystical Tsarism and the Cannabis Cup

T.S.O.G.
The Thing That Ate the Constitution by Robert Anton Wilson.

...The major open functions of Mystical Tsarism now are the Drug Enforcement Administration [DEA] and the Food and Drug Administration [FDA.] You all know about the DEA and its vast army of snoops and informers -- a vision to gladden the heart of Pobedonostsev himself. The FDA operates similarly but with less publicity; it was described in these terms by Saul Kent of the Life Extension Foundation: "The FDA's strong-arm tactics are used to intimidate and terrorize Americans into toeing their police-state line on health care and medicine."

In 1957, the FDA burned all the books of dissident physician Wilhelm Reich, M.D., smashed his laboratory equipment with axes, and threw him in jail, where he died.

Lately, their major targets have been midwives, herbalists and others who offer safer and cheaper health care than the TSOG itself.

Although our first official and open Tsar was appointed during the brief, bloody reign of George Bush, the Tsar's powers only reached tyrannical status under Bill Clinton, a hillbilly with a perpetual hard-on.

Our recent Tsar, General Barry McCaffrey, recently stated the theology of Mystic Tsarism in an article for the Denver Post. I condense a bit because, like most Tsars, Mac the Knife is a bit of a windbag:

 

"Each week, millions of Americans attend religious services to seek guidance, reaffirm moral values, offer charity and obtain a sense of community. Each of these four elements underscores the importance of faith-based organizations .... Educating young people ... requires us to guide them and teach them values. .....On May 10, I traveled to Colorado Springs to stand with Dr. James Dobson and the Young Life Christian Ministry. The ministry's youth programs are model efforts for how faith-based organizations can play a critical role in helping our young people choose the right path....[blah blah blah]... The One Way 2 Play program of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is another example of how faith groups help young people ..... The One Way 2 Play program uses sports to teach the importance of a healthy lifestyle and a commitment to faith. .. ... As British Theologian Dean William Inge said: 'If we are to safeguard our children and communities, rabbis, priests, clerics, deacons, sisters, brothers and cantors must help lead the way'" ...[emphasis added]

Faith and docility are the bulwarks of Tsarism; any hint of scientific knowledge, rationality or even plain "horse sense" among the serfs are its major worries, and it blocks them every way it can. No Tsar will ever lavish such praise on scientists or other professional skeptics as McCaffery lavishes on the faithful and the sheep-herders who lead and fleece them.

And so, the Constitution in tatters, spies everywhere, we inhabit "one nation under surveillance with wiretaps and mail covers for all;" and everybody is terrorized about whether their houses and property will be seized next. In short, we find ourselves, as Trotsky found the Russians a century ago, midway between European monarchism and Asiatic despotism.
T.S.O.G. The Thing That Ate the Constitution

John Sinclair and His Amsterdam Blues Scholars at cafe 420

EXCUSE ME WHILE I KISS THE SKY.

JOHN SINCLAIR: WORDS, VINCENT PINO: GUITAR, STEVE FLY AGARIC 23: DRUMS
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John Sinclair Radio Show #352

Posted in: John Sinclair Radio Show

The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
Cannabis College (Cannabis Cup Special)
Monday, November 22, 2010 @ 5:30-6:30 pm [20-1048]
Amsterdam, NL.
Larry Hayden and I are celebrating the beginning of our 7th year of the John Sinclair Radio Show with the first 2010 Cannabis Cup program from the Cannabis College in Amsterdam with our traditional panoply of guests, including Thomas Moore of Arkansas & Amsterdam, Kenny Post and the prominent underground radio host Franck from Antwerp, Walter Noons of Boston, bro. Merll Truesdale of South Carolina, and the stereophonic photograher pSteve from Portland, Oregon. Our theme music tonight is from Sun Ra & His Arkestra, followed by a final salute for 2010 to the former Motor City with selections by Planet D Nonet, the Howling Diablos, and the Detroit Cobras, a conversation with Thomas Moore, live music from Walter Noons, a conversation with & performance by the late Lee Bridges from the Cannabis College in our 5th program frm 2004, my poem for Lee with Dr. Dorothy Goodman & the Motor City Blues Scholars at the 2006 Detroit International Jazz Festival, conversations with pSteve & Merll Truesale, music from the 101 Runners, a live performance by Kenny Post and our closing theme from the first John Sinclair Radio Show with LangeFrans & Baas B.
John Sinclair on Facebook Where ya at ?

