11-23-2011, 10:10 PM
Quote:High Times Cannabis Cup Raided By Police In Amsterdam
http://bigbudsmag.com/news/article/high-...ember-2011
It is being reported that the 24th annual High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam has been raided by police. We are also being told that police are searching attendees as they leave the event.
UPDATE:
Watch this video in which you can hear the police announcement that the event was being shut down and attendees subject to search. Vendors present at the event were asked to stay at their booths while attendees left.
UPDATE:
High Times has announced via Twitter that the Cannabis Cup judging and expo will be relocated to Amsterdam concert venue Melkweg tomorrow at 2PM.
Quote:High Times Cannabis Cup Raided Not Completely Unexpected
The yearly marijuana-lovers' pilgrimage to Marijuana Mecca has been disrupted. For the first time in its 24-year history, the High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam has been raided by police.
The event is the most famous semi-public pot party in the world. Thousands of marijuana lovers trek to Amsterdam at Thanksgiving time to smoke massive amounts of Dutch marijuana, listen to bands like Cypress Hill, meet marijuana icons like Tommy Chong and Snoop Dogg, and judge marijuana to see if it is worthy of the vaunted Cannabis Cup award.
But this year's fun has been zapped: according to reports coming in live from Amsterdam, police entered the High Times Cannabis Cup venue this Wednesday morning (November 23), the third of five scheduled Cup days. Police detained everyone at the Cup; reports say participants were stripped of their marijuana and then freed. There are no reports of arrests.
Apparently, the police placed undercover and uniformed observers inside the Cup venue since the Cup started on Sunday, November 20th.
They had allegedly observed violations of Dutch law, including Cannabis Cup vendors providing cannabis to Cup participants. The providing of cannabis is something that happens every year at the Cannabis Cup, and people are wondering why it suddenly became "unacceptable" this year.
This alleged distribution of marijuana prompted police to raid the Cannabis Cup and order it shut down. If the closure order holds, the fourth and fifth days of the Cannabis Cup will not happen. This means that the traditional handing out of Cannabis Cup awards which usually occurs on the last day of the Cup, will not go as planned.
“I was standing outside waiting for the High Times bus that takes you to the Cannabis Cup when the driver pulled up and said to us ‘Don’t get on, the Cannabis Cup has just been raided.’ If I had gone a little earlier, I would have been inside the Cup when the raid happened,” reports Big Buds Josh, editor of Big Buds, the world's most cultivation-friendly marijuana magazine.
The unprecedented raid on the 2011 High Times Cannabis Cup comes in the context of a darkening cloud of prohibition that is hanging over Holland.
Ever since the country’s political scene turned hard right after the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the Dutch people have elected anti-marijuana politicians from the Christian Democrat Appeal (CDA) and other conservative political parties.
The right-wing coalition has vowed to destroy the Dutch marijuana industry, and they're doing a pretty good job of it. Since the CDA took over, the number of Dutch marijuana shops has been reduced by more than half.
In the past two years, the Dutch federal government has publicly and repeatedly stated its desire to ban all foreigners from Dutch marijuana coffee shops as of 2012, to regulate marijuana so that marijuana shops cannot sell marijuana with more than 15% THC, to decrease the number of marijuana shops, and to eradicate the Dutch homegrown marijuana industry.
Indeed, the Dutch police have adopted North American drug warrior tactics, using helicopters, electricity records, narks, monetary rewards for snitches, undercover officers, and other strategies to harm the Dutch marijuana cultivation industry.
“This is a terrible time for the Netherlands, this attack on the High Times Cannabis Cup,” said Hendrik, a Dutch cannabis seed breeder, marijuana grower and activist. “The cannabis coffeeshop industry, the growing industry, the hydroponics industry, and the Cannabis Cup itself all bring billions of Euros per year to our country. It is just insane that the police have done this raid. Why can’t they leave our culture alone? We are peaceful people.”
High Times has always walked a fine line to host the Cannabis Cup ever since it started. Some Dutch marijuana entrepreneurs and activists have long opposed the Cannabis Cup, saying it brings too many marijuana tourists and too much notoriety.
Especially as the Dutch government has recently pressured the mayor of Amsterdam to go along with the federal government’s plan to ban foreigners from marijuana shops, many Amsterdam marijuana businesspeople have worried that the 2011 Cannabis Cup might be the last one, or that it might get raided. Our articles on Big Buds repeatedly warned people that this year's Cannabis Cup might be the last, and High Times seems to have anticipated it: they've been holding Medical Cannabis Cup events in North America.
"We have mixed feelings about the Cannabis Cup," said a Dutch marijuana shop owner who has never participated in the High Times event. "It is nice to see the Americans having fun over here and some seed breeders and cannabis sellers get more known. But the High Times party is known as a loud and wild event, and that attracts the wrong kind of attention. They moved the Cup to another location this year, and that might have contributed to the raid."
Obviously, today is a sad day for the marijuana community worldwide. Stay tuned to Big Buds for exclusive information about the raid and closure of the 2011 High Times Cannabis Cup. We hope to have video from Urban Grower, as well as photos of the Cannabis Cup raid.