A new era kicked off in Amsterdam’s Red Light District on Thursday, with a ban on smoking cannabis on the streets officially taking effect.
The ban is part of a city-wide effort, pushed by Mayor Femke Halsema, to make the famous area more hospitable to its residents and workers.
According to Reuters, signs “were posted in the canal-lined neighbourhood known for its brothels, sex clubs and marijuana cafes, which attract millions of tourists a year, but are a nuisance to residents.”
Those found in violation of the new law will face a €100 (or about $110) fine.
“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the city council said in a statement at the time.
“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council added.
According to Reuters, people “will still be allowed to smoke inside and on the terraces of coffee shops selling marijuana and hash in the district and other parts of the city.”
The pot smoking ban is part of an effort led by Halsema, Amsterdam’s first female mayor, to improve conditions in the Red Light District.
CNN reported in 2019 that Halsema had “presented four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district.”
“Four scenarios have been proposed for discussion including closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker “hotel” being created,” according to CNN. The plans aim to protect sex workers from gawking tourists and their camera phones, and also to combat a rise in abuses such as human trafficking. The four proposals will be discussed with sex workers, residents and businesses in July, before being taken to the city council in September. The plans will ultimately be developed into a new policy on sex work, the mayor’s office confirmed.”
The Red Light District, known locally in Amsterdam as the De Wallen neighborhood, has long been a popular destination for tourists visiting the city.
CNN reported earlier this year that it is “estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district.”
“City officials want the De Wallen neighborhood, as the district is known in Dutch, to draw visitors who can appreciate its unique heritage, architecture and culture rather than sex and drugs,” CNN reported at the time. Over the past few years, there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image.
In 2020, guided tours were prohibited from passing sex workers’ windows, and there was talk of moving the window brothels to a neighborhood outside of the city center—conversations that continue to this day.”
A recent report from The Denver Post analyzes the fallout of the post-pandemic cannabis industry in Colorado. While once the state reached a peak of $226 million in combined recreational and medical cannabis sales, current sales have decreased and small businesses struggle to stay afloat.
“The market’s just bad. It’s bad right now,” cannabis salesperson Val Tonazzi told The Denver Post. “There’s businesses closing, left and right.”
In February, Colorado’s medical cannabis sales decreased to $15 million, the lowest collection since retail sales began in 2014. March brought a slight increase in medical cannabis sales, approximately $17 million, but was $5 million less than March 2022. Likewise, March recreational sales were recorded at $122 million this year, but it’s a $17 million decrease from last year’s numbers.
On May 9, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a fact sheet detailing the “End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.” While the nation and many of its industries return to normal operations, cannabis business owners continue to see ripples of oversupply of cannabis products, lack of demand, pricing dropping to record lows, and lack of cannabis tourism.
Over the past few years, many states bordering Colorado have approved recreational cannabis. This includes Montana and Arizona in 2020, and New Mexico in 2021, creating competition for Colorado.
Vangst, a cannabis job company, recently released its 2023 Vangst Jobs Report. The report states that there was a 2% drop in cannabis jobs, and Colorado was ranked as the second highest state for cannabis job losses. It was also ranked number six on a list of top cannabis jobs with less positions than states like California, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, and Massachusetts.
It isn’t just small cannabis businesses falling under hard times. Bigger companies, like Curaleaf, are also pivoting as well. In January, Curaleaf closed down its offices in Colorado, California and Oregon, “as part of its continued effort to streamline its business.” According to Curaleaf CEO Matt Darin, this move was also made due to thriving black market competition. “We believe these states will represent opportunities in the future, but the current price compression caused by a lack of meaningful enforcement of the illicit market prevent us from generating an acceptable return on our investments,” Darin said in a press release.
The closure of cannabis businesses is affecting the real estate market as well. A National Association of Realtors report recently explained “a decline in commercial property purchases by marijuana industry-related businesses and a corresponding increase in leasing activity.”
The Denver Post spoke with local entrepreneur Renée Grossman, who founded five retail storefronts in Colorado since 2013, and also moved into cultivation and manufacturing as well. “There’s too many stores, there’s too much cultivation, there’s too many products,” Grossman explained to The Denver Post. “Right now, all the investors are sitting on the sidelines, and kind of waiting to time the bottom—and nobody knows exactly when that’s going to happen.”
Amidst the uncertainty of the situation, Grossman and many other business owners have had to lay off many of their staff to continue paying the bills. “Most companies I know are losing money, or they’ve shut down and scaled back,” said Grossman. “A lot of companies that are my size or smaller are really feeling the burn.” She also suggested that more mergers may take place in order to help bolster smaller businesses against larger companies.
Initially there was a drive for cannabis tourism to bring people to Colorado, but even as travel has become safer in the wake of COVID-19, the increase in states with recreational cannabis has caused a shift in interest. According to Native Roots Cannabis Company vice president of marketing, Buck Dutton, sales for 4/20 decreased from recent years: “…people don’t see the need to travel here to spend their 4/20 with us,” Dutton told The Denver Post. “The only expectation that it lived up to is that we thought it was going to be bad.”
Marijuana Industry Group executive director Truman Bradley likens Colorado’s current situation to “the ghost of Christmas future.” The excitement that drove sales for Colorado as the first state to legalize recreational cannabis has since slowed. Bradley stated that the only way Colorado can survive now is for the industry to “get leaner,” in terms of competition being thinned out. He also calls on state legislators to reevaluate legalization. “It’s critical that lawmakers understand that decade No. 2 of legalization needs to look fundamentally different from decade No. 1,” Bradley stated.
