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Comment by khazhoux | Hacker News Reader

Huh. I always thought it's legal, but not a hundred percent legal. I mean, you can't walk into a restaurant, roll a joint and start puffing away. You're only supposed to smoke in your home or certain designated places.

I was under the impression: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it, and if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry it, but if you get stopped by the cops in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them to search you.

Am I just misled for the last 25 years?

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I've also heard that you can walk into a movie theater in Amsterdam and buy a beer.

Lol, or in any other civilized region that cares about citizen freedom. You can also drink a beer in a park, if you can believe it!

It's a quote from the same piece of classic literature that the GP is quoting from.

They're talking about Pulp Fiction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLIcFP0J5TY

                                     JULES
                         – Okay now, tell me about the hash 
                         bars?

                                     VINCENT
                         What so you want to know?

                                     JULES
                         Well, hash is legal there, right?

                                     VINCENT
                         Yeah, it's legal, but is ain't a 
                         hundred percent legal. I mean you 
                         can't walk into a restaurant, roll a 
                         joint, and start puffin' away. You're 
                         only supposed to smoke in your home 
                         or certain designated places.

                                     JULES
                         Those are hash bars?

                                     VINCENT
                         Yeah, it breaks down like this: it's 
                         legal to buy it, it's legal to own 
                         it and, if you're the proprietor of 
                         a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. 
                         It's legal to carry it, which doesn't 
                         really matter 'cause – get a load of 
                         this – if the cops stop you, it's 
                         illegal for this to search you. 
                         Searching you is a right that the 
                         cops in Amsterdam don't have.

"Royale with cheese" is part of the same scene.

What?

Say "what" again!

The police can fine you for drinking a beer in a park in most cities. I am not sure about Amsterdam, but you can get into problems with the police for drinking in Rotterdam, for example.

Only, I'd say, if you are causing problems. The police are incredibly tolerant. No problems, no problem.

E.g., they aren't "out to get you" like police in America.

That really depends on the particular policeman you find.

Once I was having lunch with some friends in a park and one of us was drinking a beer can. We were alone there and, certainly, not causing any problem. The police approached us and fined my friend for drinking in public (I don't remember how much it was, this was some years ago). I live in front of a park now and I've seen similar things. I've also been drinking many times in public without any problem, and I am quite sure the police noticed us.

The Netherlands is, in general, a very tolerant country, but not as much as some people think. Maybe it is compared with America (although, in my very limited experience, I've never had any problems with the American police), but the difference with most European countries is quite moot.

Plenty of theaters in the US do this, they just need a liquor license, the availability and restrictions on which vary wildly across local jurisdictions.

They had a lot of these in my city for a brief stint in the early aughts. They were called "Cinema Grill" and served a wide array of food, alcohol and assorted drinks during movies.

They kind of went the way of the Dodo when ticket prices started going up and theaters started converting to the lazy boy seats and offering similar experiences. Although the bar was usually outside of the theater and more of a "pre-gamne" type of experience than what the Cinema Grill offered.

We had around 8-10 of them where I lived, but AFAIK they're all gone now.

Yeah the theatre in my small hometown has a full bar. Can order martinis as you watch (definitely increases bathroom usage.)

In Mexico you can order alcohol in theaters.

Last time my wife went to watch a movie (before covid) she ordered a margarita.

This is also possible in America in many theaters.

Also most Americans don't realize what a wild west Mexico is for over the counter drugs. You can buy dangerous stuff like testosterone over the counter no problem.

Not just Mexico. It’s largely the same across most of Asia, most of south and central America, parts of eastern Europe, and bigger cities in Africa. The whole prescription-only thing (or at least enforcement of it) is largely a Europe / US / Canada / Australia / NZ thing.

In my option it [Drug Prohibition] is entirely futile and held in place by various special interests including the government and pharmaceutical companies. It would be much simpler if we allowed for the sale of every chemical that is non-weaponizeable to everyone.

This would remove a lot of people form the criminal justice system and get rid of the need for the DEA. Only problem is that the DEA is a job creator though.

> Only problem is that the DEA is a job creator though.

On the other hand those jobs include tearing families apart and jailing people for victimless crimes. I think I'd be ok losing those jobs.

Totally agree but you are not a politician up for re-election in AZ/PA/MI or some purplish state. Suddenly you get rid of jobs that does not look good in these areas especially if you are a state level politician.

The same would happen if we get rid of commercial insurance companies which I'm also in favor of. All those admin staff, drug sales, insurance coders would be out of work and politicians would have to explain what happened.

Interestingly aren't amphetamines outlawed in South Korea? Muricans hand them out like candy to kids to do better in school. Adderall.

Yeah, certain drugs are heavily prohibited, often with very serious penalties. OTOH, you can walk into a pharmacy and buy basically anything else without a prescription.

It's a similar wild west in the US, except people are basically brewing bathtub steroids from dubious Chinese powders.

You can do that in many places, USA included.

And do you know how they call the big mac in France?

They don't call it a Big Mac?

A Big mac is a Big mac, but they call it Le Bigeu Maqueu

Bigeu Maqueu sounds Japanese

You're confusing the quarter pounder.

They don't call it a quarter pounder?

The line from the film is about the Quarter Pounder - not the big mac - being named the Royale with Cheese because of the metric system.

Royal with cheese.

Royale

"... the sale of soft drugs in coffee shops is a criminal offence but the Public Prosecution Service does not prosecute coffee shops for this offence."
https://www.government.nl/topics/drugs/toleration-policy-reg...

Cannabis is however legal in multiple states in the USA -- including Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado, and a few others. I have several state-licensed cannabis shops within a 10 minute walk from my house, which sell flower and various edibles and smokable concentrates.
Oregon also just decriminalized possession of all drugs, for personal-use quantities.

Unfortunately I think this is as good for the drug dealers as it is for addicts who it's designed to help. Dealers can assure potential customers there are no "legal" worries while not worrying about clients being forced to flip on them. It's an experiment we can watch and monitor results on though, which is probably better for the country as a whole than doing nothing across the board.

It's illegal to grow it. The "coffee" shops seem free to sell it, but they themselves bought it illegally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffeeshop_(Netherlands)
Seems to say it's illegal but tolerated as long as you don't cause a fuss.

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