Medical cannabis is taking over Europe, as well as efforts to decriminalize cannabis in numerous countries and at local levels. In a pattern similar to what took place in the U.S., European nations are legalizing cannabis for medical or recreational purposes in a patchwork of new laws.

According to a May 16 press release from Victoria, Australia-based Biortica Agrimed, 21 out of 27 member states of the European Union (EU) legalized medical cannabis.

“The EU situation with respect to legalisation can best be described as fluid, but evolving positively,“ said Tom Varga, CEO of Biortica Agrimed. Biortica Agrimed is a vertically-integrated B2B company  preparing to list on the Australian Securities Exchange with an IPO.

The 27 EU countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Out of those, 21 countries—Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain—implemented laws to allow for the medical use of cannabis.

Out of those countries, the potential market in Germany is among the most exciting and where investors are circling the most at the current moment.

“Whilst EU law prohibits the commercial sale of cannabis, many countries are taking a more mature approach, and legalising, initially medicinal, and ultimately personal use, with Germany in the lead. 21 out of the 27 EU member states have legalised use of medicinal cannabis,” he said, “and 13 countries have either legalised or decriminalised its personal use.”

Countries like Spain have decriminalized cannabis, while Georgia, Germany, Luxembourg, and Malta have taken steps to legalize adult-use. Countries like Portugal have gone even further by decriminalizing all drugs. Dozens more cities in the EU decriminalized cannabis at the city level.

Part of the purpose of Biortica Agrimed’s report is to support the argument that it’s due time Australia takes note of the potential Down Under. Australia legalized medical marijuana in 2016. According to Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) data, the number of patient approvals for medical cannabis increased sharply. In Australia, doctors can prescribe medicinal cannabis with the approval from the TGA and the relevant State or Territory’s Health Department.

“The EU comprises world class nations, and Australia should take any learnings that we can from the EU.” he said, “We have the benefit, and indeed the privilege, to view how legislative frameworks have been built over-seas, what’s worked and working, and what the Australian industry and legislators should avoid. Australia really can do better.”

“We look forward to continuing to share our global industry research with the Australian industry, our legislators and regulators, to build an industry that we can all be proud of, an industry that puts patient care, safety and outcomes to the fore, ” said Varga.

Cannabis Prevalence in Europe

Cannabis remains the most popular substance used in Europe according to the most recent counts by European data monitors.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction’s (EMCDDA) report, entitled “Cannabis—the current situation in Europe (European Drug Report 2023),” describes cannabis as “by far the most commonly consumed illicit drug in Europe.”

The report cites national surveys which show that 8% of European adults (out of approximately 22.6 million people between 15 and 64 years of age) have used cannabis within the last year. An estimated 1.3% of adults (approximately 3.7 million people) are described as “daily” or “almost daily” consumers.

With the popularity of cannabis continuing to grow, the report notes that this often leads to consumer “problems.” “There remains, however, a need to understand better the kinds of problems experienced by cannabis users, as well as the referral pathways and treatment options available for those with cannabis-related problems,” the report stated.

Germany’s legislation to legalize cannabis took effect on April 1. German lawmakers gave final approval to a recreational weed legalization plan known as CanG recently, making the country the largest in Europe to take the step.

In the German capital of Berlin, cannabis smokers gathered at the iconic Brandenberg Gate to smoke weed and celebrate their new freedoms. Other events were held throughout Europe’s most populous country, including one in front of the Cologne cathedral and others in the cities of Hamburg, Regensburg, and Dortmund.

The patchwork of laws unfolding in the EU show how medical and adult-use cannabis are popular on a global scale, and what Australia could learn from European countries.

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The ports in Antwerp, Belgium and several cities in The Netherlands are fighting to curb the illicit trade of cocaine, which is seeing somewhat of a heyday in recent years. Criminals are allegedly smuggling cocaine on shipping containers, often disguised as fruit or other goods.

To keep up with the extremely high demand for cocaine in Europe, ports in Belgium and The Netherlands, Europe’s “cocaine superhighway,” have stepped up security, Bloomberg reported Monday. Cocaine is the second most commonly used illicit drug in Europe (after cannabis, of course) according to the European Drug Report 2023.

Dutch authorities say they have been intercepting an increasing amount of cocaine in recent years. Seizures jumped 18% to 60,000 kilograms of cocaine in 2023 from a year earlier, according to the Netherlands’ customs data. 

According to findings published March 20 by the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) and SCORE group, a sewage analysis spanning across Europe identified Antwerp as the cocaine capital of Europe, and it has been for several years.

Politico reports that Antwerp was once again Europe’s cocaine capital where consumption is highest per capita, according to EMCDDA’s findings, with 1,721 milligrams detected per 1,000 people per day, a slight decrease from 2022 but still enough to top the list. Five cities from the Netherlands also made it into the top 10. Three of those Dutch ports in the top 10—Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, and Rotterdam—are home to large port destinations.

Data from 2023 indicated that Antwerp set a record of 116 tons of cocaine seized, breaking the previous record of 110 set in 2022. Eight tons of the cocaine was confiscated in a single bust on a freight vessel.

“The fight against international drug trafficking requires a lot of expertise and energy from our customs,” said Vincent Van Peteghem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. “I can only emphasize my great thanks and pride for that. Especially since this fight is just one of the many components of customs’ remit. Thousands of employees, spread all over the country, gave their best in once again extraordinary circumstances last year. And while this may officially be the last presentation of annual figures of this legislature, it remains my goal to continue on the path we have taken. We have increased investment in people and resources in recent years for the first time in a long time and we will continue to do so. It remains my conviction to support and strengthen customs and customs officers.”