A new ordinance banning cannabis use on the streets in Amsterdam’s Red Light District is slated to take effect later this month.
The ban, officially approved by Amsterdam’s city council last week, will “come into effect from May 25 and will be enforced by police and local officials,” according to Bloomberg, which noted that violation of the new law will result in a €100 (or $109) fine.
The law was offered up by the Amsterdam city council in February, with local officials decrying the “nuisance” and “grim” atmosphere of the famous district at night.
“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the city council said in a statement at the time.
“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council continued.
CNN reported at the time that if the outdoor smoking ban failed to achieve the desired results, the “municipality said it would also consider banning take-out purchases of soft drugs at certain times, and banning smoking marijuana at coffee shops’ outdoor seating areas.”
“It is estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district,” according to CNN. “City officials want the De Wallen neighborhood, as the district is known in Dutch, to draw visitors who can appreciate its unique heritage, architecture and culture rather than sex and drugs. Over the past few years, there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image.
In 2020, guided tours were prohibited from passing sex workers’ windows, and there was talk of moving the window brothels to a neighborhood outside of the city center—conversations that continue to this day.”
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has prioritized cleaning up the Red Light District since becoming mayor nearly five years ago.
In 2019, Halsema, who is Amsterdam’s first female mayor, “presented four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district,” CNN reported at the time.
“For many visitors, the sex workers have become no more than an attraction to look at. In some cases this is accompanied by disruptive behavior and a disrespectful attitude to the sex workers in the windows,” Halsema’s office said, as quoted by CNN, which outlined some of the mayor’s proposed reforms:
“Four scenarios have been proposed for discussion including closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker “hotel” being created. The plans aim to protect sex workers from gawking tourists and their camera phones, and also to combat a rise in abuses such as human trafficking. The four proposals will be discussed with sex workers, residents and businesses in July, before being taken to the city council in September. The plans will ultimately be developed into a new policy on sex work, the mayor’s office confirmed.”
For many tourists, Amsterdam’s red light district has long been a destination to escape the laws and restrictions of their normal lives, a place where anything goes. But the people who live there, it seems, are ready to chill out.
Amsterdam’s city council said last Thursday that it will ban cannabis use on the streets of the red light district, citing the “nuisance” and “grim” atmosphere that typifies the area in the evening hours.
The officials said that they intend for the rule to take effect in mid-May.
“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the council said in a statement on Thursday.
“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council added.
As Reuters noted, the move is “part of a campaign by Amsterdam’s first female mayor, Femke Halsema, to make the neighbourhood more liveable for residents.”
According to CNN, “there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image” in recent years, including a rule that prohibited guided tours from passing by sex workers’ windows.
Since she became mayor of the Dutch capital in 2018, Halsema has made reform of the city’s red light district a priority.
In 2019, Halsema presented “four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district,” CNN reported at the time, which included “closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker ‘hotel’ being created.”
“For many visitors, the sex workers have become no more than an attraction to look at. In some cases this is accompanied by disruptive behavior and a disrespectful attitude to the sex workers in the windows,” the mayor’s office said in a statement at the time, as quoted by CNN.
In addition to the proposed smoking ban announced on Thursday the Amsterdam city council said that one “of the measures that has already been decided on is to have catering establishments and sex establishments with a catering license close their doors at 02:00 on Fridays and Saturdays,” as opposed to the current closing time of 3 or 4 a.m.
“Prostitution businesses may then remain open until 3 a.m. Now it is until 6:00 a.m.,” the council said. “To spread the crowds better, no new visitors are allowed in after 1:00 a.m. We also want to close the terraces at 1:00 a.m. in the summer months. That is now 2:00 a.m.”
The council also said that the sale of alcohol by shops, liquor stores and cafeterias will continue to be prohibited “from Thursday to Sunday from 4 p.m.”
According to CNN, it is “estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district,” which the Dutch commonly refer to as the De Wallen neighborhood.
A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow the state’s licensed cannabis consumption lounges to sell freshly prepared foods and beverages and host live events. The measure, Assembly Bill 374 (AB 374), was introduced last week by Democratic Assembly Member Matt Haney.
Under California law, cannabis consumption lounges are not allowed to sell freshly prepared food to their patrons. A rule change adopted in November 2022 allows lounges to offer prepackaged food and beverages and for customers to bring their own freshly prepared items on a limited basis, but the businesses themselves are denied the opportunity to serve most non-infused products to their customers.
Haney’s bill would allow consumption lounges in California to sell freshly prepared food and drinks and to host live entertainment events. In the Netherlands, more than 700 cannabis cafes, often referred to as coffee shops, draw 1.5 million visitors per year, according to information from Haney’s office. Allowing the state’s consumption lounges to operate under a similar business model would give the businesses new economic opportunities and could serve as a draw for tourists and locals to visit struggling downtown business districts.
“Lots of people want to enjoy legal cannabis in the company of others. And many people want to do that while sipping coffee, eating a scone, or listening to music,” Haney said in a statement. “There’s absolutely no good reason from an economic, health, or safety standpoint that the state should make that illegal. If an authorized cannabis retail store wants to also sell a cup of coffee and a sandwich, we should allow cities to make that possible and stop holding back these small businesses.”
The bill would not permit cannabis consumption lounges to sell alcoholic beverages. Additionally, Haney noted that the proposal is limited to licensed consumption lounges and does not permit other types of enterprises to enter the legal cannabis market.
