So many wonder how a trip to the Mecca of all cannabis is a step towards quitting, alas belonging to a blog on appropriately titled “How I Quit Weed”, but there’s more here in this topic and in Amsterdam that does initially meet the eye. So my initial reason for wanting a quick trip to The Netherlands was primarily cos I needed a break from the troubles, trials and tribulations of life. Damn right, after working my balls off during the Christmas break, followed by a really poor start to the 
New Year with the Bash being cancelled last minute as the host fancied “..a quiet one in front of the tele”, only to be lumbered with more work as my Dad decided to go on a last minute long holiday leaving me to do all his duties & work on top of that. And then of course, my birthday being fairly bedridden for a couple of weeks (the inspiration behind the article SMOKING WHEN YOU’RE ILL,
i.e an article about why you shouldn’t smoke when you’ve been diagnosed with a chest infection), I couldn’t smoke during this period and seeing as I had laid off the GANJ generally, all these signs pointed to one thing … it’s time to go to AMSTERDAM!
So bookth my flighth we didth….
Like almost every trip, I don’t appreciate what’s about to come as I’m usually too busy running over my checklist of socks, shoes and pants. This lasts even until the airport while I’m still usually going through that last minute checklist, just hoping I’ve not left anything behind (not like I can do anything about it then, but hey that’s my OCD for you)
CHARGING YOU FOR EVERYTHING?
As the economy worsens and our beloved big PLC air carriers & airports are left feeling the brunt, after a few brutal hours of head scratching, they concoct a devious plan to siphon more money from the innocent unsuspecting traveller. Initially naive to this, as we approach Stansted Airport we’re immediately encoutered with a change, for no more are there signs posted with familiar words like “Departures” & “Arrivals” short stay, mid stay etc but instead EXPRESS SET DOWN, and FREE SET DOWN. A no brainer to many – “I’m not paying for just getting out of the damn car, why you charging me for this shit for?”. A good question, “..so errr FREE SET DOWN it is then”. At this point as you unconsciously make your decision, you notice the FREE SET DOWN is a road going quite positively in the wrong direction of the airport. Huh?? “is that why it’s free, cos you’ll need another plane to fly to the normal set down point” Whatever….!! no time to think about this, you’ve got a plane to catch!!! “DAD PULL UP ANYWHERE!!!”. He pulls up on the motorway, to which my girlfriend and I proceed to dodge headlights and on coming traffic from behind us as we run towards the airport. “the adventure starts here huh” she jokes, as I smirk while panting for air, pulling the damn trolley at its wheel’s nominal maximum MPH. On entering the airport we search for our checkin desk. On approaching the queue for EASYJET, a lady asks in her strangely hyperactive and over enthusiastic manner “Do you have EARLY BIRD, NO WAITING , JUST A 
QUICKY BOARDING PASS …. ” she looks down “..or the ordinary boarding pass”. Of course we have the later, cos nobody in their right minds would spend £20 / ticket just to skip over a minor queue! Alas we join a line which zigzags, semicircles and does donuts on itself, while the TURBO, CHEMICALLY ENHANCED SUPER QUEUE has no-one there…So fast forward to waiting in line behind the skinhead with a tattoo “death to all ethnics” on the back of his skull, we’re now being told “you must pay more if you’d like to sit together” … (we didn’t and still sat together). EasyJet are now charging for fresh air in it’s cabin during the flight, alternatively you can go for the free option which is old recycled farty air being pumped at you…Ok I made up this last bit about the air, but it’s really going that direction, ONE DAY I SAY”
UPON LANDING
“Welkom in Holland” you hear the captain from the speaker which is loosely translated to WELCOME TO THE LAND OF HIGH GRADE WEED BITCHES!! well close enough a definition for me anyway. So we proceed to the train, and within 25 minutes… Que the angels singing.. oh yes we’re here – AMSTERDAMM CENTRAAL train station!! We’re getting near…. 😀 After checking into our beautiful PIMPED OUT APARTMENT – 
which really was the shit!!! We made our way to Sheeba Coffeeshop where we ordered two coffees and a chocolate space cake, along with a PRE-ROLLED (should be called perfectly rolled) WHITE WIDOW DUBEE!!! Oh hallelujah, this is what it was all for, this moment. Ok.. I was tired, and while I should have done, I hadn’t slept the night before because (as always) I left my packing to the last minute. I was knackered, and mildly drowsy however i proceeded to tuck into my PURE WHITE WIDOW joint and though it did fuck me up even more (in a nice way) it felt fucking great.
THE POWER OF CAKE
My girlfriend doesn’t smoke spliffs and hence chose the 100% healthy consumption method of vaporising and eating SPACE CAKES. When buying the weed cakes, the shop selling always checks if you’ve ever done them before and tells you of their danger. The cakes are made from pure cannabis butter, along with pure resin, which packs a punch as when baked the weed will be at it’s full T.H.C potency. The cakes, depending on what you buy, typically contain half a gram of pure weed and can take up 45-90 minutes to take effect. As the cake / weed content has been digested, the effect can be extremely strong / psychedelic and can last up to many several hours.
