Coffee Shop History

After the swinging sixties, Amsterdam welcomed its first coffeeshop in 1972, on the Weesperzijde. It was a logical consequence of an ever growing group of friends and friends of friends who shared the same hobby: - smoking hashish and cannabis. In those days they didn't call it a coffeeshop, it was called a teahouse. The owner and founder of the first teahouse, named Wernerd, made history without even knowing it. They dared to gamble and opened a shop called Mellow Yellow. Our government didn't do anything because they ware advised by experts that heroin and other hard drugs were much more dangerous and that softdrugs could keep people from using these heavy drugs. Of course there were places in Amsterdam other than Mellow Yellow were you could buy hashish like the Melkweg, Paradiso and other places were lots of youth gathered, but the problem was that the dealers at these places also sold harddrugs. The real success was the coffeeshop. There was still no competition, the quality was good and the narcotic department of the Amsterdam Police-force consisted of six cops driving an old VW-beetle. Mellow Yellow was so successful that they decided to close during the day. Six o'clock in the evening, every pot smoker in Amsterdam knew, was the time to arrive at Mellow.

Whenever somebody is successful in business, others soon follow. After 1975 the coffeeshop business started to grow. The most famous example of this is without doubt The Bulldog, established in 1975 by Henk de Vries in a former sexhouse in the Red Light district. Henk concentrated on another segment of the market, not only did he aim for the old fashioned hippie who had known pot for tens of years, he aimed for the man in the street. For this reason, de Vries still calls his shop the first reel coffee shop. In those days the demand for marijuana was booming and it arrived with shiploads from Colombia, Indonesia and other exotic countries: Dutch business sense was flourishing.

In 1973 Amsterdam counted 1500 hard drugs users and the Chinese Mafia was in control. In the years that followed the numbers of addicts kept rising and in 1977 when there ware already more than 5000 users, police and the administration of justice decided it was time for action. In three months time 3000 Chinese ware busted and brought to the plane with a one-way ticket to the Far-East. The gap thus created by the Dutch government was soon filled with many small Turkish organisations and the little insight the police had in the handdrugs scene was gone. This was the beginning of Turkish drugs retailers. The police had their hands full with the more dangerous hard drugs, so they decided to stop prosecuting the weed and hash users. On the 1st of November in 1976 the Opium law was changed. From now on the police and justice would make a distinction between drugs with an unacceptable health risk and hemp products. Thirty grams of hashish was no longer a felony but now a misdemeanour.

When Yellow Mellow was founded, I smoked my first cigarette and this made me stoned already. My first joint, I don't remember it very well, was lit in '75 or '76. I really, really liked it and went to the coffeeshop more often to take hash home or to have a smoke in there with some good friends, standing around an old gramaphone. There was plenty of good stuff in those days, and I tried them all. The Thai sticks, Durban Poison, Acapulco Gold, Oaxacan Gold, Hawaiian, Nepalese, Menali. Afghany, Marrocan, Red and Yellow Lebanese and much more. I spent more and more time and money in the coffeeshop, but fortunately you could always taste something of the stuff others had bought or brought. During this changing of goods we played chess, backgammon and listened to music.

We ware smoking good stuff from different countries, but not much homegrown, this mainly tasted like spinsch. At the end of the seventies Wernerd (him again) came into my favourite shop with real Hawaian. It really blew everybody's mind; the Hawaiian was grown in Holland! A knockout! Unfortunately there still was little available, and still there was little' knowledge about how to grow good weed.

The demand grew bigger and bigger, more shops opened, which resulted in more customers: demand grew again. In 1975 there were about ten coffeeshops and at the end of the seventies, there were dozens. In their early years shops treated their products with care, like expensive wines ere treated. In later years mass-production led to a downfall of knowledge of marijuana and hashish. The same ships still came to our harbours, but they carried inferior quality. If you wanted to find first class stuff, you had to look over the loads with a magnifying glass. Searching in coffeeshops for good hashish was like searching for a needle in the well known haystack, If you finally found something good. You 'd better buy everything there was before it was all gone- bought by other connoisseurs.

Taking all this into consideration, the idea came to my mind to start my own place together with my best friend. It had to be a place for "connoisseurs" where you would be able to buy anything you wanted. No more profited bags with standard amounts. Even if you wanted to buy just one joint, it had to be possible, and the finest quality all over, The atmosphere had to be one of a friendly smile end a word of advice and information on our products for every customer. This first quality coffeeshop in Amsterdam we called 'De Tweede Kamer'. This can be translated as 'your second home'. It also has political connotations. The Dutch 'Tweede Kamer' can be compared with the American Congress or the British Common House. From the first day we opened (with hashish loaned from others), we ware a sensation. With top quality, cut up end packed right in front of you, we conquered a good portion of the Amsterdam market for stuff end weed with good quality. Around this time -1985- the first really good homegrown weed came on the market, and it came in a constant flow. Grown in greenhouses next to tomatoes end flowers, Dutch farmers together with some American friends produced this weed. The called it Orange Bud, and from the moment we had this on our list, we became famous in Amsterdam. Quality, good info end mouth-to-mouth advertising made us famous.

In 1993 Cafe De Dampkring opened its doors. This cafe is a lot bigger than De Tweede Kamer, but the philosophy is the same, something the regular customers know end appreciate very much. Tourists also know the Dampkring and they enjoy the beautiful interior and the extensive weed end hashish menu very much. The combination of smokables and beer or wine was a new one for us, This combination can be very pleasant but we warn everyone: smoking end drinking together should be done with care.