When I became the National Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws back in the early 1990s, I felt that it was my duty to go to the High Times Cannabis Cup, which was held annually in Amsterdam during the American Thanksgiving week. Work, work, work.
As part of my research I found out — the hard way — that Europeans almost always smoked a cannabis “joint” with tobacco. Until the late 1980s most of the cannabis in the Netherlands, and in the rest of Europe, was smuggled hashish, which can be really harsh to smoke, and since almost everyone smoked tobacco in those dark days, it was only natural to break up the hash and mix it with tobacco, often from a cigarette.
See: What Americans Can Learn From A British Study On Hashish Potency
I grew up in a cloud of cigarette smoke, but unusual for my generation, I had never smoked tobacco, so taking a deep drag on a Dutch joint left me a little wobbly until I learned to ask. Fortunately, a few years experience with American cannabis enthusiasts (Stoners) taught our Dutch hosts to warn us if it was not “Pure” or “American.”
In the meantime, thanks in part to American exiles, the Dutch were starting to grow “Nederwiet,” Dutch grown weed that could be more easily smoked without tobacco, but Europeans still liked to mix Wiet with tobacco. However, the Dutch government joined the international effort to discourage tobacco use. In the coffeeshops and other venues where cannabis smoking is “tolerated” smokers can no longer mix it with tobacco, so they provide other herbs with no psychoactive effects. No thanks. I am still “pure.”
Meanwhile, The Guardian, Britain’s best left-of-center newspaper (the Telegraph is the best right-of-center paper) ran an article on December 19,2020 titled “Cannabis users ‘fail to grasp health risks of smoking,’ study says.”
Reefer Madness from a paper that is usually anti-prohibitionist?
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