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Ladies and gentlemen... Fantuzzi.
Alright... are you guys ready for a little action?
Are you too ***?
Alright, here we go...
You guys are not here because the dutch people love ***.
You guys are here because the dutch people love freedom.
Over the last 19 years, this event has established a standard-
-for what quality marijuana is.
There's medical, there's adult use... Don't say recreational, say adult.
If you wanna talk about recreational drugs, talk about Budweiser.
Amsterdam has always been a bastion of freedom.
In our five coffeshops, 75 percent of the customers are German.
This is Amsterdam, the official capital of the Netherlands.
Millions of tourists come here every year, and the city is famous-
-for its beautiful canals and picturesque sceneries-
-but also for its liberal tradition.
As a result of this tradition, the Netherlands have so called coffeeshops-
-cafés with a permission to sell cannabis.
Cannabis is a plant that hails from India. It is used to produce hash and marijuana.
For 30 years now, the Dutch government has accepted small-scale selling of cannabis.
This year, the nineteenth Cannabis Cup is arranged in Amsterdam.
In the Cannabis Cup, the Amsterdam coffeeshops compete on who has the best-
-marijuana and the best hash in different categories.
The center of the competition is one of Amsterdam's largest nightclubs, Melkweg.
In a hall opposite of Melkweg, the registration of judges is in full swing.
The main sponsor behind Cannabis Cup is the American magazine High Times-
-a magazine that for more than 30 years has worked for the legalization of cannabis.
Participating as a judge is open to anyone who pays 200 euro. Judges get a so-called-
-judge pass and are allowed to vote in the cup.
Several coffeshops also have special offers for the judges.
On top of that, the judges get a guide to Amsterdam, a t-shirt and the opportunity-
-to ride for free on a bus between the coffeeshops.
On the streets of Amsterdam, the cup seems to pass unnoticed, but inside Melkweg-
-the audience is eagerly awaiting the opening ceremony.
People are rolling marijuana cigarettes everywhere and a sweetish, spicy-
-smell quickly fills the room.
...and now... the opening ceremony for the 19th annual Cannabis Cup.
The opening ceremony is characterized by alternative culture and several-
-prominent individuals from the American hippie movement appear.
And I want you all to know that we're gonna vaporize all this weed that you see-
-on stage in these three vaporizers.
Tonight! For you!
The man in the middle of the stage is Steven Hager, founder of the Cannabis Cup-
and editor-in-chief of High Times.
He just promised the audience that they get to smoke all the marijuana on stage.
In this case, the marijuana is smoked through a so-called vaporizer-
-a technique that vaporizes the marijuana and gathers the smoke in a plastic bag.
According to its followers, the technique provides a cleaner and milder smoke-
-and it is very popular during the Cannabis Cup.
Now, four very important days await the competing coffeeshops.
The nineteenth edition of the Cannabis Cup has begun.
It's the day after the opening ceremony and we catch the ferry to northern Amsterdam.
There, this year's expo has opened. It's a big and important part of the Cup.
At the expo, the participating coffeeshops and other companies-
-can show their products to the judges.
Since the cup has grown so popular over the recent years, Melkweg has become too small.
Therefore, starting this year, the expo has been moved-
-to an old wharf in northern Amsterdam.
People are pouring into the expo.
Among the expositors are, except for the coffeeshops, businesses-
-specialized in hashpipes, waterpipes, vaporizers and other accessories.
At the expo, the judges can sample a broad variety of cannabis.
It's crowded among the expo booths. Although most judges are American-
-many other languages are spoken in the crowd.
Behind the scenes of the old wharf we find Steven Hager, founder of the Cannabis Cup.
He's in a hurry but agrees to do an interview where he tells us-
-about the purpose of the Cannabis Cup.
I created it because I wanted to establish an international standard for-
- quality cannabis seeds so that people would understand-
-the huge differences in types of plants.
Over the last nineteen years, this event has established a standard-
-for what quality marijuana is.
But the thing was, when I first got into it, I didn't realize the-
-implications of what I was getting involved in.
When I realized that I was doing an award show-
-I realized that I had to create the show-
-in a manner that was sympathetic-
-with the cannabis culture.
What you see from our ceremonies is the result of all my investigations-
-into what is a counterculture ceremony.
