I've been to Amsterdam 4 times and love it but miss a good nature experience once i get nice Sativa head on. As for Oakland, great to see the progress in the US and especially California but sheesh, the States is a stresser with guns, violence, hold-ups, rips and profit-motivated weed-sters. I prefer the holy trinity of counties in Northern California by a long shot.

I have been to both places and I have to say in the big picture Amsterdam is far superior, and there are lots of reasons why. Although it isn't actually legal, just tolerated (see Opium act 1919, www.ukcia.org/research/dutch.htm under "Investigations and prosecutions" sub heading) They have the right idea. All laws are only as rigid as the enforcement of them. I digress…

1. Attitude, if you've been you know, if you haven't you should. People are just nice to each other. The biggest thing you need to worry about as a tourist are pick pockets and people who want to sell you hard drugs, even then the ones you really need to look out for are the ones who say "come down this ally and we'll talk about it. " I hit up the door man at the hotel we were at and he smiled, pointed out the spot on a map and wished me a good time. If I tried that shit in Oakland, I have about the same probability of getting robbed or shot at as I do of scoring some chronic. Oaksterdam it's self… I will end up with dosia… but probably getting robbed there too.

2. Consistency. Every thing I tried there was bomb… even the "Mexican" varietal. I believe in the potential of all weed and this re-enforced that to the hilt. Brick weed is bad cause it wasn't harvested and cured properly, and then it was shoved in a donkeys ass (ass's ass? is that too punny?) or a spare tire or some shit. One time I got Mexican weed with bullets in it, but that's a whole other story. Oaksterdam is all about the new catchy strains, like the Blue Dream, and Quirkle, and afghoo etc… that's great and all but let's see a little innovation in the form of simplicity.

3. A coffee shop is not a "weed" business. It's a coffee shop that caters to weed consumers. There are many, many coffee shops in Amsterdam (ones without weed, are called Cafe's Most Dutch smokers (pretty much all Europeans) prefer hash, and even then it's broken down with tobacco (AKA a Spliff) Most I talked to think that's where it's at and that the buds are mainly for the tourists. Oaksterdam is the fucking megalith of weed dealers, ok group of weed dealers, these are corporate stoners with connections and weed activists that got together form this empire which now includes college type courses, dispensary's, clones, edibles, hats, t-shirts, bumperstickers. I call them Big Weed, because they model themselves in the corporate mold.

Having said all that… (phew, it was a mouthful too!) I live and die, breathe and bleed Norcal. I am a firm believer, having seen, smelled and sampled some of the finest greens on this planet, that Cali, FAR and AWAY has the best herb, indoor and especially outdoor when done properly. Amsterdam is more consistent, but it's still lacking something. It might be the angle of the sun, the fresh air from the ocean, unicorns shitting rainbows in the late summer, I don't know, don't really care. Come out to Cali, I'll show you what I mean.