Playlist 352
[01] Opening Music: Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Advice to Medics
[02] John Sinclair ID, Comments & Opening Tokes with Larry Hayden & Co.
[03] Planet D Nonet: Enlightenment (Live At The Scarab Club)
[04] Howling Diablos: Nobody In Detroit
[05] Detroit Cobras: (I Wanna Know) What’s Going On?
[06] John Sinclair Comments & Conversation with Thomas Moore >
[07] John Sinclair Intro to Walter Noons > Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues >
[08] John Sinclair Conversation with Walter Noons re: Lee Bridges
[09] John Sinclair Conversation with Lee Bridges from JSRS 05 >
[10] Lee Bridges: Exactly Man
[11] John Sinclair & the Motor City Blues Scholars: relaxin’ with lee
[12] John Sinclair Conversations with pSteve & Merll Truesdale
[13] 101 Runners: My Big Chief On Fire
[14] John Sinclair Intro to Kenny Post > Hoop for the Lowly > Comments
[15] John Sinclair Outro
[16] Closing Music: John Sinclair with LangeFrans & Baas B: It’s All Good

Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Recorded by Larry Hayden at the Cannabis College, Amsterdam
Produced, edited & assembled by John Sinclair at the 420 Café & the Self-Hemployed Studio
Posted by Larry Hayden
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Joeri, Larry Hayden, Steve Fly, Dave at the Cannabis College, Henk Botwinik, Thomas Moore, Merll Truesdale, pSteve, Walter Noons, Kenny Post & Co., and all the BobbleHead Radio characters
© 2010 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

John Sinclair Radio Show #350

Posted in: John Sinclair Radio Show

The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
The Foundry > Headpress Bunker
Sunday, November 14, 2010 @ 11:00-12:00 pm [20-1046]
London, UK.

It’s a rainy Sunday evening in London and I’m at the Headpress Bunker assembling a special London program of recordings of Tracey Moberly’s Late Late Breakfast Show from The Foundry on Resonance Radio last May and selections from the Jair-Rohm Wells Sextet at the Vortex Club last July in celebration of Albert Ayler’s birthday; from the demo sessions in September for the album I’m recording this week in London with Youth; from the International Blues Scholars at Studio Zen In Amsterdam last August; and from a session I recorded last week in Brixton with the South African poet and life-long activist Lee Harris for his forthcoming album with his ensemble River Styx.
John Sinclair on Facebook Where ya at ?

Playlist 350
[01] Opening Music: Jair-Rohm Wells Sextet: Ghosts
[02] John Sinclair Intro Comments & ID
[03] Tracey Moberly Intro to Late Late Breakfast Show & Conversation
with John Sinclair >
[04] John Sinclair: Fat Boy
[05] John Sinclair & Youth: Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness
[06] Tracey Moberly Conversation with John Sinclair
[07] John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars: We Love Big Chief
[08] Tracey Moberly ID & Conversation with John Sinclair >
[09] John Sinclair: Friday the 13th
[10] John Sinclair & Youth: My Buddy
[11] John Sinclair Closing Comments & Outro
[12] Closing Music: John Sinclair & Lee Harris with River Styx

Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Produced, recorded, edited & assembled by John Sinclair
Posted by Larry Hayden
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Tracey Moberly, Dylan Harding, Steve Fly, Youth, Michael, Alan Clayton, Brian James, Ian Grant, Nick Smith, Lee Harris, Hicham & Paul
© 2010 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

Jazz from the Hempshopper with john Sinclair 27

Posted in: Jazz From The Hempshopper

Jazz from the Hempshopper with john Sinclair 27
The John Sinclair Foundation Presents

Jazz from the Hempshopper with john Sinclair
The Hempshopper, Amsterdam, September 17, 2010 [HS-0027]
John Sinclair by the Singel Canal in Amsterdam spinning new releases and modern jazz classics by Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Billie Holiday, Archie Shepp, Air, Albert Ayler, John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars, Andrew Hill, and David “Fathead” Newman.