Franky De Keyzer, chief of the city’s public prosecutor’s office, said last week that Dutch criminals had overrun the port of Antwerp. Teens are allegedly paid to retrieve shipments of coke in Antwerp and Rotterdam, local reports indicate.

The report analyzed wastewater in 88 cities in 23 countries in the European Union as well as Turkey, home to some 55.6 million people, and researchers found a rise in cocaine consumption, followed by ketamine and MDMA. The prevalence of amphetamines and cannabis were less clear.

Drugs Destined for the Netherlands

Seizures of cocaine in Dutch ports are skyrocketing, with the nation’s largest busts ever taking place over the past few years. It’s alarming enough to prompt authorities to try new tactics.

In August 2023, Dutch customs officials announced they had seized eight tons of cocaine on a Maersk container ship during a routine check, after drug-sniffing dogs alerted them on July 13. The ship originated in Ecuador and docked at the port of Rotterdam, where port authorities found the drugs hidden inside pallets with bananas.

According to Dutch customs authorities, the cocaine estimated value is €600 million (about $662 million USD). Officials found and confiscated over 8,000 kilograms (17,600 pounds) of cocaine at the bust. It represents 23 times more than all the cocaine seized in Denmark in 2022, according to national police records from the Special Crime Unit, and was a record bust for the country.

Drug traffickers are also sending drugs to the Netherlands via airplane as well. Six bags containing 250 grams of cocaine, destined for The Netherlands, were seized by the Dominican Republic’s National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) at the Las Américas International Airport just last Sunday. 

A drug-sniffing dog signaled the presence of controlled substances inside a box loaded with computer video cards, and a search revealed 250 grams of cocaine hidden in six envelopes.

DNCD said that a shipping manifest showed the package was allegedly sent by a woman with an address in Ciudad Juan Bosch, Las Flores and would be received by a person with residence in Rousseaustraat, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

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In 2023, an artist and his patron set out on a seemingly impossible task: illustrate the vast history of cannabis in a single art piece. Inspired by the Tapisserie de Bayeux—an ancient chronological tapestry depicting a two-year invasion of England by the Normans—Stefan van Swieten commissioned his friend Mossy Giant to create a piece for his cannabis social club in Barcelona, Spain. Now stretching across the wall at La Creme Gracia, the artwork displays incredibly detailed and interconnected scenes. Starting with the Big Bang, the whole world of weed unfolds in images, illustrating an epic tale of turmoil, triumph, and THC. 

In March 2024, Mossy Giant and La Creme Gracia debuted the second iteration of their project on the opposite wall of the club, a massive artwork detailing the history of cannabis in the Netherlands. The opening coincided with Spannabis—a yearly gathering that stands as one of the largest cannabis seed marketplaces on the planet—and brought out major players from the Dutch scene. Through seed companies and coffeeshops, the Netherlands played an outsized role in the proliferation of cannabis throughout the world. Like an ancient tapestry or a scene by Hieronymus Bosch, the artwork, The Grand History of Cannabis: The Dutch, tells a story in a single expression. Naturally, viewing it while smoking weed and hash in a cannabis social club in Barcelona only enhances its depth and allure.

La Creme Gracia

Upon arriving at La Creme Gracia for the art opening, the first thing I see is a fox-like dog poking its head out of the bottom of the front door. In a city where recent raids on local cannabis social clubs would lead people to believe these spaces are dangerous, the German spitz’s fluffy face is a glowing beacon of joy. Club owner van Swieten greets me inside the hallway and later tells me his dog’s name is Leo.

“Leo is the boss,” van Swieten says in a French accent. “He’s quite famous; he’s famous in the neighborhood. People know his name.”  

Found within the Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona, a short distance away from Antoni Gaudi’s towering architectural masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia, La Creme Gracia is a local spot. 

“Basically, the club is really here for the local people, so we really try our best to offer weed that can match with the economic or the capacities of the people here,” van Swieten says, explaining that a gram of Amnesia Haze—a strain that’s so prolific in the Spanish cannabis clubs that it’s crossed the bridge from cool to cliche—goes for 6-7 euros depending on the quality of the batch. “[Amnesia Haze] has a bad reputation because it is so successful. And if we don’t have it, I feel something is missing.” 

The rest of the club’s cannabis flowers go for around 6-8 euros a gram. Flowers grown in “super soil” are priced at 9-13 euros. 

“We have a bit of American stuff, but very limited,” van Swieten says. “We never wanted to be on the cusp of fashion. I prefer to have weed that’s 10 years old, the genetics, that’s sold at a reasonable price, than to buy something new that’s going to be outrageous.”

Van Swieten and Mossy Giant were first connected through van Swieten’s work as a music producer when he commissioned Mossy’s work for album covers. Based in Paris at the time, van Swieten and Mossy—who is from the Netherlands—came together through a mutual connection with Amsterdam-based Soma’s Sacred Seeds. Van Swieten has run La Creme Gracia for the past decade. The cannabis clubs in Spain operate as decriminalized member-only spaces. 

“I love it, I love the club,” he says. “I think it’s perfect. It’s what I call the perfect third place. The first place is your job, the second, your house, and the third… this is a perfect third place. I love it. I would wish that it could continue and I would wish that this model would not be destroyed by personal ambition, which could happen.”

The club has two rooms, a dispensary and a lounge, and it is packed during the art opening on Saturday, March 16. 

Falling in line with his artistic nom de plume, Mossy Giant, Mossy is quite tall—he played college basketball in the U.S.—and is easy to spot at the opening among a crowd of admirers. After briefly meeting, Mossy brings me to the center of the room and introduces me to Derrick Bergman, a longtime cannabis-focused journalist based in the Netherlands. Bergman served as an advisor on the art project and worked with van Swieten and Mossy Giant to release a companion book that details the history of some of the players within the Dutch scene. I pass him a joint, which he asks and correctly assumes is all cannabis without tobacco. Of course, I smoke like an American, he says. With Bergman now acting as my in-person audio guide, I jump into examining the artwork. 

