AMSTERDAM WEBSITE TO SELL MARIJUANA

Now even drug dealers are going dot.com. A new company called iToke,
based in Amsterdam, plan to let customers order marijuana through the
website, or via new "WAP"internet-enabled phones, from next month.

Although they have yet to get any finance, Mike Tucker and Tim
Freccia, two American expatriates, think they are on to a winner. They
came up with the idea while sitting in one of Amsterdam's coffee
houses, where marijuana consumption is legal.

"Our contemporaries are basically the biggest wealth-generating
generation of all time and they're all tokers," said Mr Freccia, 35.
"These are not slackers yet they're all forced to toke in their
basements," he said.

"iToke is not about the legalisation of pot, it's about the
commercialisation of pot culture. It's about giving pot culture a facelift."

But the facelift might put the authorities' noses out of joint. While
it is legal to consume marijuana in cigarettes or food inside suitably
licensed cafes in Amsterdam, selling it outside them is against the
law. Even though Holland has some of the most laidback laws on drugs
in Europe, it does enforce the ones which apply.

iToke will let customers order up to two grams of marijuana through
WAP mobile phones. To pay for their orders, they will be able to buy
prepaid and rechargeable cards, called iTokens, at kiosks throughout
Amsterdam. With a handheld device, bicycle couriers can read the
unique ID of each card to ensure that they deliver the goods to the
right person.

"We want to make the multibillion-dollar marijuana business safe,
secure and socially responsible," said Mr Tucker.