cannabisnews.com: Joint Operation 





Joint Operation 
Posted by CN Staff on October 24, 2003 at 10:03:36 PT
By Andrew Osborn
Source: Guardian Unlimited UK
A thick pall of sweet-smelling hashish has hung over the Netherlands since the first "coffee shop" opened its doors in 1972. Since then, the country's famously relaxed drug laws have attracted droves of weed lovers from across the globe and earned the country a sometimes controversial reputation for unparalleled liberality. At its peak in 1997 the country's network of coffee shops ran to almost 1,200 cafes where anyone over 18 could exercise their legal right to buy up to five grams (a sixth of an ounce) of marijuana at a time. But thirty years later, the novelty appears to have worn off and the increasingly conservative Dutch authorities are drawing up plans to turn back the clock.
With the conservative Christian Democrat party holding sway in the latest three-party coalition and the Labour party consigned to opposition, the country's traditionally liberal approach towards drugs are up for review.This week the Dutch public got a foretaste of exactly how the government is planning to sweep aside decades of tolerance, when justice minister Piet Hein Donner publicly outlined plans to allow only Dutch citizens to visit coffee shops.In a move designed to tackle the perceived scourge of drug tourists, he said that coffee shop customers should be asked to show their passport and prove that they live locally before being served.Concerned too about the prevalence of hard drugs in the Netherlands, he threatened to withdraw the landing rights of any airline regularly found to be transporting drug smugglers from former colonies such as the Antilles and Surinam.His comments come hot on the heels of a decision to ban Dutch police officers from frequenting coffee shops, the construction of emergency jail cells for drug smugglers and a tough new anti-smoking law which stipulates that employees should not be exposed to tobacco smoke. The Dutch coffee shop business, it is fair to say, is not what it once was.New figures show that the number of drug cafes fell to 782 legal establishments last year from 1,200 in 1997, a drop of over 30%. In the past six years hundreds of coffee shops found to be flouting the law by offering harder drugs or selling to underage customers were shut down - either permanently or temporarily - and had their sales licences revoked.This latest crackdown appears, however, to be far more serious than anything which has preceded it. The Dutch government is under mounting pressure to take action from neighbouring Germany, which sees thousands of its citizens flood across the border in search of marijuana every day.Many of the dozens of towns that squat on the Dutch side of the border between the two countries have been transformed into open-air drugs supermarkets.The problem is at its worst in Venlo, a town of 90,000 people nestling on the banks of the river Maas in the south of the country. Just five minutes drive from the German border, it is awash with drugs, dealers and tourists. Five million Germans live within 30 miles, and as many as 4,000 of them visit every day. Angered by such liberality on its doorstep, Berlin wants nothing less than a total ban on soft drugs in the Netherlands.The Dutch authorities seem unlikely to go that far but they do mean business. A treaty allowing the German and Dutch police to cooperate in border regions is likely to be signed soon and the Dutch government is reportedly close to drawing up new narcotics legislation.The Dutch government may, however, find the going uphill. It wants local councils and coffee shops themselves to stop foreigners from buying pot, but neither seem keen to comply. Both the councils and the cafes say they believe that the move would merely push the entire drugs trade underground and force people to buy off street dealers and criminals. There is also the small matter of money. In 1999, the latest year for which figures are available, Dutch coffee shops turned over €300m (£210m) - money which is all subject to government tax.The Dutch government is therefore faced with a stark choice: to keep taking the money or to appease the Germans. Note: Under pressure from both Berlin and the Hague, Dutch coffee shop culture is under threat, writes Andrew Osborn. Source: Guardian Unlimited, The (UK)Author: Andrew OsbornPublished: Friday, October 24, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Guardian Newspapers LimitedContact: letters guardian.co.ukWebsite: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Related Articles:German & Dutch Ministers Plan Drug Offensivehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17659.shtmlTourist-Free Coffee Shops Rejected http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17656.shtmlDutch Celebrate 30 Years of Legal Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14861.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on October 25, 2003 at 21:06:24 PT
Come on over to this side of the Big Pond
You Dutch and German folks are welcome to come on over to Baltimore, or south-central LA, to see the fruits of hard-core prohibition. White kids ODing on heroin by the dozen, black and Latino kids pumping each other full of bullets, corrupt, murdering law enforcement thugs, no health care coverage, crappy educational system, half of the other countries in your hemisphere pissed off at you....it's a real blast! We highly recommend it for everyone!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by rchandar on October 25, 2003 at 00:54:56 PT:
minister donner's plan
umm, i'll have to agree with rccowan.don't these moves have to pass parliament? wasn't parliament against ideas like these, except for only CDA?i can appreciate the worth of "sounding the alarm." but saying this WILL happen is a lot different from saying that this MAY happen. my guess is that donner will devise something like this everytime a neighbor, the UN, or the US, fingers the Netherlands as a troublemaker. that could mean they're afraid, or they're eager to comply with other countries, or they're simply afraid of the parliament majority favoring legalization.there have been four scares like this since balkenende was elected way, way back in may of 2002. again, such legislation must pass parliament--which means CDA's partners, the VVD and D66, would have to go along with them as the rest of parliament is squarely against it. D66 certainly won't endorse it, they're pro-legalization. and the VVD was the party that first gave the coffeeshops licenses--they're for legalization, too. unless they bow to conservative pressure, the coffeeshops will remain untouched.sound the alarm! run for the hills (of Germany)!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 24, 2003 at 19:04:48 PT
Thank You Richard
I appreciate your comment.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by RCCowan on October 24, 2003 at 18:30:19 PT:
 keep taking the money or to appease the Germans?
Obviously, the real problem is German prohibition, not Dutch freedom, but I am betting that nothing will happen except possibly in the border towns.First, the coffee shop rules are enforced locally and not nationally.Second, the shops evolved under "conservative" nominally prohibitionist governments.Third, in Amsterdam this would create huge problems with street traffickers who are already there hustling hard drugs. This is a direct violation of the separation of the markets, which is the foundation of Dutch drugs policies.Third, EU rules actually prohibit discrimination against citizens of other EU countries, so this might not even be legal.Fourth, the Amsterdam tourist business would be badly hurt by this.Finally, we all know what happened the last time we appeased the Germans.Richard Cowan
cowan marijuananews.com
Joint Operations
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment