The Dutch embassy wants to make one thing clear: If people are going to compare Washington D.C. to Amsterdam, they need to get their facts straight.
Initiative 71, which legalized marijuana in Washington D.C, launched last week. And to make the new law seem more palatable, the office of Mayor Muriel Bowser released informational pamphlets to reassure the public that pot consumption in D.C. was going to be highly regulated. They probably should have stopped there, but in the pamphlet the mayor's office also went on to clarify that D.C. was not going to "become like Amsterdam." Shots fired.
The Netherlands Embassy was not too happy with this comparison and decided to clear up all of the confusion by writing a post explaining how marijuana laws differ in D.C. and Amsterdam. In the post, the embassy criticizes Mayor Bowser for insinuating that "being 'like Amsterdam' would be a bad thing." To further prove their point, the embassy created this handy little infographic, which shows the many ways that Amsterdam and D.C. are different.
The infographic makes some funny jabs at D.C. by highlighting how many more bike lanes, people and museums Amsterdam has. But the infographic also makes one very important point, which is that D.C. residents can legally carry around a lot more marijuana without being arrested than the people of Amsterdam can. So in fact, marijuana usage is actually more highly regulated in Amsterdam than it is in D.C.
The post also goes on to clarify a lot of assumptions that outsiders have about Amsterdam. For instance, marijuana use is actually not legal in Amsterdam or any part of the Netherlands. The reason why marijuana usage is so commonplace is because it is simply a low-enforcement priority for the Dutch police. The post also pushes back on the stereotype that people in the Netherlands are high all the time. The embassy points out that the lifetime rate of marijuana consumption for people aged 15-64 in the Netherlands is 25.7% compared to 41.5% in the US. Touché, Netherlands. Touché.
So other countries be warned, if you're going to try to aim false stereotypes at the Netherlands they'll come after you with a highly informative post and a subtly snarky infographic.
Photo: The Netherlands Embassy