The Netherlands: The Land Below the Water

Bergman quickly establishes himself as an expert in Dutch cannabis culture as I ask questions about the people and things depicted in the artwork. 

“I’m 30 years writing about cannabis, and so many of these people I know, I still know,” he says. “I’d say the common thing with all these people is that they have a passion, but they walk their own path.”

Looking at the highly detailed art in person is impressive. When I ask Bergman about my primary mentor in weed journalism, High Times co-founder and cannabis cultivation expert Ed Rosenthal, he points him out at a table of influential figures that include Mila Jansen, aka Mila the Hashqueen, and Henk de Vries of the famed Bulldog Coffeeshop. At the center of that table is the first issue of High Times, which came out 50 years ago in 1974. Rosenthal is depicted twice in the work. He’s also shown with another iconic cannabis character, Sam the Skunkman, building the cannabis genetic bridge between California and Amsterdam that resulted in the first hybrid cannabis crosses in the 1970s, most notably Skunk #1. 

The elaborate work of art has many elements, but Mossy’s favorite part is the windmill puffing a joint. 

“I just thought it was really cool to use extreme Dutch iconography in the windmill,” he says. “Because I’ve never drawn this—I am a Dutch guy—I’m usually very much inspired by American culture and nature, and that’s very much in my work. But to really get, almost patriotic in a way, to go full out with these Dutch icons, the wooden shoes and the tulip, and then have all the weed stuff in it like the typical Amsterdam house…”

He says that the artwork is intended to fuel conversation.

“Through art, you can have a very easy conversation about very difficult subjects like this history of the Dutch and the way cannabis in history has been connected to mankind,” Mossy says. “Through art, you can have these conversations very easily. You can tell a story. And that’s how it should be used, as a tool.”

The Original Peach

Another cannabis industry client Mossy has worked with includes Mat Beren, the breeder behind The House of the Great Gardener. For Beren, Mossy drew a moment when Beren met the “great gardener” during a transformative psychedelic journey. 

“We saw each other at Spannabis, and he’s very good friends with Soma, and I do all the Soma branding,” Mossy says. “I get into meeting with these guys, and they have very interesting, elaborate, crazy life stories, and they share something really personal. Like this ayahuasca experience that he had when he met the great gardener in the sky. And he was ordering my prints because the guy I always draw, the hippie, looked exactly like the guy he met in that experience.”

When I catch up with Beren on the noisy showroom floor on the first day of Spannabis 2024, The House of the Great Gardener is already sold out of two of the Barbara Bud crosses it made exclusively for the three-day event, Fruit Joy x Barbara Bud and Sweet Peach x Barbara Bud. The longstanding popularity of Barbara Bud is real. I find my friend Stoney Xochi at the booth hoping to get the Sweet Peach x Barbara Bud seeds as Sweet Peach won an award at the 2024 Barcelona Dab-A-Doo, a global hash competition organized by Jansen, a Dutch cannabis icon.

While the House of the Great Gardner is a Spanish-based cannabis seed company, Beren and his business partner started with Great Gardener Farms, based in Canada on Vancouver Island. 

“I created Barbara Bud about 25 years ago, and 10 years ago, I won one of the first Dab-A-Doos as a rising club in Barcelona,” Beren says. “That essentially started a craze in Europe, Spain, and Morocco. Barbara Bud has sort of gained iconic status now. It’s the original peach. But the other side of that is it’s easy to grow, creates ridiculous amounts of trichomes, finishes in about seven or eight weeks, so…”

Two Tracks

Back at La Creme Gracia the morning after the art opening I re-animate over joints and espresso with van Swieten, Bergman, and Mossy. At the close of our conversation, I ask Mossy about the Grand History of Cannabis piece, specifically the end, where there are two train tracks.

“One goes up, that’s the green train, so you see hemp there, green medicine, oils, cannabis culture goes forward,” he explains. 

And driving the train?

“Those are my two characters that always are in my world: the hippie and the bear. The hippie is like the farmer, the wise man, the crazy guy, and the bear is creation, the happy energy. They balance each other out,” Mossy says. “Those are my iconic characters, and they drive this train forward, the green train, and the other track is the track of prohibition.”

Mossy explains that this part of the artwork is based on a poster promoting cannabis legalization in Spain.

“There was a poster for pro-legalization of cannabis here in Spain that had two train tracks on it. One leading to prohibition and one leading to a green future, and [the art] is based on that poster, that concept,” Mossy says. “Prohibition doesn’t work, and it’s been proven many times prohibition doesn’t work… So, it ends in the mouth of the monster of prohibition. It’s basically saying that [the history] is still being written, there’s still chapters to come, the track keeps going.”

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A new report reveals the cities in Europe with the highest concentrations of cannabis and cocaine use, based on sewage surveys. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dutch cities including Amsterdam and Rotterdam took home some of the top spots for the cities with the highest concentrations of cocaine and cannabis use, respectively, and ranked high in several other categories. 

Spanning the course of a week during spring 2023, a team of researchers tested the water in sewage treatment plants in 88 cities in 24 European countries, NL Times reports. The study was conducted by researchers associated with the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).  

Once researchers collected samples of sewage, they then calculated the concentration of six drugs in the wastewater per 1,000 residents to make the results comparable. The drugs researchers checked for are methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine, cannabis, and ketamine. 