“To be clear, we’re not saying that coffee shops should be allowed to sell cannabis,” Haney said. “We’re saying that cannabis shops should be allowed to sell coffee. It shouldn’t be illegal for an existing cannabis business to move away from only selling marijuana and instead have the opportunity to grow, thrive and create jobs by offering coffee or live jazz.”
Bill Offers New Opportunities For Consumption Lounges
Supporters of the legislation say that Haney’s bill would give cannabis consumption lounges opportunities to grow and serve their customers. Although he has not taken a position on the legislation, Nikesh Patel, the director of San Francisco’s Office of Cannabis, said that new sources of revenue could help businesses survive in a competitive and highly regulated industry.
“We hear from our operators that it’s a very challenging time to be in the cannabis space,” said Patel. “And some of the reasons are reduced foot traffic on the streets and higher tax burdens on cannabis businesses. There is still competition with the illicit market, and the cost of flower as a whole has gone down, and that’s had a trickle effect on the entire supply chain.”
Haney’s bill does not automatically permit cannabis consumption lounges to serve food and drink or host live events. Instead, local governments would also have to approve the change for the businesses in their jurisdictions. City leaders in West Hollywood, Palm Springs and Cathedral City have already passed such ordinances, according to Haney’s office. In San Francisco, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman plans to introduce legislation on Tuesday to allow the city’s consumption lounges to take advantage of Haney’s proposal.
“I think those (current) restrictions don’t make sense and they’re not helpful to the lounges,” Mandelman said. “And I think that in terms of making those more enjoyable spaces and building out our local cannabis industry, tourism and economic developments — for all those reasons, it makes sense to take advantage of what Assemblyman Haney is putting forward.”
Before it can become law, AB 374 must first be passed by the California Assembly and state Senate before heading to the office of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom for his consideration. Although he is unsure if the governor will sign the bill if he is given the chance, Haney said that hopes Newsom will give California’s consumption lounges a new way to succeed in a challenging business environment.
“California’s small cannabis businesses are struggling,” said Haney. “Issues like over-saturation, high taxes, and the thriving black market are hurting cannabis businesses who follow the rules and pay taxes.”
“I hope that the governor, as a small-business owner himself in the past who has been involved in the hospitality industry, can now see this as an opportunity,” he added.
“Do not go there!” Valentina, a 27-year-old designer living in Medellín, yelled when I told her that I planned on visiting the Casa Museo Pablo Escobar, a museum dedicated to the Colombian drug lord.
A quick Google search made me change my mind. The entrance fee to the museum is $30 – a hefty sum in a country where a full meal will typically cost you less than $5, and most of the museums are donation-based or free-of-charge. On top of that, online reviews were making the place out to be a rip-off, a collection of meaningless personal possessions, shoddy reproductions, and revisionist history.
But that was not why Valentina told me not to go. A native Colombian, she felt it was disrespectful for tourists like me to go and waste their time, energy, and money on an individual who callously killed and intimidated so many of her countrymen.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what tourists are doing. For many – although certainly not all – it’s one of their primary reasons for coming to Medellín in the first place. Colombia has been attracting travelers with a perverse admiration for Pablo Escobar for decades, but the number of narco-tourists increased drastically following the release of Netflix’s Narcos, which has turned the kingpin from a fading memory into an alive-and-well pop culture icon.
While the Netflix serieshas boosted Colombia’s tourism industry and by extension the Colombian economy as a whole, Colombians are – understandably – upset that one of the most hated characters in their history books has now become the country’s de facto international ambassador.
“To many of us, Pablo is our Hitler,” one person from Medellín told me. “To a few he was a hero, but mostly he brought a lot of evil to our city, and we will probably never get rid of the stigma, just like the Germans will never get rid of their history. I really despise people who buy or sell Pablo T-shirts, mugs, etc. It’s like me going to Berlin to sell T-shirts of Hitler. I’d get arrested before I sold the first one.”
“I have an uncle who I never met who died in one of his famous bombings,” another added. “I completely despise any reference towards that man.”
Personally, I am tempted to hold Narcos partially responsible for creating or at the very least reinvigorating this reference for Escobar. In classic Hollywood fashion, Netflix made him thinner, handsomer and more charismatic than he was in real life. (They also cast a Brazilian actor instead of a Colombian one, but that is another story). On top of all this, the focus of the show is on his success, on his power. Viewers walk away from Narcos ruminating on how, at his peak, he was the 7th richest man in the world and controlled 80% of all cocaine. What they don’t realize is that, for the time that he was active, he pretty much held the whole country hostage through a campaign of domestic terrorism, blowing up apartment buildings and commercial airplanes just to kill a single person on his miles-long hitlist.
Instead of Casa Museo Pablo Escobar, Valentina urged me to visit Barrio 13. A huge slum erected on the hills overlooking Medellín, Barrio 13 used to be one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in all of South America, until the Colombian army swept in during the early 2000s. Things have improved since then – somewhat. It is still a total mess; there is no urban planning and no roads for cars, but instead of public executions, there’s music, graffiti, and – occasionally – those Red Bull BMX challenges you may have seen on YouTube. Most importantly, however, the residents seem to be earning a decent living off tourism.
