WastedTimes

[hbgator]

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands


If you can't beat 'em ... joint 'em? The City of Amsterdam has begun selling recently introduced "no toking" signs to prevent the official ones from being stolen as collector's items, a spokesman said Friday.

The signs were created as part of an experimental ban on smoking marijuana on the street in "De Baarsjes," one of the city's poorer neighborhoods. The measure, which went into effect Feb. 1, was intended to reduce loitering and petty crime.

"On Wednesday we placed the first sign, and it was gone the next morning," said Wim de Graaf. "We put up a new one Thursday, and it was taken the same night as well. That's when the idea came to us to just sell them."

The signs show two fingers holding a cone-shaped cigarette, with small white marijuana leaves on a black background _ all enclosed within a red circle.

The city is selling them for 90 euros each (around US$110), and plans to donate the proceeds to charity.

"We're selling them at not much more than they cost, so we expect profits will be modest," De Graaf said. But he added that the city has already had many requests for the signs, some from outside the city.

Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police don't bother prosecuting possession of small amounts. It is openly sold in designated cafes known euphemistically as "coffee shops." But people who smoke marijuana outside in De Baarsjes risk a euro50 (US$60) fine.

De Graaf said the signs can be ordered via De Baarsje's Web site.

"Now everyone can have his own 'no toking' sign simply by ordering them through the city," the site says in a tongue-in-cheek advertisement.

[jkf]

That sounds similar to buying souvenir t-shirts at
the local highway rest stop... lol

i can see a similarity with the laws that pertain to intoxication
in public with alcohol use. There are those that just don't maintain
well and spoil it for others.

Although, the only place that I've been to, in the US that let people
go around being "happy" with open containers was New Orleans...
but that seems to be history now.

[omgwtfhax]

lmfao thats awesome

[Grim]

Hehehe, yeah, I would love one of those signs!!!

[sadsimz]

Yeah I would like one them signs to .And in US only place I know of you can still have fun legally is in Las Vegas Nevada you can have a open container of beer or a mixed drink walking down streets not sure but you use to be able to have a beer or mixed drink whiskey ext, in your car as long as you were not driver so all your passenagers could be partying away just not driver.And prostitution is also legal there. Grat place to vacation .