okitasan said:
its funny you know, hemp used to be a major crop in japan (and a lot of other countries) a long long time ago.
in europe, we currently have some programs runned by the goverments to animate farmers to grow hemp . a kind of revival. of course only not potent plants (below 0,5 per cent thc-content, you could smoke a ton of it and it only will make u puke). i thinks it very important to correct the image of that wonderful plant, because it can be used for so many things (such as heat-isolation for houses, ropes, clothing, oil, make-up etc. etc.), it grows quickly and is pretty robust.
the drug aspect's very interesting too. in fact, it was legal here to smoke pot about 50 years ago. then the US dudes (no offense, i talkin' about the alcohol lobby) got the great reefer-madness-idea talkin bullshit all the time about the roots of hell and how it makes people kill each other...).
but in my country the weed-laws are pretty lax (not the laws themselves, but the cops aren't really interested in the endusers, they just look for dealers and coffee shops). so if you have less than 2 or 3 grams in your pocket, it's pretty likely that nothing happens at all. had some friends who got caught directly in a coffee shop in vienna, all the had to do is to make a statement to blame to coffee shop, that's all. according to a recent study, way over 20 per cent of the austrian population has tried weed, about one fourth of the young people say that they smoke every now and then, about 10 %regularily.
we also have an annual demonstration were cannabis-users meet to show society that we aren't the antisocial, spoiled, unkempt, workless kids people take us for. on that special day, cops even tolerate if u are walkin through the streets, with a spliff in your mouth.
this summer im goin' to the netherlands to check out how these guys handle that topic