Ok, so i've been slacking. I haven't been looking into Dutch things for a week or two and haven't posted anything in the meantime. So today I thought I would go into the Dutch "tolerance" idea. When people say Amsterdam, we think Red light district and legal marijuana. But...
Despite it being legal there, you almost never see a Dutch person getting high. You see TONS of foreigners smoking out in Dutch “coffee shops” (“coffee shop” means marijuana; “cafe” means coffee) but it’s pretty rare to see a Dutch person there. The legalization is tied to a very Dutch concept called “gedoogbeleid” which is difficult to translate but means permissiveness-because-there-are-bigger-fish-to-fry. (Or don't sweat the small stuff when something bigger is out there.) The Dutch live below sea level, so they have plenty of dams & dikes keeping the water out. To relieve pressure on this system, a little water always trickles through – that’s okay as long as they can keep the floods out. This is often why the Dutch are said to not care about trivial drugs like marijuana – so they can focus on hard drugs like cocaine and meth (which are very much illegal). So the tolerant country does have it's limits. (Phew, that's good)
(I borrowed most of this information from a blog of someone who actually lived there, click)
All in all you can understand this idea. I think the illustration of the dike best sums it up.
Despite it being legal there, you almost never see a Dutch person getting high. You see TONS of foreigners smoking out in Dutch “coffee shops” (“coffee shop” means marijuana; “cafe” means coffee) but it’s pretty rare to see a Dutch person there. The legalization is tied to a very Dutch concept called “gedoogbeleid” which is difficult to translate but means permissiveness-because-there-are-bigger-fish-to-fry. (Or don't sweat the small stuff when something bigger is out there.) The Dutch live below sea level, so they have plenty of dams & dikes keeping the water out. To relieve pressure on this system, a little water always trickles through – that’s okay as long as they can keep the floods out. This is often why the Dutch are said to not care about trivial drugs like marijuana – so they can focus on hard drugs like cocaine and meth (which are very much illegal). So the tolerant country does have it's limits. (Phew, that's good)
(I borrowed most of this information from a blog of someone who actually lived there, click)
All in all you can understand this idea. I think the illustration of the dike best sums it up.
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