The Dutch cities that opted to participate among the 88 cities were Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leeuwarden, Utrecht, and Eindhoven. By leaps and bounds, The Netherlands ranked very high for drug use, with at least one Dutch city in the top five cities in terms of drug use concentrations—for almost all measured narcotics. 

Rotterdam is the cannabis capital of Europe, according to the report, being the city with the highest concentrations of cannabis residues in its sewage, out of the 88 European cities surveyed. The city came in second place for MDMA as well. Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, and Rotterdam ranked third to fifth place for cocaine use, after Antwerp and Tarragona. 

Cocaine is the most popular drug in Amsterdam, ranking third, based on the sewage samples that were collected. Some results were surprising. Leeuwarden’s drug use, for instance, is surprisingly high, NRC reports.

Leeuwarden came third and Amsterdam fourth in terms of cannabis use. Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Utrecht are all in the top five for MDMA, while Leeuwarden came in seventh place.

“If you look at the demographic profile of Leeuwarden, it is not a city with many students or tourism,” says Trimbos researcher Laura Smit-Rigter, coordinator of the Drugs Information and Monitoring System. The drug residues measured in the city are very telling, she said. “In Leeuwarden it is on the high side, yes.”

Last October, Mayor Sybrand Buma (CDA) of Leeuwarden was shocked when he saw the figures on drug use in his city. He told Dutch outlet Omrop Fryslân, “These are things that I know as mayor, but if you look at everything together, you see how serious the situation is here in Leeuwarden.”

Trimbos researcher Laura Smit-Rigter revealed that she wants to be cautious, adding that Dutch cities are no different than any other large European cities. “Based on this measurement, you can see that Rotterdam has a clear metropolitan profile, just like Amsterdam and other major European cities. That involves some drug use.”

For Smit-Rigter, the drug residues in the wastewater are one of the pieces of the puzzle of drug use. “These figures tell us something about the total consumption. They say nothing about who the users are or how often they use. We also don’t know whether they are tourists, commuters, or residents of those cities.”

Dutch Cities and the Reasons Why Drug Use is High

More research is needed to paint a clearer picture before jumping to conclusions about Dutch cities.

“In-depth research is needed for a complete picture of drug use in Dutch cities,” said Ton Nabben, researcher and criminologist specializing in drug use among nightlife crowds and at-risk youth. Nabben follows the latest developments in drug use for platforms like the Jellinek prevention and Addiction Science Netherlands (VKN).

He does not immediately have a logical explanation for the sheer amount of drug residue in the Rotterdam sewers, leaving him at a loss for words. “I can’t place it. Rather, it raises more questions.”

Meanwhile, The Netherlands government confirmed that its pilot program was set to kick off December 15, 2023. “The most recent planning shows that two legal growers are expected to be ready for delivery to coffee shops in the fourth quarter of 2023,” the Dutch government wrote. “This is sufficient to start the start-up phase of the experiment in Breda and Tilburg. In this phase, participating coffee shops from these municipalities may offer both legally grown and tolerated products. The next two growers are expected to start supplying coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg in February 2024.” Breda and Tilburg are located in the southern part of the country, near the border of Belgium.

The Netherlands pilot program for cannabis could help reshape the country’s standing by providing regulated cannabis product instead of the legal gray area that dominates currently.

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Amsterdam, a city long associated with relaxed weed rules, has been left out of a pilot experiment with legal cannabis sales now underway in the Netherlands. In a vote last week in the Netherlands’ lower house of Parliament known as the Tweede Kamer, lawmakers excluded Amsterdam from a list of cities to be added to the European country’s experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation and distribution. The Tweede Kamer also voted against an attempt by conservative lawmakers to halt the experiment, which will be expanded this summer to 10 cities across the Netherlands.

The experiment launched late last year in the Dutch cities of Breda and Tilburg. Under the pilot program, which will soon be launched in eight more cities, the government is regulating the cultivation and sale of recreational cannabis. 

Although the Netherlands in general and Amsterdam in particular are known for a pragmatically tolerant outlook on weed, cannabis is still illegal nationwide. Despite the prohibition, cannabis is easily available at so-called coffeeshops, which offer a range of weed products including flowers, joints and hash to adult customers. The coffee shops, which number approximately 565 nationwide, are supplied by underground growers who are generally allowed to operate without government interference.

Many government officials are concerned, however, that organized crime groups have taken over cultivation of much of the weed that ends up in coffeeshops in the Netherlands. This concern led to the country’s first experiment with regulated adult-use cannabis cultivation and distribution. 

The experiment began in December and is being rolled out in select municipalities under what the government calls a “closed coffeeshop chain experiment.” The initial phase of the experiment is expected to extend for six months in as many as 11 cities.

“During the startup phase, growers, coffeeshop owners, transporters and supervisors will gain experience with the supply and sale of regulated cannabis and its supervision, secure transport and the use of the track and trace system,” the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport said in a statement, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Later this year, the Netherlands’ experiment with regulated cannabis will be expanded to the cities of Almere, Arnhem, Groningen, Heerlen, Voorne aan Zee (formerly named Hellevoetsluis), Maastricht, Nijmegen and Zaanstad. City leaders in Amsterdam hoped to join the experiment, despite some claims that doing so would make it easier for underage youth to get weed.

“The experiment will not make access to drugs easier for young people. It just means that the production and distribution will be removed from criminals” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema told the publication NL Times, according to a report from MJBizDaily.

“This actually protects public health and facilitates enforcement policy. If you want to control cannabis use better, you must also check the ‘back door.’”

Amsterdam’s bid to be included in the experiment was denied by a March 5 vote by the Tweede Kamer. While the proposal had the support of the Netherlands left-wing and centrist parties, conservatives in the far-right Christian SGP and the far-right nationalist PVV political parties defeated the bid by a vote of 78-72, according to a report from Forbes.

