Those of you who might be considering a "medicinal" vacation to Amsterdam might want to reconsider the city's reputation as a smoke-blowing free-for-all. New legal measures in both the United States and the Netherlands will make it increasingly difficult for Americans to get away with enjoying the foreign country's more lenient drug legislation. So much for that stereotype.

Abroad, the Dutch government is busy reclassifying cannabis so that it's legally considered to be in the same category as harder drugs. Hard cannabis, that is; officials state that producers of the drug have found ways to increase THC concentration in legal marijuana cigarettes and as such, any marijuana containing more than 15% THC will be considered equivalent to cocaine or ecstasy. Low-strength weed is still fair game in the country's notorious "coffee" shops, but the ban will still be a large blow to the industry. Not only that, the Dutch government also has plans to regulate tourist activity in its pot-oriented neighborhoods. Certain officials are trying to find ways to ban tourists from even entering coffee shops that sell pot. I'm not sure how that law would be enforced--passport check at the door?--but it doesn't seem particularly friendly to a central component of Amsterdam's tourism.

What's even more unsettling is a new bill recently passed by the United States' House Judiciary Committee which would make it a federal crime to plan any domestically illegal drug-related activity on foreign soil. That means if you have a buddy in Amsterdam that you're planning to visit and you email him about procuring some dope for your arrival, you could be seeing jail time. It's not the smoking of the drug itself that would be prosecuted, but the planning of the activity on US soil. 

It's another scary move in the war on drugs that comes as a result of a 2007 case in which two drug dealers plotted a transfer of cocaine between two foreign countries. They couldn't be convicted in the US because the drugs never actually made it to this country, even though the plans were made here. Of course, with the now near non-existence of privacy, odds are this new law will be used not only to stop drug lords but even casual users making out-of-state plans. It seems a sticky business to get into and one that could incarcerate even more people who were previously doing nothing illegal. The war on drugs seems to be going strong even as activists continue in their efforts to make marijuana legal. We live in strange and often frightening times.