Dreamlord said:
Having never been to Amsterdam, I don't know much about these coffee shops. I assume they have designated seating for people that want to blaze up, right?
Damn, I responded to this and lost my LAN connection just as I hit submit.
OK, take two.
Dream, in Amsterdam, you have designated bars or "coffee shops" where you can go in, legally buy weed, and sit & smoke all day long. People who go to these places will go specifically to smoke weed, otherwise all the other bars are just regular establishments like those you find in Houston/anywhere - no weed smoking there or anywhere else in Amsterdam (including the street). So just like any bar or restaurant, the coffee shops will have menus at your table where you can choose what kind of weed you want to smoke. Of course, they also sell beer, coffee, and regular beverages.
It's a complete cannabis culture (that's still very well controlled). And each coffee shop will have it's own theme. There's reggae, classic rock, and lots of ambient trance/techno, etc. You know the music scenes that are attached to da 'erb smoke.
Like smoking, I would find smoking weed in public a nuisance. I wish Texas would pass that no-smoking in bars law like NY did. It's annoying going to a bar decently dressed and coming out smelling like an ashtray. If weed were to be made legal, what's to stop someone from lighting up in a bar or restaurant and, in turn, making other people smell the weed.
Ugh, the worst part of going out to a bar is coming home smelling like an ashtray. However, I'll smoke a cigarrette with a few beers in a beer garden or something - call it a guilty pleasure. I wish they would change the law where you can smoke again if the bar has an outdoor area.
Likewise, if I have a few drinks at home, I might light up a ciggy on my front porch - never indoors. Of course, I don't have cigarrettes just lying around so I normally only light up if I'm in the company of someone who smokes regularly (and as long as they smoke Marlboro Lights). Gugs is a big smoker, for example.
