Images from our archives look back at the Dutch style cannabis café that came to Greater Manchester before police raids shut the venue for good. The Dutch Experience, in Stockport, opened to a blaze of publicity in September, 2001. Modelled on Amsterdam's coffee shops, it inspired other copycat venues to open in other parts of the UK.
With an over-18s, members only policy, the café was tucked away in a small parade of shops within a two minute walk of Stockport town centre. Press and photographers were invited inside the venue on a number of occasions and one reporter described the air inside the cafe as "heavy with pungent aroma of cannabis" while people openly smoked joints and sipped coffee.
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