PLAYLIST 26
[01] Opening Theme: Charlie Parker: Another Hairdo
[02] John Sinclair Intro & Opening Comments
[03] Eric Dolphy: Straight Up and Down
[04] Billie Holiday: Be Fair with Me Baby
[05] Archie Shepp: Bakai
[06] John Sinclair Comments
[07] Air: Buddy Bolden Blues
[08] Albert Ayler: Vibrations
[09] John Sinclair Comments
[10] John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars: humphf
[11] Andrew Hill: Subterfuge
[12] John Sinclair Closing Comments & Outro
[13] Closing Music: David “Fathead” Newman: Hard Times

Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Produced, recorded, edited & assembled by John Sinclair
Posted by Larry Hayden
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Sidney Daniels
Sponsored by The Hempshopper, Amsterdam
© The John Sinclair Foundation 2010

RADIO FREE AMSTERDAM

For Immediate Release

RADIO FREE AMSTERDAM

BEGINS 7^TH YEAR OF INTERNET BROADCASTING. BY JOHN SINCLAIR.

(Amsterdam, November 22, 2010)—The John Sinclair Radio Show, flagship program of the grass-roots Radio Free Amsterdam internet radio station, celebrates six years of weekly broadcasts with 10 days of daily programs from the 2010 Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam.

Founded at the 2004 Cannabis Cup, the John Sinclair Radio Show has logged over 350 weekly programs emanating from remote locations in Amsterdam and all over the world. The guerrilla radio station without a studio was instituted by Henk Botwinik, Larry Hayden and John Sinclair. Sinclair is program director and producer of RFA programming; Hayden is Executive Producer.

Starting out in the coffeeshops and gathering spots of Amsterdam, the John Sinclair Radio Show has followed its host all over the world, posting one-hour programs each week from London, New York City, Detroit, New Orleans, Santiago, Tokyo, Genoa, Paris, Rome, and numerous points in between. The full list of program locations includes:

• AMSTERDAM          DETROIT            LONDON
•  
• 420 Café                New Dodge Lounge   Headpress Bunker
• Coffeeshop Amnesia      Ann Arbor Alive Radio   Who Do You Think You Are
• Homegrown Fantasy       WDET Radio              Royal Festival Hall,
• Sensi Museum Coffeeshop Bombadill’s, Ypsilanti  City Inn Art Cafe
• Cannabis College             Amsterdam Espresso Lee Harris Croft, East Anglia
• PRE Café                Butchers inn            CafÈ Oto
• Barney’s Brasserie           Straight Ahead Studio   World’s End Tavern
• Winston Hotel           Holice P. Woods Studio  Raindance Film Festival
• Paradiso Balloon Party       Hastings Street Ballroom     Biddle Bros
• Cafe Aroma                   Jazz Loft          Second Layer
• Schipol Airport              Bohemian National Home Rough Trade
• What Is Happening Here       Park Bar           Bamalama Poster Shop
• Galeria Tongue in Groove     MOCAD              Big Green Books
• Vurige Tongen @ Ruigoord     Hash Bash, Ann Arbor    Resonance Radio
• CS Post                 Trans-Love Energies Waterstones
• Rock-It Coffeeshop      BookBeat, Oak Park Siani Mews
• Pigeon Poetry Boat Canal Cruise                 Longcat
•  CafÈ La Bettola               
•  
• NEW ORLEANS        Viva La Rock Radio
• Blues Bunker            WWOZ-FM            Ray’s Jazz
• Megaplaten, Jaarbeurs Utrecht     Radio Marigny      Scream Studio
• Bitter Zoet                  Piety Street Recording  Shepherd’s Bush
• Amsterdam Dreams        Handa Wanda’s      London Print Studio
• Club More               Hi-Ho Lounge       The Foundry
• Funky Farmers Seed Shop Frenchy Gallery         All Tomorrow’s Parties
• Fat City Coffeeshop          Zotz Coffeeshop
• Smoking Bull Café            Mardi Gras in New Orleans
• Easter Hill Studios
• The Dolphins 
•         
• EUROPE & WORLD
• Paradiso                SkyDog Tower, Paris
• Gray Area               Festival Rochefort-en-Accords, Fr
• Winston International Hotel  Kyriad Hotel, Perigeaux, France
• DFM Radio               CosmoPoetica, Cordoba, Spain
• Legalize! Parade             Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin
• Sugar Factory           Hotel Ibis, Berlin
• Akhnaton                Firenze  
• High Life Cup, RAI           Piazza del Erbe, Genoa
• St. Christopher Hotel        Cafe Mentelocale, Genoa
• Eat at Jo’s in the Melkweg   B & B il Pittolo, Elmo, Italy
• Fantasio                CSOA Forte Prenestino, Roma
• Coffeeshop Basjoe            CSOA Cox 18, Milan, Italy
• Hempshopper             Museo Arte di Paolo Pini, Milano
• Overtoom 301            Radio Onda Rossa, Roma
• OCCII                        Libri, Pitigliano, Italy
• ZXZW Festival, Tillburg      Teatro del Fuoco, Foggia, Italy
• Fly Agaric Studio            Santiago > Valparaiso, Chile
• Café The Zen            Tokyo Hipsters Club, Tokyo
• Spam, Rotterdam Noord        Ooze Charm Coffeeshop, Tokyo
• Stena Line, English Channel

UNITED STATES

Chelsea Hotel, New York City

Yippie Museum Café, NYC

Think Coffee, New York City

XM Satellite Radio, NYC

Think Coffee, New York City

XM Satellite Radio, NYC

New Grass Center, Florence MA

Mama’s Crowbar, Portland ME

Roots Music & Arts Festival, MD

Common Ground on the Hill

Kent Stage, Kent OH

Standing Ovation Studio, Chicago

Pheasant Hollow, Wittenburg IL

Pumpkin Hollow, TN

Opal Fly’s, Fayetteville AR

Republic Coffee, Memphis

Honest Tune, Oxford MS

Thacker Mt. Radio, Oxford

Voyagers Rest, Oxford MS

Rebel Radio, Ole Miss, Oxford MS

Two Stick, Oxford MS

State Theater, Starkville MS

Clubside, Olympia WA

Berkeley Liberation Radio

Perrier Lounge, San Francisco

Diva Radio, San Francisco

LuveR.com/Berkeley Cable TV

Two Media Whores, KLSX, LA

Subterranea, KCSN, Los Angeles

Caffe Etc, Los Angeles

Blues Hotel @ KXLU-FM, LA

A new episode of the John Sinclair Radio Show is produced and posted each week, along with two hours of original programming titled Sinclair On The Air broadcast every Saturday night from midnight until 2:00 am on Salto Wereld FM-99.4 in Amsterdam, and Sinclair’s Jazz from the Hempshopper on Fridays.

Other Radio Free Amsterdam programming includes Cannabis Talk, hosted by Joeri Pfeiffer on Salto Wereld FM-99.4 every Saturday night at 11:00 pm; The Blues Show with Bruce Pingree from WUNH-FM in Durham, NH; Highway 61 with Scott Barretta from Mississippi Pubic Broadcasting; The Kitchen Sink and radio documentaries by David Kunian of WWOZ-FM, New Orleans; Jazz Roots and the New Orleans Music Show with Tom Morgan of WWOZ; Vintage Radio Vaults, programs from the past years of radio; and other programs from the John Sinclair Archives including Blue Dolphins and the New Orleans Music Show with John Sinclair.

Additional programming is produced for Radio Free Amsterdam by Henk Botwinik. Radio Free Amsterdam programming is also produced for broadcast on Detroit Life Radio, www.DetroitLife313.com under the direction of John Sinclair and Executive Producer Holice P. Wood.

John Sinclair Radio Show #354

Posted in: Radio Free Amsterdam

Cannabis Calendar
Hemp, Hash & Marijuana Event Agenda
The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
Cannabis Cup Special – Eat at Jo’s in the Melkweg
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 @ 7:30-8:30 pm [20-1049]
Amsterdam, NL.