Amsterdam Exclusion ‘No Surprise’

The exclusion of Amsterdam from the cannabis legalization experiment was not unexpected, says Jason Adelstone, a senior associate attorney at the cannabis law firm Vicente LLP, where he focuses on federal and international policy.

“I am not surprised that members of the Netherlands Parliament opposed the proposal for allowing Amsterdam to join the Dutch marijuana experiment,” Adelstone writes in an email to High Times. “With the far-right nationalist PVV party being the largest party in the Tweede Kamer, expanding the marijuana pilot program to include Amsterdam was a difficult proposition. Thankfully, those opposed to the marijuana pilot program didn’t have enough support to pause or completely stop the program altogether.”

Michael Sassano, founder, chairman and CEO of Somai Pharmaceuticals, a Lisbon-based manufacturer of therapeutic cannabis products, agrees that there “is no surprise that Amsterdam was ‘excluded’ from the program.” 

“The reality is that the Amsterdam coffee shop owners are very happy with their supply agreements both in quality and pricing,” Sassano said in a statement to High Times. “Most coffee shop owners understand that it will take some time for the legal Grow’s to get up to the current quality standards, and also the price will be higher. As the Netherlands progresses, going to a legal market for the entire country will be inevitable but it takes time and infrastructure to achieve this goal.”

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The Mayor of Amsterdam wants to legalize and regulate the sale, possession and use of cocaine. 

In an interview with Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad, Mayor Femke Halsema very strongly voiced her opinion on drug prohibition and how the decriminalization and legal sale of drugs like cocaine would take power away from organized crime groups who threaten the safety and stability of Amsterdam. 

“We have handed the market to unscrupulous criminals. They earn billions. And in the meantime, the war on drugs is disrupting entire countries, causing countless victims and strengthening the criminal business model,” Mayor Halsema said. 

Indeed Dutch Customs has recently released a report which supported the notion that organized crime surrounding cocaine trafficking is on the rise in Europe. Dutch Customs seized over 60,000 kilograms of cocaine in 2023 and 51,000 kilograms in 2022. Mayor Halsema has arranged a public debate on the matter which has been scheduled for January 26 in Amsterdam.

Cocaine seizures around Europe have followed the same trend with hundreds of metric tonnes seized around the EU year after year. Many reports have attested that the average price of European cocaine has been cut almost in half and the UN reported in March of last year that cocaine production was at an all time high. 

“Let us conclude that hundreds of years of discouragement and repression have achieved very little,” Halsema said to Financieele Dagblad. “Apparently people have a need for stimulants. There is a market for that.”

Mayor Halsema has been a vocal advocate for change in the City of Amsterdam since her appointment to the role in 2018. She wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian earlier this month in which she expressed that the Netherlands risks becoming a narco-state if steps are not taken to reign in organized crime. 

“The widespread use of drugs is integrated into society. The market is enormous. But there are risks to public health and then you should not leave the market to criminals,” Mayor Halsema said to Financieele Dagblad. “Abusing drugs can have serious consequences. But often the risks are exaggerated. Cocaine, for example, is less harmful than alcohol. People make their own choices.”

Mayor Halsema also told Bloomberg in July of 2022 that she would be taking steps to cut back on problematic forms of tourism post-COVID. She intimated that Amsterdam needed to pull back from the reputation it has garnered as a sort of safe haven for ne’er do wells who came to her city to take a “vacation from morals.”

“In Amsterdam, there’s a state of mind of tolerance. We always argue that cannabis should be legalized and prostitution shouldn’t be criminalized. That is also a part of Amsterdam’s history, a history that we’re very proud of,” Mayor Halsema said to Bloomberg. “But drug culture and prostitution have been internationally commercialized. That is not the way it was intended. We should correct the way we advertised the city in the last 15 years.”

This may seem a bit disconnected for a Mayor advocating for legal cocaine sales but from a harm reduction perspective, it makes sense. Mayor Halsema likened it to Amsterdam’s famous red light district which from her perspective is there to provide safety and security to sex workers who, as she puts it, will always be there to serve customers so long as there is a demand for sex work. 

The same can be said of cocaine sales. A 2023 report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that cocaine was the second most commonly abused drug in Europe next to cannabis and cocaine seizures in major seaports around the continent have consistently risen every year since 2016. A survey found that almost 2.3 million Europeans between the ages of 15 and 34 had used cocaine in the preceding year.

These record increases in use and trafficking led Switzerland to recently open discussions to consider the launch of a pilot program for adult-use recreational cocaine sales in their capital city of Bern. Mayor Halsema appears to have followed suit by doubling down on what she considered to be a common sense approach to drug policy. 

“What the Netherlands’ problems reveal is the need for a global shift in the current approach. It’s not a matter of retracting our user-centred policy, but rather advocating for international recognition that the war on drugs is counterproductive,” Mayor Halsema wrote to the Guardian. “The prohibition of drugs is enshrined in international treaties that limit the space for national drug policies, meaning we will have to forge new international alliances that prioritise health and safety over punitive measures.”

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Gezellig is a fantastic Dutch word that encompasses a whole mood and defies translation. I think it means a combination of things: the warm feeling of belonging, being in the right place at the perfect time, surrounded by the most genial company. You hear the word a lot in Amsterdam; the concept of gezellig is at the heart of Dutch culture. Finding the sweet moment, relaxing into it, being as cozy and comfortable as possible… it’s a prescription for any stressed-out modern soul.

