Gotta Love the Dutch!

I know people who have mixed marijuana with tobacco, made a joint, and then sat smoking at public places in India or in America, with the concern that a passing cop might smell the marijuana and give them a hard time. They hope that the cop will smell only the tobacco and not the marijuana. All of them have gotten away with it.

A new Dutch law ensures that those people might still be concerned, but in a different way. The Dutch government is going to ban smoking (cigarettes) in public places like bars, restaurants, cafes etc. India plans to do the same. Most US states already have such laws in place. But as the astute reader might have realized, the Netherlands has legalized marijuana in certain locations (called Coffee Shops) since years. What about those places then?

Simple, you can smoke a joint in a "coffee shop" as long as it is pure marijuana. If there is even a tiny bit of tobacco in there, you are breaking the law. I can picture some dude, tired of having to go outdoors to smoke a cigarette, especially in winters, mixing tobacco and marijuana and rolling a joint. He will sit and puff away at the joint in an Amsterdam coffee shop, hoping that any cops nearby will smell only the marijuana and not the tobacco.

Absolutely gotta love the dutch!