Our third Cannabis Cup 2010 episode is coming from Eat at Jo’s in the Melkweg near the Leidseplein in the heart of Amsterdam, with Dr. Larry Hayden at the controls and a cast of including Steve Fly Agaric 23, Zoe (“Heaven High”), Rev. Ferre of the THC Ministry & Moira, Kenny Post & his posse from Antwerp, and Mary Jo Tunison herself, and we’re listening to music by David “Fathead” Newman, the Moonglows, the Howling Diablos, James Semark, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker with strings, John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars, the Isley Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, and Curtis May & Paul Bryant.
John Sinclair on Facebook Where ya at ?

Playlist 354

[01] Opening Music: David “Fathead” Newman: Hard Times
[02] John Sinclair ID & Opening Comments with Steve Fly
[03] Moonglows: Chickie Um Bah
[04] Howling Diablos: Record Collection
[05] James Semark: Joe Weaver & Lyman Woodard
[06] Billie Holiday: Be Fair with Me Baby
[07] John Sinclair Conversation with Zoe
[08] Charlie Parker: They Can’t Take That Away From Me
[09] John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars: that old man
[10] John Sinclair Conversation with Mary Jo Tunison
[11] The Isley Brothers: Move Over And Let Me Dance
[12] John Sinclair Closing Conversation with >
[13] Kenny Post: Live Performance
[14] Closing Music: Curtis May & Paul Bryant: Just Friends

Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Recorded by Larry Hayden at Eat at Jo’s, Amsterdam
Produced, edited & assembled by John Sinclair at the 420 Café, Amsterdam
Posted by Larry Hayden
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Mary Jo, Eric & Gordo at Eat at Jo’s, Larry Hayden, Steve Fly, Zoe, Rev. Ferre & Moira, Kenny Post & Franck from Antwerp
© 2010 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

John Sinclair on Ginsbergblog

Monday, November 8, 2010

John Sinclair

Some excellent footage of John Sinclair in Massachusetts last week shot by Laki Vazakas. He opens with his poem for Marion Brown who passed away October 18 this year.

Allen wrote of Sinclair in his "Outline of Un-American Activities: A PEN American Center Report." (The complete essay, first published in The Writer and Human Rights, Anchor/Doubleday1983, is now available in Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays 1952-1995 ed Bill Morgan. Harper Perennial. )

"In Detroit there is a rock and jazz impresario named John Sinclair, who was a poet much beloved of Charles Olson. In 1965 we had a big poetry meeting in Berkeley, and Ed Sanders, Anne Waldman, and John Sinclair were invited specifically by Olson to represent the younger generation. Sinclair had an organization in Detroit called the Artists' Workshop, which published huge mimeographed volumes of local poetry, as well as pamphlets by correspondents. He put out a long anticommunist manifesto (Prose Contribution to Cuban Revolution) that I wrote in 1960 about the Cuban Revolution, a sort of challenge to the spiritual foundations of it saying that it was too materialist. So he wasn't exactly a riotous red. His main thing though, his main "shtick," so to speak, was uniting black and white in the otherwise tense, riot-torn areas of Detroit, through the Artists' Workshop, because there was collaboration between black jazz musicians and white jazz musicians, black writers and white writers, black poets and white poets. It was a kind of heroic effort, actually. He had a newspaper, and after a while he had a thing called the White Panther party, sort of in collaboration with the Black Panthers, or in defense of the Black Panthers, who were also being subjected to this kind of double-dealing and harassment by the government.

So the narcotics police sent in a young married couple to hang around with John Sinclair and wash his dishes and do mimeographing and distribute papers, and they were constantly harassing him: would he please give them a joint, would he give them some grass? Which he didn't do, fortunately, for a long long while. Finally, one late night, they were really on his back to give them some grass, so he gave them a stick of marijuana. He was busted several weeks later, set up for a long trial, had to pay a lot of money for that, was convicted of peddling marijuana, and sentenced to nine and a half to ten years. Of which he spent several years in the federal penitentiary in Marquette. That was an FBI attempt to silence a dissenter and a poet. In jail he wrote a really interesting poem. He said, "My books wait for me on the shelf, myself, my typewriter sits empty, urging me onward. Nine and a half to ten years is not enough!" So actually, he was a sharp poet. And a worthy citizen. He's now the chief impresario of black and white jazz in Detroit, and has rock 'n' roll, jazz, and old blues concerts."