Graffiti artist in Barrio 13 / Photo by Tim Brinkhof
While ordering an IPA I later learned contained copious amounts of THC, I asked the guy who had brought me there – a local called Jason – how the people of Barrio 13 felt about a show like Narcos. The answer: not good. If I wanted to “see the real Escobar,” Jason told me, I should check out a Colombian show called El Patron del Mal, or “The Boss of Evil.” It’s a Latin soap-opera, not a blockbuster, but once I ignored the overly dramatic plot and music, I could see what he was getting at. First and foremost, Escobar, who was played by a Colombian actor, looked the part – overweight and less attractive. Patron del Mal also struck me as more authentic in its representation of Colombia. The Medellín the characters lived in was the same Medellín as I saw when I looked out of the window of my little Airbnb – full of energy and color. They drank aguardiente and gorged on paísa, a typical Antioquian dish of rice, beans, avocado, ground beef and fried pork, served with hot arepas. Most importantly, however, the life of crime did not seem nearly as glamorous in this show as it did in Narcos. We see Escobar for what he really was – a crook without a conscience; it wasn’t his intelligence that allowed him to get as far as he did, but the fact that he was willing to do things that others wouldn’t have been able to live with.
Navigating the maze that’s Barrio 13 is hard enough when you’re sober, let alone when you’ve unintentionally gotten high off craft beer. Standing in line for the only outdoor escalator in the country, I began to notice how Colombian society dealt with the scars of narco-terrorism. Buildings that used to be painted with blood and bullet holes have since been covered up by gorgeous graffiti art that serves to remind people of anything other than drug-related violence. One of the barrio’s newest murals, Jason showed me, depicts Pachamama, an Andean goddess representing the Earth itself, and a much older and powerful symbol of Colombia’s cultural heritage than Escobar.
While I never went to Casa Museo Pablo Escobar, I did visit Hacienda Napoles, one of the many homes he acquired with his fortune. Located near the town of Puerto Triunfo, about halfway between Medellín and Bogotá, the Hacienda had originally included a modest swimming pool, a landing strip for small airplanes, and a zoo filled with animals purchased on the black market. After Escobar’s death, the estate itself fell into disarray. The villa was ransacked and eventually raised to the ground. The animals, left to their fate, died or – in the case of the hippos – escaped into the surrounding wetlands, where they flourished and became invasive species.
Hippos at the Hacienda Napoles zoo / Photo by Tim Brinkhof
For years, the Colombian state fought to confiscate the land from Escobar’s relatives. When they succeeded, they turned the Hacienda Napoles into a theme park. At first, I thought that this was done in an attempt to cash in on narco-tourism trends. Fortunately, this was not the case. Upon falling into public hands, the Hacienda – like Barrio 13 – was transformed so as to remove all traces of its criminal past. To that end, the Hacienda Napoles of today is related to the Hacienda Napoles of Escobar in name only. The hilly terrain that had once served to hide the kingpin’s dealings from the outside world now features rollercoasters and swimming pools. The theme park’s theme is Africa, owing to the bigger and better zoo that has taken the place of the old one. Visitors – mostly Colombians holidaying in their own country – come to gawk at elephants, lions, tigers, flamingos, and a pair of absolutely monstrous boa constrictors. In contrast to Escobar’s own zoo, where zebras were ridden by his henchmen and ostriches handfed cigarettes, the Hacienda’s current animals live in spacious enclosures, enjoying a climate that – at least in terms of temperature – isn’t far off from their native savannahs.
Cartel member riding one of Escobar’s zebras / Photo by Tim Brinkhof
The only reference to Pablo Escobar inside Hacienda Napoles is a small museum tucked away in the very back corner of the park. The museum, a partial reconstruction of the original villa, is dedicated to the victims of narco-terrorism. Inside you learn more about the history of the Hacienda, Escobar’s inevitable downfall, and the barbaric lengths that he went to trying to prevent that downfall. The white walls are covered with the portraits of politicians and police officers that he had killed, as well as pictures of blood-covered children being pulled out of the rubble of collapsed buildings.
What shocked me more than these images was that most of the visitors around me had just come out of the pool and were walking through the museum half-naked, dripping wet, drinking beers and eating slices of pizza. At the time their behavior and appearance couldn’t help but strike me as inappropriate, and even made me think that they were a bit hypocritical to complain about gringos smoking blunts on Escobar’s grave back in Medellín. Days later, I realized how wrong I was. Whereas I, a foreigner, had traveled to Puerto Triunfo specifically to see what had become of Escobar’s former home, the average Colombian – it appears – comes here to swim in the swimming pools, ride the rollercoasters, and look at the animals. To them, Pablo Escobar is not the main event of their trip, but just an afterthought. This, as far as I am concerned, is as good a sign as any that the country – after decades of suffering – is well on its way to break free from the drug lord’s tightening grip.
Tourists checking out the narco-terrorism museum / Photo by Tim Brinkhof
If cannabis is legal, but consumers are only allowed to smoke in private residences, where does that leave tourists, or local cannabis consumers enjoying a night out, to reap the benefits of a legal market? Considering the amount of public spaces to consume alcohol, it seems like a severe limitation that folks can’t similarly enjoy cannabis in a public, social setting.
States around the U.S. have only just started to move forward with public consumption lounges over the last few years, but is the country’s northern neighbor Canada ready to make the plunge? The jury’s out on the country as a whole, but a new government report indicates that the province British Columbia is considering the leap.
It’s worth noting that British Columbian policy around public consumption is already a bit more liberal than that of many U.S. states. According to the province site, adults over the age of 19 are “generally allowed” to smoke or vape cannabis in public spaces that allow tobacco smoking and vaping. Of course, these spaces are distinct from a cannabis consumption space, typically used to refer to a business like a lounge, special event or establishment that allows for cannabis use, and potentially sales, on site.