TIME
Time had no meaning on this trip!!!! One minute we’d be in a restaurant having a lovely dinner, then after discussing our next move, we’d almost INSTANTANEOUSLY be transported there with little to no memory how we got here. Like this we zapped around the whole of Amsterdam, and somehow just went to like a million different places, and it was still somehow 8.4o PM? Everything was in SUPER FAST FORWARD MODE and as odd as it was, it was FUCKING AWESOME!!! The next day was even more odd, with the complete opposite happening. Time was moving really slowly.. what seemed to last hours in actual fact really was only 45 minutes. This is generally more traditionally experienced when smoking weed, but when you throw in cakes and super high grade shit into the picture the effect is really maximised.
EXPERTISE WITH EXPERIENCE
Now I’ve never really experienced highs like this outside of the Dam!! This is primarily for Amsterdam has several decades worth of practice on expert growing tips on how to grow the finest high grade, setting up coffee shops, selling and maintaining a stable economy where people responsibly smoke weed peacefully right along side those that are drinking alcohol. Additionally banning coffeeshop premises from selling alcohol alongside weed. On the whole there is no trouble, and when there is a problem you see the shop keepers spring into action and quickly resolve all the problems, and then within minutes everything is back to normal again with people walking into the coffeeshop premises completely blissful that trouble was afoot only moments ago. The dutch model took the problem of street illegal drug trafficking (which many viewed as completely unsolvable) and by controlling the industry themselves (i.e. enforcing quality laws, with good practices) They have substantially reduced if not completely eradicated the existence of gangs and cartels based on selling those substances. The only issue was during the last couple of years with the invention of the ISOLATORS (extremely high THC potency) it brought in a lot of drug tourism which caused the Dutch to re-evaluate their current policies on drugs. This brought in the introduction of the “V Pass” which effectively proposed to turn all the Dutch coffeeshop into “members only” facilities, giving access to V passes to only Dutch Citizens/permanent residents. However as of 2013, the Netherlands have made a complete U-Turn on the V pass policy, and when we went there everything was pretty normal. BLOODY HOORAY FOR THAT!
DONE THE DUTCH WAY
Despite a few states in America and random European countries having legalised cannabis, it really is not the same! The Dutch have so many decades worth of cultural and society evolution, that it has given them loads of time to really refine the process from growth, packaging and retail. Ok enough of this, the main question?? why is the weed over in Amsterdam just so much better than the stuff we get anywhere else??! According to the Dutch Shop “it’s a shcretttt of the growherS” (said in your best Dutch accent) SECRET HUH?? well maybe it’s true because the seeds are the same, and well these guys must have learnt a thing or two during their years of cross breading etc. The minute you look, smell and ultimately smoke some bud you instantly can tell the difference. Even more so if you’re from the UK, cos really things in this country are in a bad state for us Brits as the consumer are at the bottom of the weed food chain!! i.e. BIG BIG DEALER picks up a couple of kilos —-> he deals to sub dealer who buys a smaller quantity and picks up a good number of ounces —–> he then sells to another dealer who buys one or two ounces, i.e. the street dealer whom the consumer will purchase from. When the consumer buys his quantity of weed from the dealer it has been passed down three generations before getting to him, which could possibly effect the potency of the T.H.C as it would be older. In comparison to the Dutch Coffeeshops, the owners there would directly get in touch with the weed growers first hand, there by serving nothing but the freshest produce to his customers.
SO WHAT’S THIS GOTTA TO DO WITH QUITTING EXACTLY?
I gotta be honest, moderation didn’t really work for me mainly cos I love the effect of weed too much. As a person I’m always trying to be productive and work on many different projects as I can, and to be honest the best release for me has gotta to be throwing it all in at the end of a hard day, kicking back with a fat spliff, just to sit back and chill. My brain’s always ticking and ticking and never really seems to stop, and I guess that is my attraction to smoking weed for things to stop and then I get my chance to really relax! However the shit (and it really is shit) we’re smoking in the UK is horribly disgusting. Even what we regard as GOOD SHIT comparatively is really not and is just bollox. I’ve just come from Amsterdam and have been really RE-REMINDED of the difference in grades of weed, so much so I’ve finally made that decision of “To Do or Not to Do” and I’ve been avoiding this for a long time, I tell you that but the truth is, in the last couple of years smoking weed hasn’t been good for me. The effect hasn’t ever really met standards i.e. wasn’t being high another way of saying I’m happy!! The munchies you get from the weed in the U.K have destroyed my waistline, that these days I could padlock my wardrobe and the lose the key and it wouldn’t matter, as I can’t fit into anything anymore. However in Amsterdam , the weed did not give me the uncontrollable munchies, nor did it make 
me feel like shit the next day and generally it was a joy to smoke!! My reasons may be whack, but I’ve really had enough of the UK underground weed supply network, I’ve been smoking this shit long enough to know what the deal is (a couple of grams too short). I yearn for a better day and that will be probably back in Amsterdam sitting around a table with people close to me in a Coffeeshop while I spend a fraction of the money I’ve saved by not touching the shit that’s available in the UK! The ideal middle ground was moderation, but we chastise ourselves for being ill disciplined, but lets be realistic here for a minute and be honest to yourself. How can you chastise yourself for yearning something you really love? Can that be moderated? If you find it easy to moderate it, then that’s indicative of how much you truly appreciate it – which is fine, but you’re not whom I’m talking about. Your fix or thing is probably something possibly Alcohol or Chocolate anything! So I guess, for the time being it looks like I bid my farewell to real ganj, if you can get me some, I’ll smoke it… if not which is the most likely, I wont…