http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/john-sinclair.html

John Sinclair Radio Show #348

Posted in: John Sinclair Radio Show

The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
“OCTOBER IS BLUES MONTH ON RADIO FREE AMSTERDAM”
Trans-Love Energies CCC
Sunday, October 31, 2010 @ 10:00-11:00 pm [20-1044]
Detroit, MI.

I’m broadcasting tonight from the Trans-Love Energies Compassionate Care Center at 1486 Gratiot on Detroit with Holice P. Wood, Mike Boulan and Light Show Bob riding shotgun and contributing to our discussions while we listen to music from the new Planet D Nonet 2-CD set of Sun Ra compositions titled We Travel the Spaceways, plus select cuts by Toots & the Maytals, the Swallows, the Howling Diablos, and three numbers by me with my Blues Scholars in Detroit and Amsterdam in honor of my wife Penny’s birthday November 1st. Happy birthday, baby!
John Sinclair on Facebook Where ya at ?

Playlist 348
[01] Opening Theme: Sam Henry & the Soul Machine: Gun
[02] John Sinclair Intro Comments with Holice P. Wood & Mike Boulan
[03] Planet D Nonet: Velvet
[04] Planet D Nonet: Enlightenment
[05] Planet D Nonet: Enlightenment
[06] John Sinclair Conversation with Holice P. Wood & Mike Boulan
[07] Toots & the Maytals: Time Tough
[08] Swallows: It Ain’t the Meat
[09] Howling Diablos: Go Gene Go
[10] John Sinclair Conversation with Holice P. Wood & Mike Boulan
[11] John Sinclair & His Motor City Blues Scholars: all alone > (just one way to say) i love you
[12] John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars: that old man
[13] John Sinclair Closing Comments & Outro
[13] Closing Music: John Sinclair & His Motor City Blues Scholars: i’ll follow you

Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Produced, recorded, edited & assembled by John Sinclair
Posted by Larry Hayden
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Sunny & Beyonce Sinclair, Hollywood, Mike Boulan, and Light Show Bob
© 2010 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

Holland, Spinoza, Descartes, fucking and smoking dope

10th September, 2002. (Bob's house, Santa Cruz)

Fly Agaric 23: [I found the city of Amsterdam to be one of the more liberal thinking cities of Europe.]

Robert Anton Wilson: Yeah, it's been that way for a long time, when the queen who sponsored Columbus's voyage, Isabelle - when she expelled all the Jews from Spain, Holland accepted them, which has made it a very liberal country ever since and that's where Spinoza wrote and most of the major philosophers you find spent a couple of years in Holland because they were banned in their own country and had to run for their lives, some of them died in Holland. Descartes lived in Holland for a while so did Spinoza, so did a lot of them and they have always been very forward thinking and according to a friend of mine in southern California they own most of the banks which own most of the English banks which own most of the American banks which own most of the corporate capitalist world - at the same time; it dosen't matter how much their people fuck and smoke dope and get high and enjoy themselves. [laughs]

http://www.maybelogic.org/maybequarterly/08/0801FlyRAWInterview.htm

Amsterdam is Viper Central by John Sinclair (Metro Times Cover Piece)

Amsterdam is Viper Central

Consider the advantages of going Dutch

By John Sinclair

Published: November 3, 2010.

As a prominent European port city, Amsterdam has served as a center for lightweight vice — recreational drug use, prostitution, gambling, public sexual excess — for several centuries.
This sort of activity has been tolerated in Amsterdam since the city's beginnings, exemplified in modern times by fully legalized prostitution and the virtual legalization of small-scale marijuana sales and recreational drug use of all sorts.

But in no way is Amsterdam a wide-open city in any sense of the word. Vice is regarded as simply a part of normal life and, in the Dutch way, sensibly tolerated and regulated to fit proportionately into the everyday life of its 600,000 citizens. Cannabis use has stabilized at something like 20 percent of the populace and presents no sort of threat to the rather staid social order.