In spring 2022, the province asked citizens for feedback on allowing cannabis consumption spaces through a demographically and geographically representative telephone survey, online survey and written submissions. British Columbia officials not only sought to understand citizen stances on consumption spaces but also to what extent people agreed or disagreed with proposed policy principles that could potentially guide regulations within these spaces.
Among 730 random phone survey respondents, 61% supported consumption spaces, and 35% had used cannabis at least once in the past year. However, only 34% of online respondents voiced their support, which the government said could partially be due to the specific research method and potential for self-selection bias. There were 15,362 total online respondents, and 305 had used cannabis in the past year.
Most of those who use cannabis also supported consumption spaces, along with cannabis retailers, producers and industry associations who provided written submissions, the report notes. The majority of cannabis users also said they would visit a cannabis consumption space to purchase and use cannabis, showing the most interest in cannabis cafés and lounges.
Those opposed generally did not use cannabis or were from a public health and safety organization or local government who provided written submissions. Non-users also indicated they would be likely to avoid events and businesses allowing cannabis consumption. The main concerns were the potential for spaces to serve both alcohol and cannabis and the potential increased risk of impaired driving.
Post-legalization studies in Canada have found time and time again that, at least with the country’s current laws, there hasn’t been a spike in stoned driving, including one just after the country’s 2018 legalization, another the following year and another from 2021, concluding that there was no evidence of significant changes surrounding cannabis legalization and weekly counts of emergency department visits. Of the U.S. states that have allowed cannabis consumption spaces, or promote special events like cannabis-infused dinners, there are generally specific bans on allowing alcohol and cannabis to be served at the same location.
The report cites the 2021 BC Cannabis Use Survey, which found an estimated 1.4 million people living in British Columbia reported using cannabis at least once in the past year. Therefore, it states there may be at least 750,000 people in the province who are interested in visiting a cannabis consumption space “at least once.”
“Health and safety are our utmost priorities as we consider how provincial cannabis policies could evolve,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, in a news release. “This report provides valuable insights into people in B.C.’s perspectives on cannabis and will help guide our work to support a strong, diverse and safe legal cannabis sector across the Province.”
One reason Canada has yet to implement legal consumption spaces has to do with its smoking bylaws. The bylaws were put into place for the sake of public health and safety, though research shows that cannabis and tobacco smoke are not equally carcinogenic.
While the report provides further insight around the wants, and concerns, of B.C. residents, the government has yet to make further decisions around cannabis consumption spaces and how they would be regulated.
The newly established recreational cannabis industry in Guam is taking shape, slowly but surely.
Pacific Daily News reported this week that government regulators in the United States territory have approved 11 so-called “responsible officials” to participate in the recreational pot market, but the Department of Revenue and Taxation says that “no one has taken the next step of applying for a cannabis establishment license.”
Earning that designation is a crucial step toward landing a license, however.
Jeff Wells, the chief executive officer of Metrc—the seed-to-sale tracking system Guam is using—said last year that the company was “excited to rise to the challenge of this unique regulatory opportunity.”
“Metrc is thrilled to partner with the Department of Public Health and Social Services as Guam builds its medical marijuana market. We look forward to working with both regulators and licensed business owners to implement the island’s first regulatory track-and-trace program. We are proud to play a leading role in ensuring the safety and security of the nation’s legal cannabis market,” Wells said at the time.
The measure “legalizes the personal possession of marijuana by adults, and establishes regulations governing the plant’s commercial production and retail sale,” according to NORML.
“The law permits those age 21 or older to legally possess and transfer up to one ounce of marijuana flower and/or eight grams of concentrated cannabis. The measure, which took immediate effect, also permits adults to privately cultivate up to six cannabis plants (no more than three mature) in an ‘enclosed, locked space.’ Public consumption of cannabis will remain a violation of law,” NORML explained after the measure was approved. “The Act creates a new regulatory board to draft rules governing the plant’s commercial production and retail sale. The board has a one-year timeline to adopt rules necessary to permit for the operation of licensed cannabis establishments.”
Guam’s Cannabis Control Board gave the greenlight to two more “responsible officials” on Monday, according to Pacific Daily News. The regulator had already given the go-ahead to nine other individuals who earned the designation.
Those individuals were “briefed about the next steps during a Nov. 17 meeting and were given the application forms required to open a cannabis establishment,” Pacific Daily News reported.
“They have it, they’re working on their packet, but none of them actually submitted to the office for review or consideration at this time,” Craig Camacho, a compliance supervisor for the Department of Revenue and Taxation, told the Cannabis Control Board, as quoted by Pacific Daily News.
Guam’s governor, Lou Leon Guerrero, announced late last year that the island had “executed a contract with Metrc, an experienced provider of cannabis regulatory systems in the United States.”
“Over the last decade, we have seen substantial evidence that cannabis has medicinal benefits. With the final review by our Cannabis Control Board on the rules and regulations for the industry, we can more efficiently control recreational use and ensure safe and regulated products,” Guerrero said in a statement at the time. “The cannabis industry will benefit our community by funding expanded public services in health and public safety, and providing alternative treatment and rehabilitation for people who need it.”
Guam lieutenant governor Josh Tenorio said that as “an island territory and tourism hotspot, Guam’s cannabis market faces unique challenges when it comes to regulation and oversight.”
“We are excited for this historic partnership between DPHSS and Metrc, which will assist our government in executing the secure and responsible implementation of our cannabis industry on Guam, and further provide us with the tools we need to ensure our success,” Tenorio said.
The World Health Organization (WHO), recently citing one of their fresh, dark-timeline COVID-19 pandemic stats, alerted the world that there’s been a shocking/not-shocking 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression in adults across the world. A number which, frankly, begins to feel light when taking into context the various ugly aspects of these increasingly dystopian times.
