Dutch pot smokers hope elections bring reversal on marijuana restrictions

09-13-2012 • http://www.rawstory.com, By Agence France-Presse

Amsterdam’s pot smokers cast a keen, if somewhat hazy eye on Wednesday’s election, hoping for a government that will reverse plans to register them in a database and ban sales to foreigners.

“You have to go out and vote, vote for any left-wing party, it doesn’t matter who, because they are against the weed-pass,” a weedtress who asked not to be named said as she measured out a bag of crumbly brown hash to a client at the “Tweede Kamer” coffee shop.

Situated in the heart of Amsterdam’s central business district, the Tweede Kamer ironically has the same name as the parliament’s lower house, for which more than 12 million voters are eligible to cast their votes on Wednesday.

Apart from its usual decor of heavy wooden panelling, dope paraphernalia, a biscuit tin with the faces of Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Maxima, the shop has taken on a decidedly political tone for the day.

A large poster that says “I vote cannabis-friendly” with a list of the Dutch parties that oppose the weed-pass law shares the wall with an orange poster of an enlarged stamp showing the late Dutch queen Wilhelmina blowing smoke rings.