Nothing is more boring to Dutch citizens than the topic of marijuana use. There are those who oppose it on the usual religious or cultural grounds, but the sensationalism and public drama of American-style War on Drugs propaganda is nowhere in evidence; the forces of law and order are perfectly happy with the way things work in terms of recreational drug use.

It's important to remember that marijuana is not exactly legal in the Netherlands. Marijuana use and procurement exist in what the Dutch describe as a "gray area" where it's OK to buy some weed and smoke it in the hundreds of licensed "coffee shops" that abound in the Netherlands, with nearly 250 in operation in Amsterdam itself.

But it's illegal to cultivate, grow, harvest, import, transport or deliver cannabis to the outlets where it's sold across the counter to anyone over 18 who can meet the modest price of purchase. An individual may grow five plants for personal use, but larger grow operations intended to supply the coffee shop market with salable product are targeted for arrest and prosecution by the police and courts.

The marijuana smoker is allowed by national governmental policy to enjoy possession of five grams and the ability to purchase them over the counter in the coffee shops, which are themselves permitted to possess no more than 500 grams of marijuana and hashish on their premises at any one time.

Holland has legalized medical marijuana, available at pharmacies with a doctor's prescription, but word on the street is that the medicinal weed isn't as good as that available commercially and even costs somewhat more than the over-the-counter brands.

For centuries, weed itself was scarce in Holland, and hashish mixed with tobacco into joints ("jointjes") was the traditional smoke. But in modern times, the Dutch have learned from the holy farmers of Hawaii and the West Coast how to cultivate vast quantities of top-quality marijuana and make it available to the retail counters in the coffee shops.

Now there are almost countless strains of marijuana — cannabis indica, cannabis sativa and blends of the two basic types — offered to the consumer by means of explicit menus provided at the point of purchase. Standard brands like White Widow, Blueberry, Skunk and Power Plant are always in the house, along with more exotic strains like Super Silver Haze, Amnesia Haze, New York Diesel, various breeds of Kush and Cheese, and whatever hybrid delicacies the growers manage to dream up and cultivate from season to season.

Some coffee shops (such as the 420 Café, the author's favorite hang) offer limited menus with maybe six marijuana and six hashish selections. Others have strains specially grown for them, or specialize in voluminous listings of 20 or 30 types of smoke always kept on hand. Some weigh out your grams and bag them before your eyes, while others sell pre-prepared gram bags.

Unlike our own measures in terms of ounces, quarters, eighths and sixteenths, the Dutch use the metric system, and cannabis is sold strictly by the gram. For the causal smoker of limited financial power, this means that you can cop by the $8-$10 gram and rest assured that there'll be another gram of the same sort and quality available in the same location when you need it next — no pressure to round up $60 or $80 in order to enjoy your smoke.

The great thing is that there's no stigma attached to getting high or enjoying a smoke in a public setting, although the Dutch much prefer that such use is kept indoors and confined to like-minded sorts. Smoking cannabis is de riguer in the coffee shops, and there are many smoker-sympathetic bars that allow the simultaneous ingestion of cannabis and alcoholic spirits.

Until a few years ago, the coffee shops were allowed to serve both smoke and drink, but such mixing is no longer permitted, and the bars that allow smoking don't sell the stuff on the premises. And since the European Union enacted anti-tobacco legislation that forbids smoking cigarettes in coffee shops, restaurants and bars anywhere, only cannabis smoking is permitted in properly licensed establishments.
Coffee shop culture is a topic in and of itself, but a brief historical survey reveals that the coffee shops resulted from the growth of public smoking and cannabis provision that started in squatted entertainment venues like the Paradiso and the Melkweg around 1972.

At the same time, enterprising individuals of the burgeoning cannabis culture determined to make the stuff available in fixed locations, such as the houseboat that originally offered hash and weed for sale, and seminal coffee shops such as the Rusland and Mellow Yellow.