Cannabis Cup has evolved a lot over the years.
From being an intimate private event to this year having more than 2000 visitors.
Well, the first year it was just me and three guys-
-and no counterculture spirituality or anything.
We just thought it was a party and we were writing about it in the magazine.
I didn't have any budget or money to do anything.
It didn't become public until the sixth cup.
That most judges are American has a simple explanation, according to Steven Hager.
We're an American magazine and we're the sponsors so-
-most of the judges are Americans.
Now, most Dutch people don't want to spend 200 euros-
-for a pass to go around the coffeeshops.
I mean, to them it seems ridiculous, you know?
One of the many who have crossed the Atlantic ocean is Steve from Kansas.
I've come from America.
I've come over on vacation here to Amsterdam to check out the cup.
I've just for years heard of it and known about it, you know...
-...through High Times and friends. You know, it's something I'm aware of-
-and something you need to do, just come over and see it.
I've been to some of the coffeeshops...-
-...and been to a couple of seminars.
But after two days in Amsterdam and a whole day at the expo-
-he doesn't yet know what to vote for.
I've still got a long way to go on that. I just got started on-
-seeing the coffeeshops and doing some of the judging, but...-
-I've hit probably five or six places the last two days.
It's early in the game.
He tells us that the trip is a nice break from his everyday life-
-back in Kansas and that he's been wanting to come here for a long time.
You know, in my job, I... I'm not gonna get into it but-
-in my job I'm not allowed to... you know, I have to stay clean.
This to me is something I wanted to come over and experience once.
I've seen it all over here...-
-...a little bit of this and that. It's great.
The purpose of the Dutch coffeeshops is to protect the Dutch people-
-from so-called "hard drugs" like heroine and ***.
By allowing the selling of cannabis in a controlled fashion the government hopes to-
-reduce street dealing. But with it comes that many others are drawn-
-to the Netherlands, and not only to Amsterdam.
We travel east, towards the German border, to visit a town called Venlo.
Venlo is just a few hundred meters off of the German border and every day-
-thousands of Germans visit Venlo's five coffeeshops.
A few years ago, the people of Venlo grew tired of German drug tourists.
But instead of closing its coffeeshops, the city of Venlo chose to move them-
-closer to the border.
We have made an appointment with Hubert Bruls, mayor of Venlo.
Being the mayor, he's the one responsible for the five coffeeshops-
-and he is the one granting them permission to stay open.
He admits us in his office, which has a view over the river Maas in the center of Venlo.
We have made recent studies so that we know that 75 percent are German and-
-the other 25 percent are mostly Dutch, although there can be someone from France-
-or Belgium or even Sweden but that's very very little figures.
We have transferred two coffeeshops from the center of Venlo to...-
-nearby the German border, about 300-400 meters from the German border.
That has changed and made the situation much more better-
-in the center because all those German customers-
-are now coming to our two coffeeshops nearby the border.
You can imagine that it's...-
-rather handy, so to say, for a German customer to take the car-
-from Mönchengladbach which is very nearby-
-where more than 200.000 people live-
-to come to Venlo where there isn't German police who looks-
-what you're doing, and you can take in a legal way up to five grams.
In Germany, the laws are different and a German citizen isn't legally allowed-
-to bring cannabis across the border.
Venlo moving two of its coffeeshops closer to the border-
-has stirred up mixed feelings on the German side.
Some of my German colleagues are practical. They say "Well, we accept that-
-the Dutch have a different policy even if we don't support it".
My colleague in the city of Nettetal, 50.000 people-
-immediately nearby at the border, they have a great problem.
It's the same we did experience in the city of Venlo with all those-
-German customers when they still got here. So, in a certain sense we have-
-transferred our problems to the border.
I can see the problems of my German colleague-
-but I've said to him "You experience now the problems-
-your own people are causing, and were causing, in the city of Venlo".
This is the motorway to Mönchengladbach.
So you see, if you come by car it's very easy to come to the coffeeshop.
It's an old truckers cafe. We were lucky that the truckers cafe was sold so-
-we could put into practice-
-our objective to transfer two of the coffeeshops.
If that spot hadn't been there so the occasion hadn't arrived-
-perhaps even now we wouldn't have accomplished that transfer.
So you have to have some luck.