Dutch cannabis smokers roll up with tobacco.

I have been aware of the disgust and awe of most American cannabis smokers towards the Dutch way of mixing tobacco with marihuana in their joints for quite some time now, but never felt the need to start explaining how that came to be. The recently applied smoking ban in the Dutch leisure industry, which includes the cannabis coffeeshops, made me do so at last. By reading some comments on forums I visit I found out that a lot of Americans think a tobacco smoking ban for coffeeshops is a good thing, they smoke their joints, reefers or bongs with marihuana only, or mix the marihuana with hash.

First of all, not only the Dutch mix marihuana with tobacco for their joints, it is more a European habit, I do not know of any EU country where marihuana is being smoked “pure” in joints as a custom. I do not know how this mixing started in the UK, France or Spain, I think I know why the Dutch smokers started mixing their tobacco with marihuana. My grandfather used to roll up his own cigs from ‘roll up tobacco’ and rolling papers, like most men of his generation, as did their sons after them. It was the working-class smoke, real cigarettes where far more expensive, only those with higher wages could afford themselves filter cigs. When hash came to the Netherlands in the early 19-sixties there were no bongs or hookah’s around, nor  blunts or filter tips. The only logical way to get it burning and to be able to inhale it was to mix it in the hand rolled cigarettes the Dutch were already used to. There were some changes over the years, we started using filter tips, to prevent tobacco or hash being sucked into ones mouth, and we started using bigger papers, because the filter tip ‘ate’ about an inch of the smoke able part of a joint.

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There was no change when we started to switch from hash to sinsemilla grown marihuana in the mid 19-eighties, we just crumbled the bud(s), mixed the grind with tobacco and rolled it up in a king-size Rizla with a cut-to-size filter tip. Eventually, the few people that started smoking bongs or pipes mixed their hash or marihuana with tobacco to fill their bowls. I have tried that too, but that is too gross for words, the few times I smoke on a bong or a pipe I do not even think of using tobacco. Until today, the vast majority of Dutch cannabis consumers roll up joints with a mix of cannabis and tobacco, it turned into a traditional habit, or a habitual tradition. Maybe this may make you understand why Dutch coffeeshops are so upset about the tobacco smoking ban in coffeeshops, it hits practically all of our regulars.

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Like after so many previous restrictions on ‘coffeeshopping’ we will survive, it does not make people give up smoking cannabis, so they keep on buying cannabis in coffeeshops. The coffeeshops unable to install a separate smokers area are empty all day, customers buy cannabis and then leave to smoke it elsewhere…..

It is very sad to see the coffeeshops losing their social function in Dutch society, one of the main reasons to visit a coffeeshop is to meet and smoke joints with like-minded people. Our present government is completely out of touch with reality, and by far the most hypocritical bunch I have had to condone as my leaders. We have been told the Health Minister may reconsider the tobacco ban for coffeeshops. We  were asked to fill in an online questionnaire about the consequences of a tobacco ban for our businesses, so we did. Furthermore, the newly founded Cannabis Consumers Federation has gathered more than 30.000 signatures to support their petition to Health Minister Klink, which will be offered to him on May 9, I believe. So far, the tobacco-police are not really frequenting coffeeshops, Let’s hope they stay away forever.

I hope our American fellow-cannabists understand why we keep on mixing our cannabis with tobacco, it is our way of doing it, a Dutch smokers tradition. We can live with it, can you?

Nol van Schaik.

Willie Wortel coffeeshops, Haarlem, The Netherlands.

One Response to “Dutch cannabis smokers roll up with tobacco.”

  1. zonker says:

    Thanks Nol for the explanation, even though as an American I don’t personally like the combo. I like your Sativa shop though, and have been there on three separate trips to Europe. I read The Dutch Experience and I know you love weed as much as I do. You’re the greatest!

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