Dutch Wants to Keep Soft Drugs for Locals

The Dutch cabinet proposed on Friday to turn the country's cannabis-vending coffee shops into private clubs in a move partly aimed at making it harder for tourists to buy soft drugs.

"The consensus arrived at today is that it should be much more difficult for tourists to buy from Dutch coffee shops," justice ministry spokesman Karen Temmink told AFP after a regular cabinet meeting.

Cannabis
Cannabis has a long history of medicinal, recreational, and industrial use and comes from a bushy plant with thick sticky flowers called Cannabis Sativa

In a statement, the cabinet said it had agreed with a policy proposal by four government ministries that coffee shops be turned into private clubs with patrons carrying a membership card.

Clients may, for example, be limited to paying with a Dutch debit card.

"The sale of hashish and cannabis in coffee shops must be smaller in scale and aimed solely at the local user," the statement said.

Commission Says to Keep Dutch Soft-Drugs Coffee Shops for Locals
A government commission has opined that Dutch coffee shops that sell cannabis should should cater mainly for local people

A draft policy would be compiled by year-end for submission to parliament, added Temmink.

To arrive at this stance, the cabinet was advise by a special commission it had set up as part of a re-evaluation of soft-drug policy sparked in large part by what is generally described as the "nuisance" created by an influx of German, French and Belgian drug tourists.

Dutch Cannabis-vending Coffee Shops to Become Private Members' Clubs
About 30 cannabis-vending coffee shops in the south of the Netherlands announced Tuesday they would become private members' clubs at the start of next year to keep out foreign drug tourists.

"Smaller coffee shops will allow us to limit the resultant nuisance and crime risks," said the cabinet statement.

"It will also reduce problems associated with coffee shops in the border areas."

Coffee Shops Help Greeks To Beat The Crisis
Determined to keep their cheer in the gloom of the economic downturn, Greeks are holding on to the nation's unofficial shrink couch -- the coffee shop -- for a few hours of escape from their bills.

Several Dutch border towns have already announced plans to close coffee shops or limit entry to members to stop tens of thousands of drugs tourists entering on a daily basis.

The cabinet statement said several pilot projects would begin next year to test the proposed limitations. In one of these, buyers would be limited to three grammes of cannabis per day, instead of five.

The Netherlands decriminalised the consumption and possession of under five grammes of cannabis in 1976, though its cultivation remains illegal.

There are some 700 licensed coffee shops in the country, which are allowed to stock no more than 500 grams of cannabis at a time.

Many observers have pointed to a recent conservative shift in the government's widely hailed tolerant approach to soft drug use.

Source-AFP
SRM