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Checkpoint was a cannabis coffee shop in Terneuzen, the largest such in the Netherlands until it was closed in 2008 by the authorities because of reputedly having a too large supply of cannabis.
In 1996, the municipality of Terneuzen was the only town in Zeeland as tolerant in an end to the illegal sale. Two coffee shops got a license, "Miami" and the already operating illegally Checkpoint. Checkpoint made use of forced removals to significantly expand a mega coffeeshop where on average 2,900 customers per day (on peak days to 5000) take a number and then had to pull one of the five tills a bag hash or weed to be met. The coffee shop had its own parking, café and restaurant, almost one hundred employees and an annual turnover of 26 million euros. Half of the visitors came from France and 40 percent from Belgium.
On 1 June 2007 the police raided the coffeeshop, where 4.5 kilograms of soft drugs were found. In a neighboring warehouse police found another 92 pounds. This is much more than in the AHOJ-G criteria maximum of 500 grams of stock. On 20 May 2008, the police again raided the shop and thirteen addresses. This time 160 pounds soft drugs were seized and the coffee shop was closed.
On 3 November 2009 the trial of fifteen employees of the coffee shop, where prison sentences to eighteen years and a confiscation order of 27 million was demanded. It was the first time that a coffee shop was prosecuted as a criminal organization. On 25 March 2010, the court ruling. The defendants were found guilty but received light sentences. Prime suspect and owner Maddie W. received a prison sentence of 16 weeks and other employees received prison sentences for which the judgment is not transcended. The confiscation order amounted to 10 million euros. The court did weigh the municipality of Terneuzen, the Public Prosecutor and the treasury not despite these interventions were aware of the scope of the case, which the owner always has been open. The court accused the municipality of the ban on advertising for coffee shops to have violated verwijsbordjes by placing the coffee shops. Following the ruling mayor asked Jan Lonink national politics to establish clearer rules.
While recreational use, possession and trade of non-medicinal drugs described by the Opium Law are all technically illegal under Dutch law, official policy since the late 20th century has been to openly tolerate all recreational use while tolerating the other two under certain circumstances. This pragmatic approach was motivated by the idea that a drug-free Dutch society is unrealistic and unattainable, and efforts would be better spent trying to minimize harm caused by recreational drug use. As a result of this gedoogbeleid, the Netherlands is typically seen as much more tolerant of drugs than most other countries.
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.
Roger Christie is an American ordained minister in the Religion of Jesus Church, which regards marijuana as a "sacramental herb." In 2000, he founded the THC Ministry, which offered cannabis as a part of its services. On July 8, 2010, Christie and 13 other individuals associated with the THC Ministry were indicted by a Federal grand jury in Honolulu on marijuana possession and trafficking charges. On Sept. 27, 2013, Christie pleaded guilty to marijuana trafficking and two counts of failing to file income tax returns. On April 28, 2014, Christie was sentenced to a term of five years in federal prison, with credit for time already served at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center.
Marc Scott Emery is a Canadian cannabis rights activist, entrepreneur and politician. Often described as the "Prince of Pot", Emery has been a notable advocate of international cannabis policy reform, and has been active in multiple Canadian political parties at the provincial and federal levels. Emery has been jailed several times for his cannabis activism.
Curtis Francis Warren is an English gangster and drugs trafficker who was formerly Interpol's Target One and was once listed on The Sunday Times Rich List.
In the Netherlands, coffeeshops are establishments where the sale of cannabis for personal consumption by the public is tolerated by the local authorities.
Persecution of members of the Rastafari movement, an Abrahamic religion founded in Jamaica in the early 1930s among Afro-Jamaican communities, has been fairly continuous since the movement began but nowadays is particularly concerning their spiritual use of cannabis.
Drug liberalization is a drug policy process of decriminalizing or legalizing the use or sale of prohibited drugs. Variations of drug liberalization include: drug legalization, drug re-legalization and drug decriminalization. Proponents of drug liberalization may favor a regulatory regime for the production, marketing, and distribution of some or all currently illegal drugs in a manner analogous to that for alcohol and tobacco.