Adults are hardly in solo sad company. Data from a youth charity The Prince’s Trust, says 23% of young people in the U.K. claim they are seeking psychedelic experiences and will “never emotionally recover from the emotional impact of the pandemic.” Existence itself, it seems, is more a burden emotionally than ever before.
Kevin Bourke agrees: “Global mental health has deteriorated and people need perspective and balance.” Bourke, co-founder of Patoo—Jamaica’s first legal psychedelic CPG line of psilocybin products—has a particularly astute vantage point to witness both the trending explosive interest and use of psychedelics as well as the return of tourism culture on his home turf after the devastation of COVID on the travel industry at large.
Particularly hard hit were places like the island’s longtime beach and cliff-lined bohemian playground of Negril in the West End, where I caught up with him in the spring of 2022 while on the island for my own physical and spiritual recharging of sorts. Patoo is quickly gaining traction around the island with dozens of retail partners all across Jamaica carrying their products, from legal cannabis dispensaries like Jacana, through to locally infamous mushroom cafes, weed huts, right up to posh resorts like Skylark along the beach, or Rockhouse in the cliffs, where Patoo is also hosting “Psilocybin Soundbath” experiences for guests.
Courtesy of Patoo
In the gift shops, the eye-catching Patoo packaging is right at home alongside tanning oils and sun hats. Think: gluten-free, direct trade and locally-farmed dark chocolate bars, dosed Jamaican honey, microdosed mushroom capsules, and more strain-based products being developed with Patoo’s R+D team.
“The vibe in Negril and the whole island is bringing people seeking experiential tourism and wellness after COVID, and the Caribbean has bounced back. It’s the perfect time for Jamaica to step up in this realm and be a leader for adults seeking these products,” says Bourke.
Patoo’s other co-founder Charles Lazarus, a twenty-year veteran of touring roots-reggae band Rootz Underground Movement says: “We didn’t come up with mushroom-dosed chocolate, they just go well together in nature, and both are medicine,” he says. “The dark chocolate provides oxytocin, the love transmitter, and then you have the Jamaican mushrooms with a very expansive personality.”
A Jamaican owl—Patoo—greets you as the brand mascot and spiritual talisman to the public, and as a brand the team says they seek to be a bridge builder between the natural world, research, and commerce. Besides partnering with island farmers for all-local chocolate and a greater harmony with their proprietary indigenious hybrid genetics, their main Patoo 4-gram dark chocolate bar uses a wild Jamaican strain they cross-cultivated the mycelium with in order to be consistent and shelf-stable. It also allows them to tightly and accurately control even-dosing across the product (read: you can anticipate the effects for a better experience). And yet, their biggest cost is the Jamaican cacao, which is regarded as one of the best on the planet.
In an even more impressive move, Bourke, along with Lazarus and their team worked to execute the first legal shipment of Jamaican psilocybin using native genetics cultivated by the Patoo team to the University of Alberta and Health Canada for research on PTSD in the Canadian Military.
That image of psychedelics as both therapy and a fun time for responsible adults is changing, if the ongoing legalization movement is any indicator. The FDA has proclaimed psilocybin to be a “breakthrough medicine” and that perspective is increasingly being found at the end of a micro or macro dose of plant-based psychedelics like magic mushrooms. While on the island for my own restorative trip to Negril, I too wanted to sample the indigenious and proprietary genetics unique to Jamaica.
Courtesy of Patoo
In the case of Patoo, they offer a means to try mushrooms naturally harvested in controlled environments—knowing the diet of the cows producing the substrate growing manure to ensure the integrity of the mycelium, as well as the metabolites, which influence and direct the effects the way terpenes interact with cannabinoids in cannabis.
With all that in mind, it’s no surprise to find accessibility and professional, safe psilocybin products being at the forefront of the experiential tourism trend that is growing in Negril, and greater Jamaica. Legality means greater diversity and standards of CPG goods, in psychedelics just as it did with weed. “[Psychedelics] are moving extremely fast, it feels different than cannabis,” says Lazarus. “Cannabis definitely led the path and highlighted the right way, also the wrong ways, of progressing an industry like this. Psilocybin will challenge the wine and spirits space in ten years.”
As a brand, Patoo is already creating a buzz on social media as an easy and reliably-dosed access point to the island’s psychedelic mushroom culture, which already has been strong for years. But Bourke brings a different element of connectivity and understanding the market. A seasoned branding creative, he helped create Blackwell Rum with his mentor Chris Blackwell (English-born founder of Island Records and the first person to put reggae music out on a pro label), worked with Usain Bolt’s Tracks & Records restaurant brand, and is the co-founder of the music and wellness cultural festival TmrwTday.
In other words, he was the choice of choices to connect me and be my guide to Patoo. I was staying at Tensing Pen, a small independent resort in the cliffs that is what I’d like to think resides in the afterlife for people who love dogs (they have a few Rhodesian Ridgebacks that roam the area). Having grown up hanging out in Negril, Bourke effortlessly manifested at the table my girlfriend and I were at, adjusting to the island vibes after the flight in from Boston. I was supplied with some gratis Social Dose bars (.7g of locally grown Hawaiian cubensis) and the flagship Patoo Bar, dosed with 4g their proprietary Jamaican Cyanescens strain crossed with APE (Albino Penis Envy).
