HAHAHA,
I posted the reply above immediately after reading Crash's reply, I have since read the rest of the thread, wow, what happened to the light hearted humour, which is the way I worded my post, of course, having now read the thread I want that clarified
Seriously guys, you are inventing scenarios, threads and discussion points, that are completely unrelated to the topic.
The economic boon or burden of coffeeshops and smoking is not what we are talking about.
Future potential, lets not do this because they might then do that in the future? So now you want to live your lives around unforseen, unforseeable, and likely never occurring events?
Shit, your lives must be spent worrying about unimportant stuff instead of enjoying life, may I suggest a few more walks in nature?
The way to live your life is how you want within the boundaries of the society you live in (if you choose). In the current enviroment smoking in the streets in Amsterdam, and obviously this is the Centrum district and other big tourist areas we are talking about, is absolutely, unequivicobly not a problem.
The only people who stare at me when I am smoking a joint on the streets are uninformed tourists who think I have balls the size of an elephant because I smoke in public, and talk to police while smoking.
Really, live life to the way things are now, not how you imagine them to be, and not how you want them to be, just as they are.
How do you know how things are currently?
You can get a general idea from reading and asking but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, get out in the streets of Amsterdam and look to see if you see people smoking, be observant to what is around you and fit in with the flow, if you did that then you would understand that smoking on the streets in Amsterdam is fine, as long as you stay away from schools.
In some of the outer lying areas of Amsterdam this still holds true. I worked by the Bijlmer Arena in the south east. There are no coffeeshops in the south east, yet there were locals all around the area walking along the streets smoking joints.
I walk and smoke all the time, and so does almost everyone I know who smokes. Ouside of Amsterdam, this is absolutey not true, the opposite is true, but, I still smoke in the streets wherever I am, I've done it in England, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and never had an issue, but then its our thoughts about the world that create the world, so I'll never have trouble when smoking weed in the streets..
Really guys, live in the moment go with the flow and do what feels right, don't spend all day debating such points on the internet, when they must be debated in the field
---------------EDIT---------------------
treetop wrote:Anyone tried smoking whilst riding their bike? I find it gets harder to keep the joint lit the faster you go
Yeah, it a matter of practice and understanding the principles of the wind blowing the joint.
First rule is cup the hand around the joint and remember that windflow through your hand will cause one side to burn slightly faster than the other (this is true even when smoking in the wind while standing around) the key is to rotate the joint 180 degrees every 5-10 secs, so the burn is kept even, actual rotation time will depend on how quick the joint is burning. The faster the wind, the quicker the rotation, but a well cupped joint can be shielded from a huge amount of the wind
maybe rehearsal ? whatever it would av been cool to see that 
