For decades Amsterdam held the title as Marijuana capital of the world. I'm born and raised in Amsterdam, and I clearly remember the peculiar smell in the subway carriages on my way to school. It was a couple of years later that I knew what that smell was and when I got introduced to my first smoking experience.

Image Credit

I don't want to go down memory lane too much. Let's say that I've had my fair share of weed consumption and that nowadays I enjoy the occasional vape session. The main reason why I drastically decreased my smoking habit is that high amounts of THC in my system don't help me achieve my goals in life. Less is more so to say. Way less.

I would argue that today Amsterdam is still a major player in the Marijuana business. Today we ship our knowledge and expertise abroad together with the seeds. But besides this economic benefit, we have not seen a lot of development in the use of the plant itself. It's still illegal to grow. You can have five plants, out or indoors with no lights. The moment you do use lights you're breaking the law. The legal situation has made it difficult to research the diversity of the Marijuana plant actively.

There is no demand for weed grown with a focus on other cannabinoids.

There are a lot of cannabinoids, yet the primary focus is on THC due to its psychoactive effects. Since the first coffee shops opened their door in the mid 70's the percentage of THC has gone up drastically. Some even argue that if weed had been introduced today, it would have been outlawed due to the high percentage of THC.

The way I see it is that the decade's long focus on THC has created an environment where the debate about legalizing Marijuana always gets tackled by the THC aspect. Critics use it to point out that weed is dangerous, that it might lead to mental dependence and can cause psychoses. This opinion is strengthened by the fact that all coffee shops sell weed with a growing amount of THC. There is no demand for weed grown with a focus on other cannabinoids. This creates a vicious circle where legalization is under attack due to it's limited view on the substance. Because of the illegal status of Marijuana, there is hardly any room for development which leaves people uninformed.

Image Credit

There was not enough scientific proof that medical cannabis worked.

That's not to say there is no research at all. In the Netherlands, we have the Bureau of Medicinal Cannabis a government run organization that studies Marijuana and its medicinal purposes. It is possible for a specific group of patients to get access to medicinal Marijuana. But it's not that simple, and the systems around it are very bureaucratic. On top of that, most of the health insurances stopped covering medicinal Marijuana. All this stems from the illegal status of this multi diverse plant. From where I live that's a 5 min walk to go to a coffee shop, get 1grm of 23% THC OG Cali Kush, smoke myself silly, pass out only to wake up with a severe loss of memory. But if I want to get some weed with a high amount of CBD and a little amount of THC (to fight insomnia for example) I have to go through a whole bureaucratic machine with a small chance of actually getting my hands on the desired product.

Zilveren Kruis/Achmea, one of the largest health insurance providers in the country, had always provided coverage in its top-up policies. However, at the end of November 2016 the company said they had reviewed this policy and found there was not enough scientific proof that medical cannabis worked. The health institute, the insurance company said, provided them with no new advice to the contrary, and therefore they would be stopping all coverage of the medication as of July 2017. In response other insurers started cancelling their coverage too.

Health minister Edith Schippers (VVD) was quick to re-emphasise that coverage was entirely up to the insurers, and that there had been no change in government advice during the last half of 2016 to induce the changes from health insurers. That did little to calm angry patients who felt they had been let down by the system.

Source

Legalization of the recreational use of Marijuana while at the same time easing the strict rules around the medicinal use of Marijuana will provide for a better understanding of the plants potential. We would see a rise in the knowledge that can be obtained from this versatile plant and the many benefits it has to offer. I'm confident about the current trend I see worldwide, and I'm sure that within the next decade we will see a growing acceptance from both the public and the medical world towards the use of Marijuana. Stigmas take time to transform, and one thing that's critical to that transformation is room for debate and places where people share their knowledge and experience.

I'm more than curious about your thoughts or perhaps critique in regards to the above mentioned.

---