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The UN says this country is smoking the most marijuana

By on August 7, 2014 in News 19

No, it’s not the Netherlands or even Jamaica.

Pollinated hemp flowers. By Erik Fenderson, 2006-01-01.

Pollinated hemp flowers. By Erik Fenderson, 2006-01-01.

via AlterNet:

The people of Iceland are the happiest on Earth, according to an academic study reported by the Guardian in 2006. The UN’s latest Human Development Index ranking showed Iceland topping the charts as far as its economic and social issues go (wealth, healthcare, and education). Last month Iceland won another top world ranking: most pot smoked per capita.

The recent United Nations 2014 World Drug Report, which broke down pot use by nation, found that 18 percent of Iceland’s population (meaning 55,000 out of 320,000 people) lit up in 2012 (the year for which the data was collected). That’s more than the average in stereotypically pot-friendly Jamaica; it’s more than Amsterdam’s home country, the Netherlands; and it’s more than the US. (The UN report found 15% pot use in the US.)

In past reports New Zealand topped the list for most cannabis use per capita, closely followed by Canada and the US, as Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws), notes.

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Dutch Businessman Constructs To-Scale Replica Of Noah’s Ark After Dream

By on August 2, 2012 in News 9
After a nightmare of God drowning your country, would you even risk not building a new Noah's Ark based on the biblical dimensions? Via CNN:
A Dutchman has built a replica of Noah's Ark to biblical proportions, following a dream his homeland would be flooded. Johan Huibers, a wealthy businessman, used the ancient measurement of the cubit -- the length of a man's arm from elbow to fingertips -- to build the vessel to the dimensions specified in the book of Genesis. The finished craft...has just been opened to the public on the Merwede River in the Dutch town of Dordrecht. Huibers has filled his ark, which will operate as a "Bible museum," with life-sized plastic animals and an aviary of live birds to give visitors more to interact with.
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Post-God Christianity In The Netherlands

By on August 25, 2011 in News 87

_54431589_biblebeltAt Protestant churches in Holland, the preachers admit to the the congregants that God does not exist, there is no afterlife, and Jesus was a mortal, if he existed at all. It’s Christianity for a post-belief world. The BBC writes:

“Make the most of life on earth, because it will probably be the only one you get”. The Rev Klaas Hendrikse can offer his congregation little hope of life after death, and he’s not the sort of man to sugar the pill. Mr Hendrikse presides over the Sunday service at the Exodus Church in Gorinchem, central Holland.

It is part of the mainstream Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), and the service is conventional enough, with hymns, readings from the Bible, and the Lord’s Prayer.

“Personally I have no talent for believing in life after death,” Mr Hendrikse says. “No, for me our life, our task, is before death.” Nor does Klaas Hendrikse believe that God exists at all as a supernatural thing.

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Dutch Government Pushes Tourist Ban In Cannabis Coffeeshops

By on November 18, 2010 in News 23

If you’d like to experience Amsterdam’s famous coffee shops, I suggest booking your flight soon. From Reuters:

The Dutch government said on Wednesday it wanted to ban tourists from buying cannabis in “coffee shops,” where hash is on sale legally, as part of a national crackdown on drug use.

The government, which took office last month, has agreed to limit the sale of cannabis to Dutch residents to curb crime linked to its production and trading.

The Netherlands has one of Europe’s most liberal soft drug policies and its coffee shops are a popular tourist attraction, especially in Amsterdam and border cities near Belgium and Germany.

But some cities near the border with Belgium have clamped down on drug tourism, and the Dutch minister for security and justice confirmed Wednesday a wider crackdown after coalition parties agreed to push for a ban in September.

[Continues at Reuters]

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