Dutch smoking ban

[Big Muz]

Just heard about the ban that started this week in Holland. Now you will be thrown out of coffee shops, and could be reported to the police, if you are caught sneakily putting tobacco in your cannabis joints! And I thought Amsterdam couldn't get any more surreal...

 

[arabianights]

Makes as much sense as any drug prohibition really...

 

[rawrschach]

good stuff

ban tobacco

 

[Big Muz]

Makes as much sense as any drug prohibition really...

Couldn't agree more. 50 years of prohibition and where has it got us? Nowhere. Perfectly sane, peaceful and resonable people are criminalised, sometimes imprisoned, for offences that harm absolutely no-one, not even themselves.
The state attempts to wean Heroin addicts off their addiction - a wise approach, if they actually used Heroin instead of a 'substitute' that is even more addictive.
Politicians spend thier valuable time fretting about meaningless categorisations while harping on about 'sending the right message' to youngsters. As if any youngsters are listening.
And all the time billions of pounds that could be spent on schools or hospitals or even just drug treatment works its way into the hands of some really unpleasant people. It bloody infuriates me.
Who knows, one day a politician with some really big balls will sort the whole mess out for us. Can't see it though. Those balls will need to be the size of small planets to take on The Daily Mail et al.

 

[arabianights]

It's what the public wants... Lots of nannying (with a big stick), "public services" and thoughtcrime. I've given up on trying to persuade them otherwise when it's much simpler to aim to create one's own country eventually and leave everyone else to get ****ed by their own desire for mediocrity.

 

[Big Muz]

Creating one's own country - Brilliant idea, hadn't thought of that. I'm off to buy myself a small island. I'll make prohibition illegal.

F*** it, I'll buy a big one. Jamaica sounds like a good starting point.

 

[arabianights]

I am serious about this.

There are plenty of micronations with a few thousand inhabitants

So for maybe a billion USD between the natives you ought to be able to persuade the government to sell itself to you. The natives can stay or not, it's up to them.

Then to fund the country is simplicity itself.

Sex/Drug Tourism
Medical experiments without ridiculous fundamentalist views.

And of course taxes you don't even notice. Offshore paradise for corporations with the right attitude to tax.

 

[Big Muz]

T2W has 100000 members. If we all chip in with five grand...
Kind of a sex/drugs/tax evasion timeshare scheme...

 

[arabianights]

A timeshare scheme would make a change from system vendors too!

 

[MrGecko]

I think you could do it for alot less than a billion... but it would cost much more than a billion to build the infrastructure that you would need to generate any revenue - sex and drugs aside, even rock n roll needs electricity.

 

[arabianights]

I disagree with that; it really depends upon how big the island is but the infrastructure will be surprisingly cheap.

See Hydroelectric: Case Studies - BERR

for example on Eigg

 

[MrGecko]

... most, if not all, of the micronations availalable are going to be at or near sea level - either in the caribbean or the pacific, so Hydroelectricity isn't realy appropriate. Solar maybe...

There are many "proper" countries with no power supplies of their own - if it is so easy, and cheap, why don't they build one for themselves?

 

[arabianights]

Build hills then .

Cheap is relative. If I'm calling 100 million cheap and there are a few thousand inhabitants... that's not cheap at all per capita but in the context of creating a country it is.

 

[MrGecko]

Right then, I'm in. Let me get my Amex.