After a life changing trip to the Netherlands (1995), Mr. Alan Amsterdam decided to move to Amsterdam.
Alan would use his past experience to grow cannabis in Holland.
Although growing was not ‘legal’, the Dutch government tolerated cannabis consumption and personal grows.
However, everything else (i.e. large scale growing and selling) was still illegal.
In 1996 the Dutch government started licensing coffee shops throughout the Netherlands. Once this became semi-regulated by the Dutch government, Alan purchased an existing coffee shop. He did this expeditiously. The Dutch government decided to put a halt on any new licenses, in an effort to control the number of shops.
In 1998 Mr Amsterdam became the 1st all American owned coffee-shop in Amsterdam since the issuance of Cannabis licenses in 1996.
This was an incredible education (that is to say: to freely work with the cannabis plants without any fear of arrest or incarceration). During that time Alan also became a student of traditional hashish making techniques (as well as some new ones!). He did this while learning quality control techniques. Subsequently he also judged hash produced from around the world.