By this time, the effects of the Netherlands becoming a signatory to the Single Drug Convention propagated by the hated Richard M. Nixon administration should have squelched the incipient movement for legalization of cannabis in Holland, but a sort of miracle happened. The son of a prominent Dutch cabinet member convinced his mother that there was little personal or social harm that could reasonably be blamed on cannabis use, and the government should seek to reduce and limit the potential harm to the smoker from the legal system.

An improvised "harm reduction" regime was soon established that allowed the cannabis outlets and public smoking spots to exist without punishment while continuing to forbid the cultivation and delivery of cannabis in the Netherlands. Recreational use of reasonable amounts of hitherto forbidden substances of whatever sort would be permitted without resort to either persecution or prosecution, and things bubbled along pretty much without incident for more than 20 years before the regulation era began in 1995.

At that point, the government decided it had to have some of the action from the ever-growing cannabis industry and insisted that all existing coffee shops and dispensaries of any sort must be registered and licensed by the city in which they existed. The proceeds from their product sales would be taxed and their activities regulated according to the whim of local government.

So the present system has been in effect now for 15 years, and while the local authorities continue to chip away at the coffee shop culture in petty little ways too trivial to enumerate here, Amsterdam and Holland still manage to maintain the most rational and least punitive environment for recreational marijuana use in the known world.

In this time of turmoil and massive change in America's approach to marijuana use and distribution, we have an awful lot to learn from the Dutch system and how it accommodates the vipers among its populace. For now, Amsterdam remains Viper Central, and long may its freak flag wave!
—Detroit, October 28-29, 2010

Now based in Amsterdam, longtime multi-cause activist and writer John Sinclair contributes to the bi-weekly Higher Ground column in Metro Times. His musings and musical selections can be heard at RadioFreeAmsterdam.com.

Whether Prop 19 Passes or Not, Legalization is Now Mainstream

But win or lose this time, a page in history has turned -- drug policy reform is an issue who time has come, and time is on our side.

November 1, 2010  |  

 

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California's Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization "Tax and Regulate" initiative, has been a roller coaster ride for drug policy reformers. In May polls showed Prop 19 in the lead, but not by much and with support under 50%. For the next four months, the numbers did something we didn't expect; opposition to the measure steadily decreased. One pollster interviewed in early October for my organization's newsletter, commented, "If I was in Las Vegas and I was a betting man, I'd bet on [Prop 19] to win, but I'd only bet money I could afford to lose." A number of funders took that bet last month, adding steam to what had been a mostly low-profile campaign.

The last few weeks have seen support for Prop 19 fall in most polls, a phenomenon common to controversial ballot measures. Voters might support the general concept of an initiative -- west coast support for marijuana legalization polled at 58% last week -- but some inevitably develop doubts about a given initiative at a given time, especially as opponents raise questions, and when uncertain tend pull the "no" lever. If Prop 19 is defeated, that will be the reason, not opposition in principle to legalization. But defeat is not inevitable. Last-minute donations funding an ad blitz, and extensive voter turnout efforts, could make the difference, and the campaign has pointed out that polling conducted by computer rather than live interviewers still shows the initiative ahead. One late poll, while showing the initiative behind, also found voters who don't usually turn out for midterm elections coming out for Prop 19. If the marijuana vote can change turnout demographics tomorrow, that could make the difference too.

Win or lose, though, in a sense Prop 19 has already won. A partial listing of mainstream organizations that have publicly called for marijuana legalization for the first time by endorsing Prop 19, shows that legalization can no longer credibly be dismissed as from the fringe:

• California NAACP
• LULAC of California
• Latino Voters League
• National Black Police Association
• National Latino Officers Association
• SEIU of California
• UFCW Western States Council
• ILWU Northern California District Council
• California Young Democrats

Those are only some of the larger ones. Current and former politicians in California have endorsed Prop 19, from the local level up through Congress. Founders of Facebook, Gmail and PayPal made financial contributions to the campaign. Widespread positive coverage including editorials in the likes of Newsweek and the New York Times makes the point too.

We'll find out on Tuesday what California voters decide about Prop 19 this year. But win or lose this time, a page in history has turned -- drug policy reform is an issue who time has come, and time is on our side.

http://www.alternet.org/news/148712