Captain Hooter is a veteran American cannabis connoisseur who has been living in the Netherlands for three years. When a friend asked him what he thought was Amsterdam’s best coffee shop, he decided to visit all 167 of them. “Wow. What a mess,” he tells BBM in a revealing interview.
A few months ago, Captain Hooter reached out to me via Twitter to learn more about the Dutch cannabis and coffee shop policy. We met over lunch and he told me about the project he was embarking on: Visiting every single coffee shop in Amsterdam to write a book about his experiences. Within a few minutes of us meeting, I could tell he had what it takes to complete such an epic mission.
When it comes to weed, this guy knows his stuff. Back in the ’90s, he and his wife were regulars at the High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, during the golden years of this legendary event. The Captain knows both the Californian and Canadian cannabis scenes inside and out and has traveled extensively to smoke marijuana all around the world.
The result of his unprecedented undertaking, Captain Hooter’s Connoisseur’s Guide to Amsterdam Coffeeshops, will be released in the fall. I sat down with the Captain to talk about the book, his experiences on the road, and the differences between the cannabis scenes of Amsterdam, California and Canada.