The drug policy of Sweden is based on zero tolerance focusing on prevention, treatment, and control, aiming to reduce both the supply of and demand for illegal drugs. The general drug policy is supported by all major Swedish political parties with the exception of the Left Party.
Cannabis in California has been legal for medical use since 1996, and for recreational use since late 2016. The state of California has been at the forefront of efforts to liberalize cannabis laws in the United States, beginning in 1972 with the nation's first ballot initiative attempting to legalize cannabis. Although it was unsuccessful, California would later become the first state to legalize medical cannabis with the passage of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. In November 2016, California voters approved the Adult Use of Marijuana Act to legalize the recreational use of cannabis.
Scott Feil is an American medical cannabis rights activist, complex aircraft pilot, and businessman. Most known for his involvement in the continuing court case involving Los Angeles Police Department illegal seizure of 209 pounds of medical marijuana, 21 pounds of hashish, 12 pounds of marijuana oil and amounts of U.S. legal tender amounting to $186,416.00 from his Los Angeles based United Medical Caregivers Clinic medical cannabis dispensary, UMCC LLC.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, advocacy for drug legalization has increased in Latin America. Spearheading the movement Uruguayan government announced in 2012 plans to legalize state-controlled sales of marijuana in order to fight drug-related crimes.
Mellow Yellow was the oldest cannabis coffee shop in Amsterdam, prior to its closure at the start of 2017. The coffee shop was founded in 1972 by Wernard Bruinin in Weesperzijde, Amsterdam, on the premises of a former bakery. The shop is named after "Mellow Yellow", a song by Donovan which describes the singer trying to become intoxicated through smoking the peel of banana.
Minors and the legality of cannabis is one of the issues around the legalisation of cannabis, with most jurisdictions placing strict age limits in a similar way as is done with the drinking age for alcohol.
Cannabis in Indonesia is illegal. Cannabis plants, all plants of the Cannabis genus and all parts of plants including seeds, fruit, straw, and processed cannabis plants or parts of cannabis plants including marijuana resin and hash are categorized as narcotics group. Drug offenders are subject to a minimum sentence of four years in prison if caught possessing it. Derivatives of medical and recreational cannabis are also illegal.
Cannabis has been cultivated in Japan since the Jōmon period of Japanese prehistory approximately six to ten thousand years ago. As one of the earliest cultivated plants in Japan, cannabis hemp was an important source of plant fiber used to produce clothing, cordage, and items for Shinto rituals, among numerous other uses. Hemp remained ubiquitous for its fabric and as a foodstuff for much of Japanese history, before cotton emerged as the country's primary fiber crop amid industrialization during the Meiji period. Following the conclusion of the Second World War and subsequent occupation of Japan, a prohibition on cannabis possession and production was enacted with the passing of the Cannabis Control Law.
Cannabis in the Netherlands is illegal, but is decriminalised for personal use. Recreational consumption of the drug is tolerated, and it is available in coffeeshops.
The Cannabis Act (C-45) of June, 2018 paved the way for the legalization of cannabis in Canada on 17 October 2018. Police and prosecution services in all Canadian jurisdictions are currently capable of pursuing criminal charges for cannabis marketing without a licence issued by Health Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that the federal Parliament has the power to criminalize the possession of cannabis and that doing so does not infringe upon the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Ontario Court of Appeal and the Superior Court of Ontario have, however, held that the absence of a statutory provision for medical marijuana is unconstitutional, and to that extent the federal law is of no force and/or effect if a prescription is obtained. The recreational use of cannabis has been legalized by the federal government, and took effect on 17 October 2018.
Cannabis in Brunei is illegal and can be punishable by caning or the death penalty. Brunei Darussalam's legislation is controlled by its sultan and is based on the country's Sharia-Islamic beliefs. In accordance with these laws, Brunei native, Lam Ming Hwa, received the death sentence in 2004 and a Malaysian native, Muhammad Mustaqim Mustofa bin Abdullah, was sentenced to death in 2017.
The Grass Company is a company in North Brabant, Netherlands that operates four coffeeshops in the cities of 's-Hertogenbosch and Tilburg. The Grass Company was the first company to open a coffeeshop in the south of the Netherlands combining cannabis sales with restaurants.