Factor in the world’s best hash and cannabis, set against the twinkly Advent-calendar beauty of the “Venice of the North,” and you’re in absolute heaven. Every time I’ve visited Amsterdam, I’ve experienced this untranslatable feeling. It’s potent stuff—a swirl of strong coffee and ice-cold foamy glasses of beer, bicycle bells dinging, and rose-ringed parakeets flitting through the Vondelpark in late-afternoon sunshine, all suffused by the sweet aromas of weed and hash.

When I booked a trip to Amsterdam last summer while dreaming of my previous hazy visits, I considered the perils of pining for bygone days. To quote author Brené Brown, “Nostalgia is… a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare our lives to a memory that nostalgia has so completely edited that it never really existed.” This would be my first trip to the Netherlands in almost a decade, and I was curious to see how the city’s legendary cannabis culture had evolved—or, perhaps, declined, with Barcelona’s rise to prominence as a new European weed capital.

In 2013, I worked the 26th Annual Amsterdam High Times Cannabis Cup during a long November week that lives in my head as a series of frosty snapshots. I judged the Seed Company Sativa category and was a live wire for five straight days as I sampled 21 strains from legendary outfits like Elemental Seeds, Reserva Privada, and Karma Genetics. That year’s winners were genetic heavyweights Tangie, Sour Power, and a super-tasty Sour Diesel cross called Headbanger.

Dutch authorities shut down the Cannabis Cup Expo at the last minute that year, and the High Times staff had to scramble to keep vendors and attendees happy. I remember a lot of long, chilly walks along glittering canals, shuttling back and forth to shows at the Melkweg from coffeeshops that had entered the competition. My judges’ kit powered me through it all like a little weed jetpack, especially on the night my phone died, and I got hopelessly lost. Fortunately, I somehow found my way to the judges’ dinner, where I was enveloped in a cloud of good cheer and great smoke. Gezellig!

This time around, my travel companion and I had no plans beyond eating, smoking, and visiting museums for three days to unwind after a few weeks in the U.K. Our train from London pulled into Amsterdam Central Station at 4:20 p.m. We were in the flow. We dropped our bags at our hotel and headed right for the iconic coffeeshop Green House in the area known as De Wallen, or the red light district.

We pulled up as the sky was darkening into evening shades of purple. The neon sign in the window cast an amber glow over the scene humming in the coffeeshop. It was cinematic and gorgeous, and it smelled great. A laughing girl bumped into me on her way out as we ducked inside. I could feel the days I’d spent in London melting off me, almost hissing as they swirled away. We were in the right place at the right moment. What a relief. My memories of Amsterdam weren’t nostalgic; this was now.

Inside the glow of Green House, we were greeted by Joa Helms, the CEO of the Green House Seed Company. He gestured to the menu on the wall illuminated behind the busy budtenders and asked what we wanted to sample. “Super Lemon Haze, of course,” Helms said with a grin, “and how about some Ztrawberry?” We gratefully—almost wordlessly, I think—sank into a booth next to the window with the two packets of flower he handed us, along with rolling papers and a grinder. “It’s made from hemp,” Helms said of the grinder, as he departed into the night with a friendly wave, leaving us with our treasures.

Green House Seed Company has won countless awards for legendary strains like White Widow and Super Silver Haze, as well as for Super Silver’s progeny, Super Lemon Haze, which won back-to-back Cannabis Cups in 2008 and 2009. As my friend and I stuck our noses into the bags of flower to determine which way our evening would bend, one sniff of Super Lemon Haze was all we needed to know how it was going to go. Roll up, smoke, relax, repeat.

We floated out of Green House into the cool September night after a while, turning left, right, and left again on our evening adventure. We babbled through our Haze-y buzz as we passed by sex workers posing in windows, their neon lingerie popping under black lights with drapes barely concealing rudimentary beds just behind them. Moving through a crush of tourists with unclothed bodies on display for the gawking masses was elemental and deeply weird, but it also felt exactly right because I knew this would likely be the last time we’d see De Wallen like this.

In a move billed as an antidote to the effects of hedonistic tourism, the Dutch government has hatched a plan to relocate the red light district to the outskirts of town. The proposal would shut down sex workers’ windows in an attempt to reset the city as a family-friendly destination. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema is leading the charge to redefine the city’s reputation—and she also wants to ban non-residents in coffeeshops by enforcing a national residents-only rule. Halsema says that banning tourists from coffeeshops is unavoidable in order to tackle tourist nuisances that arise from the “soft drug” sector—i.e. cannabis.

My friend and I chatted about the complicated nature of sex work and drug culture as we strolled along the canals. Prostitution in Amsterdam has been legal and regulated since 2000. Cannabis, however, has never been legal in the Netherlands—the government’s policies tolerate the possession and sale of small quantities of weed and psilocybin, and it’s decriminalized for personal use, but it’s not legal. And for decades, that was just fine, until conservatives like Halsema decided it wasn’t. The tide has turned for the counterculture in Amsterdam as politicians debate about what’s best for the city. It’s certainly the end of an era.

As we finally made our way back to our hotel, my buzz was wearing thin, but my bud stopped to roll up some Ztrawberry, popping open our second fragrant pouch. We perched next to each other on the edge of a canal barge, watched by a well-fed cat who sat cleaning its puffy tail with an eye on us. I was pretty faded after our glowy Super Lemon Haze’d evening, and I was ready to call it quits. But the click of my friend’s lighter and the pass of a joint turned it all around. 

Ztrawberry is a Runtz x A.M.S. cross—it’s got a heavy kick from its Gelato parent sweetness, which fades to a perfect, heady buzz. Holy smokes, I thought, sitting on the edge of the canal barge as I gazed back at the Dutch cat. OK, you are NOT TIRED. You feel great. You feel clear and calm, and in the perfect state of being… oh, wait, this is… yes, it’s gezellig.