Each Patoo bar has three squares to it, each dosed at 1.33g. One square, Bourke said, and “it’s dancing time”. Two and we get into fractals and visual distortion and a sense of being connected. Three, and he said “it’s time to chill out and have a friend nearby because you going on a journey”. I had already had one big journey that day, I was just looking for the lift.
I also just decided to eat a full Social dose after that long day of travel and a few months between psilocybin consumption. Scene and setting was set. Hadn’t even begun the four days on, three days off regiment suggested by psychonauts for your brain and system to reset (and deal with increased tolerance). The effect of the whole bar left me like I’d been hit upside the head by a wet rowing oar (I hadn’t had a full meal yet, violating one of Patoo’s suggestions for consumption).
Courtesy of Daniel McCarthy
After I adjusted a bit on the frantic energy and overwhelming sensations, I slid into a great pocket of euphoria and social connectedness to everything around me, but I was never out of range or uncomfortable in my surroundings (nothing gets you weirder than putting your hand through your phone while going to change up your playlist). It was also robust in earthy mushroom flavor.
The dogs and my girlfriend at sunset. The saltfish at the restaurant overlooking the moonrise. The cove at Tensing Pen, smashed by ancient waves on old pirate coral. The restoration to my body and mixing with local ganja consumed in great quantities from both the local dispensary circuit (Jacana) and some local farmers as well. Helluva first day.
The next evening I dove into a 1.33g square while cruising the long beachfront road down from the cliffs, with drums of jerk chicken being smoked along the way and the party looked like it was outside the venue more than inside. Plenty of shady corners away from the streetlights and drum fires where typically one ducks into for the gamblers’ choice of local fungi. A dicey situation any way you slice it.
“If you buy mushrooms and don’t fully know the source, it can affect your mindset going in. And scene and setting is so key when experiencing psilocybin, and commercially it doesn’t make sense to create a product that gives people a negative episode,” says Bourke. “Charles and our team have worked out our consistency and dosing so we can approach this product as a CPG as well as a plant medicine. You can take some Patoo and then return to it a month later seeking that groove and those sensations (and knowing your limits), and find it’s repeatable. Dosage is huge for us and Patoo.”
That dosage was what I was relying on given the visual and auditory overload I was about to step into. Namely, the first Negril nighttime beach party where everyone comes in from the hills in Westmoreland and surrounding parishes to attend a massive DJ set of everything from the Beatles to traphouse beats, with locals dressed like they were heading to the club, only to be met with fire ants in front of the stage and lounge area that would beat back the surging crowd and leave an awkward negative space in the crowd… where I was standing.
Not wanting to be rude—and with all 1.33g surging through me—I enjoyed the evening with my new friends and executed four straight hours of dancing for a guy who doesn’t dance. Admittedly the fire ants would maul me the moment I stopped, and the dancing was the white-man’s two-step rocking back and forth and pounding water all night. All in all, the dosage for me was just right. And best of all, repeatable. The next night. And the afternoon after.
And then back home just as spring flipped into summer, after walking through the Ukrainian sculpture park I live near, alone on my back in the sun with my dog scurrying nearby and not a soul around.
“The paradigm has shifted and evolved and a whole generation is upset that they have been deceived, to their detriment, over the broken narrative around psychedelics as a therapeutic option,” says Lazarus. “With the attention in the press, the ground-swell around the holistic approach to life and a return to organic food, places of high energy and legal psilocybin medicine such as Jamaica have become a travel focus for people that are seeking inner healing,” says Lazarus. “We are proud of this offering to the world.”
“This is silly,” I remember saying out loud while hitting a joint in Barcelona. It was six or seven years ago, and I had just joined my first cannabis club in the city, Círculo.
It’s still open near my friend Lucy’s apartment in Barcelona’s El Born neighborhood. These days, it feels quaint, a bit dated—already a relic of its time. But back then, it was a genuine revelation.
“We can just light joints here?” I remember thinking. “We’re allowed to do that inside?”
The answer was, mostly, “yes,” even though cannabis wasn’t technically legal for medical or adult-use in Spain. Today, Barcelona is home to some 225 members-only cannabis lounges called asociaciones (associations), which exist in a legal grey area. Back in 2000, the clubs started popping up as a result of a now-lauded legal analysis, which revealed that in the context of existing Spanish legislation, asociacionescould exist in which members would be able to obtain cannabis for personal use. Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that possession of any size wasn’t illegal if it was for personal use or part of a nonprofit.
At the time, a smattering of nonprofit asociacionesalready operated private cannabis clubs in Spain. Their framework spread to other countries, serving as an early model for how it could be done. The post-2000 wave of clubs expanded on this model and was centered in Barcelona, which had the friendliest regional government toward cannabis. Today, all of Spain’s asociaciones are set up as nonprofits, operating within the margins of that ruling.
Basically, it’s legal to smoke weed in Spain, especially for those on private property. Growing for personal use is permitted, as is the sale of seeds, but selling and buying is strictly prohibido. This means that in the clubs, payments are “gifts” or “donations,” y’know, because it’s a nonprofit. The words “money,” “buy,” “sell” aren’t allowed. Everything is an exchange or otherwise freely given. One donates at the front desk after entering in a likely unmarked door from the street. Credits are added to a key fob or card, which is then scanned inside the club. There’s no commerce. At least that’s the theory.
The reality is that, like so many other rules in Spain, the cannabis laws aren’t enforced with a heavy hand. Many clubs, which are only supposed to accept Spanish residents as members will be all too happy to accept a tourist’s Airbnb or hotel address as well.
They’re also incredibly patient but firm with tourists, like me, who momentarily forget the rules only to blurt out that they’re buying fat California nugs that mysteriously popped up in a nonprofit cannabis club on the Mediterranean coast.
