First run Interview

Here are the notes from the first-run interview. Since we have changed our topic to focus more on the coffeeshops as a legally- and culturally-created space, I had no real analogy in the States, so I decided to focus my interview on a visitor's impressions of those spaces, and the social mores, customs, and practicalities of marijuana in the Netherlands from their outside perspective. In hindsight, it might have been interesting to talk to a bar owner here to compare the sort of legal scrutiny that they receive to that of a coffeeshop owner in Amsterdam. Of course, there is a big difference between those two establishments in that the production and distribution of alcohol is legal. So, notes:

Interviewee:

Name: *******

Place and Date: 6:00pm May 22, 2007 at the Matador Bar in Ballard

Demographics: White male, 30 yrs. old, grew up in Bowling Green, OH; recently of Georgia, currently in the process of moving to Seattle.

Questions:

1. Tell me about your trip to Amsterdam.
1. How long were you there? When did you go? What did you do there? Why did you go?
2. What were your experiences of coffeeshops while in Amsterdam?
3. What were your impressions of the native culture in regards to coffeeshops in Amsterdam? How did you feel as a tourist?
4. What manifestations of tolerance of marijuana and coffeeshops did you notice during your time in Amsterdam?
5. What rules or customs were you aware of in regards to marijuana coffeeshops in Amsterdam? How were you made aware of these rules or customs?
6. Did you see/were you aware of ant conflicts related to coffeeshops?

Field Notes:

¨ Interview occurred in a busy bar, at a busy time of day. Not a desirable setting, but what we could manage at the time.

¨ Interviewee admitted, somewhat ashamedly, that the primary reason for going to Amsterdam was to smoke marijuana. Interviewee and traveling companion arrived in Amsterdam and made their way to a coffeeshop before they even checked into their hostel.

¨ Interviewee expressed some uncertainty about how to posit answers. He suggested that there is a difference between the way he would talk about drugs to somebody who had never done them and how he would talk about them to somebody who had. Different language, attitudes, etc. Drugs are associated with counterculture, and as such create their own social world. **I wonder if we are going to see evidence of this in Amsterdam, where soft drugs have undergone a process of social normalization over the last 30 years.**

¨ Going to coffeeshops and getting high “was not an end.” Spent a lot of time high, but once the novelty had worn off he would get high and then go and do other things, not sit around in coffeeshops.

¨ “Not knowing what to expect, we had to ask what the deal was” when first entering coffeeshop.

¨ Was taken by surprise at the potency, despite having smoked marijuana before. “Scaled it back” after first experience.

¨ “It seems silly looking back.”

¨ “A lot of people will get their picture taken with a cop, holding up a joint. That’s a tourist thing to do.”

¨ “I was well aware that it was legal but techinically tolerated. Everyone knows that in America it’s illegal to drink in public, but there are times and places where drinking in public was tolerated. I figured it was kind of like that. Put it in a plastic cup, don’t be an idiot, and nobody’s going to mind. So I guess I related it to things I already knew.”

¨ “There are definitely mores. I remember having conversations with locals about, you don’t just walk around getting high in public, y’know, and just because it’s tolerated or legal or done doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate in every situation, and that was pretty clear right off the bat, talking to anybody.”

¨ Related a story about smoking a joint while walking up to a train that they were going to board. Conductor said, “This is your train, but that has to stay.” According to interviewee, conductor was not offended, but was ready to enforce regulations and mores.

¨ Interviewee expressed no awareness of conflict around drugs in the culture. “I never saw any indication of that. They seemed very well integrated into the society. It was a thing, it was there, you could partake of it if you wanted, you could ignore it if you wanted. Similar to the way that alcohol is treated here. There are plenty of people who drink, and there are plenty of people who have drinking problems, and everyone knows about all of that. I got a very similar feel about the way that people dealt with it there. They dealt with it very commonsense for the most part. I didn’t see hardly anything about policy or police enforcing it or anything, so if there was policy having an effect, it was doing it sort of indirectly.”

Thoughts:

Again, environment was not conducive to long conversation, but subject was ready to speak willingly about the topic. And this was an American talking about his experiences there, which is going o be very different from the native, the politician, the coffeeshop owner, the police officer talking about the role that it plays in their lives/jobs/culture/etc. on a more or less daily basis.

First few days in Amsterdam will definitely have to be spent getting bearings, sussing out first contacts, seeing which groups are going to provide most opportunities for contact.

Did not have much need to look at environment in this interview as the environment was artificial and was separate from the place and the phenomenon being researched. It is interesting that it was in a bar given interviewee’s perception of how Dutch feelings about marijuana more or less mirror American sentiments towards alcohol. This will have to be investigated further as we do some direct observation in coffeeshops in different areas and at different times of day.