Gardens galore — Soma’s female plants were almost ripe when we rolled into Amsterdam after the Leiden conference. The golden color is from the use of warm spectrum lamps that simulate autumn sunlight. At the Sensi Museum Coffeeshop on Damstrat by O. Achterburgwal you can’t buy cannabis but you can drink a cappuccino and have a smoke in its cannabis friendly accommodations. Plants started from seed and by clones grow in the enticing entryway.

The trip to Leiden gave some Oaksterdam regulars a chance to visit Amsterdam and its famed coffeeshops and cannabis gardens on the way home.

Gardens galore — Soma’s female plants were almost ripe when we rolled into Amsterdam after the Leiden conference. The golden color is from the use of warm spectrum lamps that simulate autumn sunlight. - Photo by Chris Conrad

In the basement of the College is a five plant cannabis garden which can be seen for the price of a few dollars. It didn’t take long to find numerous other small patches of cannabis cropping up in people’s patios, yards and even indoors, despite an official policy that disallows the use of lamps to grow cannabis.

Caren Woodson, Mikki Norris and Chris Conrad spoke at the Cannabis College.

More plants were growing around the doorway to the nearby Hash, Marihuana and Hemp Museum. As tourists strolled the canals, the friendly fragrance of cannabis rose to meet them.

Coffeeshops such as the Gray Area offer their own unique menus with a selection of cannabis bud and hashish. The prices are about half that of comparable material in California and purchases are limited to 5 grams per visit. Due to the acceptance of smoking as a European lifestyle, coffeeshops still usually allow on site consumption of the material.

After 30 years, over-the-counter sales of cannabis have become simply another regulated business in The Netherlands.

At the Sensi Museum Coffeeshop on Damstrat by O. Achterburgwal you can’t buy cannabis but you can drink a cappuccino and have a smoke in its cannabis friendly accommodations. Plants started from seed and by clones grow in the enticing entryway. - Photo by Chris Conrad

This cola isn’t fully mature, but already the resin is glistening. - Photo by Chris Conrad