“Hey, no!” said Maria José, a budtender from Argentina. She gingerly waved her finger in my face while her eyes widened. I was out of practice—I spent the first two COVID-19 years in California, where I live, blissfully buying weed and talking about it openly. The vibe in Barcelona was chill, as it always was, but that doesn’t make cannabis actually legal. Discretion still trades at a premium in this beautiful country, even if weed prices have become more reasonable while quality has improved.
Author Jackie Bryant sits at a cannabis club in Barcelona.
In March 2022, I decided I’d visit as many clubs in Barcelona as my wallet would allow. Thanks to the global pandemic and my divorce, I hadn’t been to Barcelona since November 2019. I was itching to not only visit the city, but also to check out the first Spannabis, Europe’s most important cannaconference, in three years and experience this dynamic city’s club, cultivation and hash scene. I wanted to visit Terps Army, which is a Barcelona outpost of the famed Amsterdam coffee shop, as well as Cookies, which is an official location of the California cannabrand started by San Francisco rapper and entrepreneur Berner.
I reasoned that visiting at least three or four more was reasonable for a week-long visit. The membership fees at the asociaciones vary, especially depending on location and clientele. Though Círculo, my mainstay club, is in a touristy part of town, it’s older and dingier than its newer counterparts. Its membership is an affordable 20 euro per year. HQ, in the also touristy L’Eixample neighborhood, clocks in at 50 euro, though it’s decidedly more upscale and offers much better weed. Still, it was clear that different subcultures within this already mostly underground scene were emerging. A type of choose-your-own-adventure, but for cannabis.
“Things have really blown up here,” I said to Soklak, a French street artist and rapper who’s also the creative director of CRTFD, a California-born cannabis lifestyle brand that operates clubs in Europe, including Barcelona. “It feels different, even just since COVID hit.”
“It’s true, things really have changed,” Soklak said, taking a puff of a long spliff he had just rolled and exhaling into the air above him. “It’s been recent, too.”
Círculo is a cannabis club in Barcelona’s El Born neighborhood.
Soklak’s tall, thin and, to me, looked like a casually dressed Daniel Craig. Quiet and thoughtful, he lit up when I was able to connect the street art on display in the club with the city’s wider graffiti, skate and anarchist culture that churned in Barcelona’s subculture for years. The elements were interwoven but distinct and cannabis coursed through all of it. “That’s exactly what we’re trying to do here,” he said. “Bring together art and cannabis culture, because they naturally belong together.”
Soklak explained that even as culture capitals such as Paris stayed “dead” as far as their attitude toward cannabis, and weed-friendly destinations such as Amsterdam continued to crack down on gains made in legal cannabis sales and consumption, Barcelona is well positioned to take advantage given its chill attitude and second-to-none club culture allowing the city to take over as the top European destination for cannabis aficionados.
Add to that a perfect perch on the Mediterranean Sea, as well as national access to the African continent at Gibraltar, which sits at the border with the robust cannabis-producing Morocco, and there’s a supply chain from seed-to-sale ready to explode. A healthy supply also comes in from the US, plus, there are state-of-the-art indoor grows in Catalonia producing bud that would make any American do a double-take.
Other visiting US residents, apart from me, also noticed how much things had changed in recent years. Nathaniel Pennington, head of the legendary Humboldt Seed Company, summed it up at the Spannabis conference by telling me, “Business is good. Very good. I mean, we have employees here!” while motioning to some of his Barcelona-based staff members.
He’s right. The point stands on its own.
Back at the asociaciones,Roger Volodarsky, CEO of electronic hash gear maker Puffco, was downright giddy looking around at the crowds inside the clubs. For starters, they were made up of mostly men, which he acknowledged would be nice if it changed, but we agreed it wasn’t likely to happen any time soon. Still, a huge shift was happening among these men. A bunch of them were dabbing—something that was genuinely quite rare to see on any given day in any club in Barcelona, even just a few years ago.
Hash culture is big in Barcelona, but traditionally so, with big bricks and temple balls dominating. Apart from that, flower is king, but often more expensive or in shorter supply, so spliffs with tobacco are popular, too.
Dabs—the way we experience them in the US, in particular—are brand new territory. Puffco hasn’t made its big push into Europe quite yet, but Volodarsky told me that was about to change.
“Europe has loved hash for a really long time, but this new version of hash centered around water hash, rosin and BHO that’s become popular in the US, has really started to take off in Europe,” Volodarsky said while we chatted in HQ Barcelona, enjoying joints.
Volodarsky says that, since it’s still early days, the old dab tools of nails, quartz bangers and torches is how it’s done. Obviously, he sees a huge opportunity for his business. “This market is being primed for the Puffco Peak,” he told me while a Fidels hash hole joint was passed back and forth. Fidel sat just to our right, eclipsed by a low-hanging hash haze.
Elsewhere in the city, things were buzzing, albeit quietly. Tourism has collapsed since the onset of the pandemic, which depressed the local economy. Barcelona has a long, fraught history with its visiting vacationers who have simultaneously filled the city’s coffers while displacing residents and ushering in other social ills. Cannabis stepped in where COVID-19 created room. Spain’s grey-legal cannabis industry is now thriving due to low risk of serious jail time and good profit margins (thanks to what criminalization risk still exists); a mostly cannabis-tolerant population; demand elsewhere in Europe and growing intra-European travel.
I’m so glad beautiful Barcelona gave me so many reasons to happily return to the land of my not-so-distant past.