This article was originally published in the January 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.

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In early 2022 Dutch health authorities issued a warning about MDMA-laced champagne circulating throughout parts of Europe that hospitalized several people and killed one. An arrest has been made in connection with the case almost two years later, but authorities said there’s no way to know if additional bottles are still in circulation.

According to Dutch media outlet RTL Nieuws, police arrested a 35-year-old man last week in the German town of Weiden on drug trafficking and manslaughter charges in relation to MDMA-laced champagne bottles, the consumption of which reportedly hospitalized just under a dozen people and led to the death of a 52-year-old German man. MDMA, better known as “Molly” or “Ecstasy” is shorthand for 3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine, a drug which induces feelings of euphoria in the user for several hours. 

According to RTL Nieuws, the Polish man, whose name was not released, was arrested due to a tip from Dutch authorities. He allegedly stored the laced champagne bottles in the Netherlands and was also involved with their distribution, though not much other information about the man was released. A German news report said that the prosecutor’s office accused the man of  “gang-like trafficking in narcotics in large quantities, negligent bodily harm and negligent homicide.” Authorities said more arrests could be forthcoming as well. 

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) issued a warning about the champagne bottles, specifically 3-liter bottles of Moët and Chandon Ice Impérial, in February of 2022. A press release from the NVWA said the following:

“The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority warns consumers to be very careful with 3-liter champagne bottles from the Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial brand. Recently, a bottle of that size appeared to be filled with the hard drug MDMA (also known as ecstasy) in both Germany and the Netherlands,” said a press release from the NVWA. “Touching and/or drinking the contents of the bottles is life-threatening. This has led to seven very serious cases of illness and one death in Germany. According to the producer, there were four cases of illness in the Netherlands. In both cases, the bottles in question were purchased via a previously unknown website.”

The NVWA clarified that it was somewhat easy to spot which bottles were potentially tainted with MDMA because the liquid did not come out carbonated as champagne does. The liquid did not fizz when poured, it came out a reddish brown color which darkened over time and also gave off a smell of the anise plant, which according to Google has similarities to the smells of licorice, fennel and tarragon. 

“The NVWA calls on people to be alert to 3 liter bottles of Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial with lot code LAJ7QAB6780004 and LAK5SAA6490005. This code can be found on the label on the back of the bottle,” the press release said.” Leave the bottle untouched if the contents differ from what is usual for champagne. Bottles filled with MDMA are indistinguishable on the outside from bottles filled with champagne. However, when pouring there is a clear difference.”

According to the NVWA, there’s no way to be sure how many more bottles, if any, were laced with MDMA and there’s no way to know if these bottles are still available in stores without checking the lot code on the back, as mentioned above. The health authority stressed that anyone who buys that brand of champagne should be on high alert, call emergency services if the liquid is ingested and call the police if anything seems off about a bottle. 

“It is not known how the MDMA ended up in these bottles. The NVWA cannot therefore estimate whether there are more of these bottles containing the hazardous substance in circulation, the press release said. “It cannot be ruled out that there are other bottles of the same brand in circulation that also contain MDMA”

According to the aforementioned German news report, the seven people who were hospitalized were out having a celebratory dinner with friends when they bought the tainted champagne. The report described everyone fainting at the table after the champagne was brought out. The 52-year-old who died had reportedly drank more of the champagne than the others, who had only sipped it. All seven people reportedly made full recoveries and attended a memorial for their deceased friend in February. 

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On Sept. 20, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council published the UN Human Rights Office Report regarding human rights issues that have developed due to the War on Drugs. This report was created by request of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in April 2023, and was introduced during the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, which lasts between Sept. 11-Oct. 13.

“UN report urges [member] states to end overreliance on punitive measures to address drugs problem & shift to interventions grounded in #humanrights & public health. It is essential that laws, policies & practices deployed to address drug use must not exacerbate human suffering,” UN Human Rights posted on X.

The report suggests that decriminalizing drug possession for personal use should be a priority. “If effectively designed and implemented, decriminalization can be a powerful instrument to ensure that the rights of people who use drugs are protected,” a UN press release stated.

According to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, global change is sorely needed. “Laws, policies, and practices deployed to address drug use must not end up exacerbating human suffering. The drug problem remains very concerning, but treating people who use drugs as criminals is not the solution,” Türk said in a press release. “States should move away from the current dominant focus on prohibition, repression and punishment and instead embrace laws, policies and practices anchored in human rights and aimed at harm reduction.”

Ultimately, the report gathers that “disproportionate use of criminal penalties” lead drug users away from seeking out a treatment. Statistics gathered from the 2023 World Drug Report show that 660,000 people die from drug-related causes annually, and 10% of new HIV infections in 2021 were related to people who injected drugs.

The report calls the effects of the War on Drugs as “profound and far-reaching.” “Militarization of law enforcement in the so-called War on Drugs contributes to severe human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings. And disproportionate use of criminal penalties contributes significantly to prison overcrowding,” the UN press release said.

The UN also stated that the people who are most negatively affected by current drug policies are Black women, women in general, indigenous people, and youths who come from poor backgrounds. “Today’s drugs policies have the greatest impact on those who are poorest and most vulnerable,” Türk added.

Due to an increase in people receiving the death penalty for drug-related convictions, many people have suffered at the hands of these policies. An estimated 37% of global executions were related to drug convictions, and those offenses doubled in 2022 compared to data provided in 2021.

Particularly in Singapore in recent years, the death penalty has been issued to people trafficking cannabis. In July 2022, Singapore executed a 49-year-old man for cannabis trafficking. In May 2023, the country hung a 37-year-old man for trafficking cannabis in the amount of three pounds, in addition to another individual who was hanged just a few weeks prior.

