By Dave Mangene
The first time I smoked pot was a failure of comedic proportions. I was with my buddy Scott, who was older and seemingly more versed in these matters. Plus, he had the pot. And the pipe. And the lighter. None of which I had.
We were 14 years young.
We took the contraban out into the woods behind my house one afternoon after school. We had no idea what the hell we were doing. At least I didn't. Scott had 'borrowed' the gear from his step brother who was a college kid. College kids knew about these things, and Scott had been instructed.
We stuffed that little pipe full of weed and started puffing away. He went first, sucking as if his life depended on it, smoke billowing up into the old New Hampshire pines. After coughing his lungs out to the point of exhaustion, his neck and face bulging and scarlet red, Scott passed the pipe to me, saying only, "Dude. Holy shit."
I brought the lighter to the pipe and did the same. It will come as no surprise to you that I promptly proceeded to hack my lungs out as well, my brain searching for some reason to justify this assinine behavior. "How," I thought to myself, "could people actually enjoy this?". The taste was hideous, not to mention the feeling of raping my virgin cardiovascular system with pure, unfiltered, Mexican ditch weed.
But we perservered, passing the pipe back and forth with only the sound of the autumn wind whipping through the trees.
Scott and I had heard stories of older kids, juniors and seniors at our high school, who had smoked pot and had had a grand ole time. They said pot made everything funnier and made music better and made food taste delicious. That's why we were out here in these God forsaken woods, choking ourselves voluntarily. We also very much liked the idea of breaking the rules and what 14 year old kid doesn't want some of that?
After passing the pipe for what seemed an eternity, we stood there waiting...
This is the part where you'll expect me to dazzle you with tales of narcotic induced euphoria in which the limits of our preppy, upper middle class existence were instantly transformed and a new horizon settled upon us, the doors of perception thrown widely open forever more.
Instead, nothing.
In other words, the pot didn't work. Or is wasn't really pot after all. Maybe it was oregano. The hell did we know? We didn't get high. We didn't get stoned. We got, in a word, zilch. Well, we got sore throats and a slight dizziness from lack of oxygen to our teenage brains but that wasn't really the goal of this particular mission.
Our maiden voyage as pot smokers had sunk like a thousand ships.
Scott was the first to speak.
"Dave, aren't we supposed to be stoned?" he said, cautiously.
"Um, I think so dude. You're not feeling anything?" I asked.
"Nothing. But my throat hurts."
Several minutes later Scott said he had to go. He left, taking the pipe with him.
I went back inside to watch Brady Bunch re-runs on TV.
It was a long time before I tried pot again.
Marijuana and American culture have long been strange bedfellows. Until very recently in Colorado, the drug has always been illegal. The punishment for possession of marijuana can be quite stiff and to be caught dealing the drug is to risk a lengthy jail sentence.
Pot had long been a staple of jazz musicians, poets, and beatniks in the early 20th century, but it remained on the fringes of society, a no-go for most of mainstream America. Classic propaganda films like 'Reefer Madness' portrayed American pot smokers as deranged people unable to maintain any kind of fruitful existence.
It wasn't until the hippies of the 1960's that pot exploded in popularity. Riding on the coat tails of that revolutionary generation's most prominent musicians, marijuana eventually gained a foothold in the national consciousness. Most of 'straight' America still feared it, but the hippies sang its praises in ever increasing numbers and pot was here to stay.
As with any subversive, counterculture movement in the United States, pot smoking was not done at a moderate pace. Those who chose to indulge did so heartily, inventively, and habitually. Pot smoking became a typical rite of passage for American youth. To this day, a high number of American teenagers have tried the drug, a large number of whom smoke on a regular basis.
In recent years, the legalization movement (as well as the medical marijuana movement) has gained legitimacy. The State of Colorado, as mentioned before, became the first state to legalize pot for recreational use. I went to college in Colorado and I'm sure this legislation made many people quite happy and relieved.
In typical American style, legalization has brought out the entrepreneurial skill of Americans. These days, many people are wary of the health risks of smoking so clever entrepreneurs are coming up with ways to ingest the drug without actually smoking it. The same commerical spirit which has made America an economic giant is now being applied to the business of pot - to tremendous profits I'm sure.
So why the enthusiasm? Why the all or nothing spirit when it comes to pot smoking in America?
I believe there are a few reasons.
First, Americans will always be drawn to to anything 'taboo'. If society creates a forbidden fruit, Americans will be lining up to eat it. This is true of all humans, but Americans do it with particular verve. To sample this particular forbidden fruit isn't as risky as other illegal drugs, so Americans can get a taste without going too far overboard. Me and my friend Scott wanted to be dangerous, and get a taste of the fruit, but we knew pot wouldn't ruin our lives overnight, such as crystal meth or heroin might do. Pot is dangerous, but not that dangerous, if you know what I mean.
Another reason American kids smoke more pot than Dutch kids is because of the drinking age in the United States. At 21, the American drinking age is one of the highest in the world. There are pros and cons to this policy, but one unexpected result is that kids will seek out marijuana (or other drugs) because it's easier to get than alcohol. It's never 'easy' in America, particularly in small town New England where I grew up, but it's still easier to get pot than to get booze.
