First smoke-free coffeeshop in the Netherlands
As of 1 February, Boerenjongens, an Amsterdam coffeeshop (a place to smoke marijuana and haschisch in the Netherlands) decided to ban smoking inside its establishment. Owner Martijn van Bennekom says that all his employees were for a ban on smoking. “It’s much nicer to work in a smoke-free environment than to work in smoke the whole day”. While some patrons have no problems with the idea, others think it’s weird. “You can’t drink alcohol in a coffeeshop and now you can’t smoke. All you can do is drink coffee now.” So people come to buy drugs and leave because you can’t smoke in front of the coffeeshop either. The owner says he hopes that selling fancy juices, coffee and the smoking ban will attract people who wouldn’t normally go to a coffeeshop. One patron said, “when you go to the supermarket you just buy your food, you don’t eat it there.” That’s one way to look at it.
(Link: Zoomin)
I personally think that the boerenjongens is the best coffeeshop in the world..
And the smoking ban is a not to bad idea either, since the area and customers become more unreliable every day.
the only thing i do not agree with is the cause of the smoking ban.
It is on one side understandable that employees do not want to work in a smoke infested atmosphere, though i think the main reason is the capability of control. The moment that people will buy their weed and sit down in the smoking room they have a right on slight privacy, and many people abuse of that right. But if the customer leaves right after he bought his weed, he might not spend another few euros for a drink but the dealers can focus on the sale instead of having to put an eye on every table while they sell. And on the other hand police-inspections become more rare.
G