“The current overemphasis on coercion and control to counter drugs is fanning an increase in human rights violations despite mounting evidence that decades of criminalization and the so-called War on Drugs have neither protected the welfare of people nor deterred drug-related crime,” Türk concluded.

The press release for the report ends by applauding the countries that have worked to adopt policies that protect the public and defend humans rights, through “evidence-based, gender-sensitive and harm reduction approaches.”

The UN report includes a multi-point list of recommendations on how to reapproach drug policies and step back from harmful, punitive models. This includes suggestions such as implementing decriminalization, and adopting drug policies that “advance the rights of people who use drugs” and offer medical care to treat drug related conditions (such as viral hepatitis or HIV by way of injection). It also suggests policies that don’t lead to parents having their child removed from their care, or punishing pregnant people. The report also recommends abolishing the death penalty for all crimes, not just drug-related offenses, among many other strong proposals to put people first. 

The UN will review the 2019 Ministerial Declaration, which is an ongoing multi-year work plan to keep track of drug policy commitments made by member states, in 2024. That review will lead to the development of drug policies that need to be addressed by 2029, with the goal of having protected human rights by the 2039 UN Agenda.

In December 2020, a U.N. Commission for Narcotic Drugs panel voted to reclassify cannabis. While this recommendation didn’t guarantee that any member states would immediately legalize cannabis possession and use, it was still a monumental announcement. “This is a huge, historic victory for us, we couldn’t hope for more,” said independent drug policy researcher Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli. Many advocates applauded the decision and hoped that it would empower other countries to implement regulatory frameworks for cannabis. 

It’s safe to say that over the past three years, many countries have begun to reevaluate their drug policies and embrace cannabis legalization. 

The country of Malta became the first in the European Union to legalize cannabis in December 2021. Earlier this year in July, Luxembourg became the second EU country to legalize. Thailand also removed weed from its list of banned substances in June 2022.

Other countries, such as the Netherlands and Switzerland, are working on cannabis pilot programs to test how legal cannabis would work in their respective regions.

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The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction’s (EMCDDA) report, entitled “Cannabis—the current situation in Europe (European Drug Report 2023),” describes cannabis as “by far the most commonly consumed illicit drug in Europe.”

The report cites national surveys which show that 8% of European adults (out of approximately 22.6 million people between 15 and 64 years of age) have used cannabis within the last year. An estimated 1.3% of adults (approximately 3.7 million people) are described as “daily” or “almost daily” consumers.

With the popularity of cannabis continuing to grow, the report notes that this often leads to consumer “problems.” “There remains, however, a need to understand better the kinds of problems experienced by cannabis users, as well as the referral pathways and treatment options available for those with cannabis-related problems,” the report stated.

The report adds that in data featured in the 2021 European Web Survey on Drugs, 95% of participants who use cannabis within the last 12 months, 32% chose to consume “resin,” 25% chose edibles, and 17% preferred extracts. In the European Union (EU), tested resin contained 20% THC, whereas flower was tested at 9.5% THC. 

The EMCDDA claims that 97,000 people entered drug treatment programs for “problems related to cannabis use” in 2021, with 55,000 of those people doing so for the first time.

Additionally, records of cannabis product seizures in 2021 also reached its highest point in more than 10 years. The report cites Spain as the country with the highest percent of cannabis product seizures at 66%.

Overall, the EU reportedly seized more than 202,000 cannabis resin products (equating the seizures to 816 tonnes, or 1,798,972 pounds) in 2021. Cannabis flower seizures were recorded at 256 tonnes (or 564,383 pounds). In the country of Turkey alone, 9,800 seizures for cannabis resin products yielded 33 tonnes (or 72,752 pounds) and 31 tonnes (or 68,343 pounds) of cannabis flower.

“There is an increasing diversity of cannabis products available in Europe. This is true both for the illicit drug market and for consumer markets, where products are appearing that contain low levels of THC but also other substances derived from the cannabis plant such as CBD,” the EMCDDA wrote. “On the illicit drug market, the availability of high-potency extracts and edibles is a particular concern and has been linked to acute toxicity presentations in hospital emergency departments.” 

The report also cited concerns for the synthetic cannabinoid hexahydrocannabinol that has recently become available in certain EU countries.

The EU is made up of 27 countries, some of which have enacted medical or recreational cannabis legalization to help prevent the black market from thriving.

In December 2021, Malta was the first EU country to legalize recreational cannabis. The country’s approach to regulating possession, cultivation, and sales, Malta allows for residents to possess seven grams of cannabis in public (or up to 50 grams at their personal residence), as well as up to four plants cultivated at home.

More recently, German officials have been hard at work developing a regulatory framework for cannabis legalization. In April 2023, the newest draft reflects the use of state-controlled non-profit social clubs. If passed, it would allow residents at least 18 years or older to purchase up to 25 grams of cannabis per day (or up to 50 grams per month). Those who are 18-21 years old would be limited to just 30 grams per month.

Other EU countries are also currently working on their own versions of legalization, including Luxembourg, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. 

Switzerland on the other hand is currently allowing numerous cannabis research trial pilot programs in certain parts of the country. The SCRIPT study, which is conducted by the University of Bern, doesn’t legalize cannabis but was created to examine the “health and social effects” of regulated cannabis at local pharmacies. “Our study therefore does not aim to legalize cannabis in the free market—but to be able to address the problems caused by prohibition and the black market and to test possible harm reduction approaches, as well as a strict control of supply and distribution use demand for cannabis,” said head of SCRIPT researcher Reto Auer.

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