Despite pot's popularity and 'coolness' in American culture, there are still millions of people who don't smoke it. But as with all things American, those who do smoke it, do so with a passion that is unlikely to be found in the Netherlands or anywhere else.
In the world of cannabis, the Netherlands has a unique reputation. With Amsterdam as its spiritual home, Dutch coffee shop culture is unlike anywhere in the world. Thousands of tourists (and millions of Euros) flock to the city to see the sights and smoke the pot. Holland is a pot mecca whether the Dutch like it or not.
Interestingly, the Dutch don't like it much. They don't really like to smoke marijuana and they are certainly not happy with the ubiquitous presence of coffee shops.
Despite this aversion, the Dutch grow pot, transport it, distribute it, sell it, tax it, and get rich off it. But they don't really enjoy smoking it. Most Dutch people have tried the drug once, but very few actually continue. In Holland there is no cultural equivalent to the American 'stoner' or 'pothead'. If someone garners a reputation as a daily smoker, he will most likely be labelled, fairly or not, as a bit of a loser who lives off welfare, and spends too much time in coffee shops instead of getting a 'real job'. There is certainly no equivalent to the American TV show 'Weeds' and none of Holland's famous rappers are as expressive in their love of weed as say, Snoop Dogg in American culture. Holland doesn't have a Willie Nelson.
In short, pot just isn't cool in Holland. Which is odd for Americans because we believe Dutch people will be smoking joints on every street corner. Or as the the singer of the American band Lambchop said to the audience during a concert I saw at Paradiso in Amsterdam, "why aren't y'all stoned all the time?"
But why isn't pot cool in Nederland?
Most Dutch people will tell you it's because pot has never been taboo in their culture. Since the mid-1970's, pot has been available in coffee shops all over the country. No aggressive cops, no prison sentences, no dealers - if you wanted it you got it, and there was no real risk of getting into trouble (unless you grew it in a barn and stole electricity from the power company to fuel your lamps).
I do believe there is some truth to the 'no taboo, no fun' philosophy. Low hanging fruit isn't all that exciting. But the no taboo thing doesn't quite cover the reason Dutch people don't smoke much pot.
The simple truth is, the Dutch don't like the way pot makes you feel. They don't like the buzz. As a people, the Dutch don't want a drug that takes them down, they want to go up! They need a drug that will make them feel less introverted. Something to take them out of their Calvinist shell. They want a drug that helps them to be more self-expressive, more bubbly. It's no coincidence that the Dutch have a nickname for alcohol: 'spraakwater', or 'speaking water'. They need something to get them talking, to get them dancing. Pot doesn't do that. It just makes them 'suf', or 'drowzy'. Alcohol, cocaine, caffeine, XTC - these are the drugs that are big here in Holland. Americans, on the contrary, need something to calm us down. Something to chill out our hyperactive tendencies: pot, pharmaceutical tranquilizers, opiates - that's more the American buzz (alcohol as well but that's true everywhere).
Not surprisingly, there is another drug that the Dutch use in abundance, more so than in America:
nicotine.
Ah yes, the cowboy chokers from Philip Morris. The Dutch seem to have taken one marque as their national brand: Marlboro. There are still some smokers of the traditional Dutch roll-ups, or 'shag', but these smokers tend to be older and they're still in the minority.
Holland, as a culture, does not have near the 'anti-cigarette smoking' vibe that is present in the United States. The Netherlands is a country that passed extensive no-smoking legislation for all public places including bars and restaurants and then proceeded to ignore the laws by unofficially allowing bars owned by sole-proprietors to carry on smoking. Well, no one really allowed these establishments to permit cigarette smoking, the smokers just started lighting up and didn't listen to the authorities. Eventually the Government couldn't pretend not to see this happening and passed some kind of 'tolerance' clause for small bars. This is an excellent example of the rebellious nature of Dutch people that bubbles beneath their calm exterior. They don't take well to being told what to do by an outside authority whether it's their boss, their government, or a foreign power.
So they keep on smoking.
I understand that this article may not speak to you in any way. There's a good chance you've never done any of the drugs I've mentioned, and if so you probably won't recognize the cultural tendencies I've shared here. But I assure you, they are alive and kicking and will most likely continue to be for as long as Americans and Nederlanders exist.
~ DAVE
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Ha Dave, that's really true though. I'm dutch and staying for a semester in Canada at the moment. The Europeans that stay here smoke significantly more cigarettes than Canadians (I think I can compare this to the States?)
I found this sentence very funny: "Americans, on the contrary, need something to calm us down. Something to chill out our hyperactive tendencies".
Keep up the articles!
Bart.
Posted by: Bartvrosmalen | 09/26/2014 at 09:15 PM
Hi Bart,
Thanks for your response and for reading my work.
Do you feel that the Canadians smoke more pot than you are used to?
Have fun in Canada, eh!
All the best,
Dave
Sent from my iPhone
Posted by: David Mangene | 09/27/2014 at 11:26 AM