Everyone has heard of it, but where is Amsterdam?
And is Amsterdam in Holland or in the Netherlands? Yes.
Plus: we’ll tell you why the Dutch government has ditched the ‘Holland’ moniker and rebranded the country as ‘Netherlands.’
If you have ever watched the Dutch national soccer team play football anywhere in the world — or if you’ve been in Amsterdam during Holland’s annual King’s Day celebration (formerly Queen’s Day) — you may wonder why nearly all Dutch people dress in orange during such occasions.
After all, the colors of the official Dutch flag are red, white, and blue.
The Dutch are among the lowest users of marijuana or cannabis in Europe despite the Netherlands’ well-known tolerance of the drug, Reuters writes, citing an annual report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
A Dutch criminologist predicts that two years from now, all coffeeshops in the Netherlands will have closed.
The coffeeshops — establishments where cannabis and other soft drugs can be legally bought and used — are under fire for various reasons, ranging from the nuisance created by tens of thousands of drug tourists, to ties to criminal organizations.
The mayors of some municipalities are closing the coffeeshops, while those of others towns — Amsterdam included — speak out in support of the current approach.
The Dutch cabinet has proposed a ban on the sale of all hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms because they could induce life-threatening behaviour.