Barefoot Doctor: Kreuzberg’s Cannabis Café is An Intelligent Move
Local politicians in Kreuzberg recently voted ‘overwhelmingly in favour of an application for a pilot project’ to set up an Amsterdam-style coffee shop in Gorlizter Park to tackle the problem of the scores of dealers who currently sell pot in the rundown though popular alternative park. Barefoot Doctor- with no vested interest, he stresses – approves.
Barefoot Doctor: “It’s an intelligent move. Along with Uruguay legalizing cannabis completely, maybe as early as next week, it indicates a possible swing in the world towards common sense and away from the regressive reactionary mode that’s been in the ascendant for a while in world affairs.
In economically turbulent times it’s obvious legalizing cannabis worldwide is an intelligent move for the tax revenue alone. Fighting it only makes it more appealing to the rebellious streak in anyone drawn the cannabis way.
Legalization reduces usage by approximately 30% as has been proven in both Portugal and Switzerland. Just a fraction of the money raised in revenue would easily cover treatment centers for those who needed it. And the dealers, if granted amnesty would undoubtedly make fine business people if given the chance. So Berlin giving the nod to a coffee shop in Kreutzberg is a positive, sensible and expedient step towards that.
And rather than encourage young people, without the allure and mystique of the forbidden, it’s far more likely to discourage them.
The only reason alcohol has taken such a huge hold on various cultures, the UK particularly, is the alcohol industry, perturbed by sales dips in the late 80s and early 90s by the endemic spread of MDMA, made a concerted marketing push to convert young people to alcohol, and it worked.
At the local level of one coffee shop, it’s unlikely the global pot industry would do similar, even if they could.
And as for the dealers in the park and how they’ll make a living, they’ll either undercut prices at the coffee shop and carry on, move onto class A’s, move to a different town, or do something else altogether, though if pot was legalized and dealer-amnesty granted worldwide, these people would be the future captains of an industry that is likely set to rival even the alcohol industry in the fullness of time.
I truly believe it’s time for us to mature as a society now, stop pretending and acknowledge billions are spent each week on pot, so better to bring it into the fold than keep it out in the cold.
None of this is to advocate pot, any more than it is to advocate tea – I don’t have a vested interest either way – it’s just another call for us all to get real – and the wise people of Berlin are serving as an exemplar. More power to their elbow.”
Questions by Skrufff.