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Germany Wary of Dutch Dope Debate
author | DW-World.de | 04/27/2005

A new cannabis debate lit up in the Netherlands Wednesday as the country's largest cities called for production of the drug to be legalized. Such a move is likely to further frustrate neighbor Germany.

A telephone poll of the 30 biggest cities in the Netherlands published in the Trouw daily showed that a majority of the cities are in favor of legalizing, under strict conditions, the production of cannabis.

Despite the growing call from local authorities, the government stood firm on its stricter policy towards soft drugs, in a country where cannabis use and sale have been decriminalized for three decades.

"If we are having problems because of our liberal drugs policy than somebody should explain to me how these problems are going to go away if we go even further with our liberal policies," Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said during a parliamentary debate on Wednesday.

During the debate, several parties including the opposition Labour party called for the government to regulate cannabis production. Even the parliamentary faction of the governing VVD liberal party called for a legalization of cannabis production within the European Union.

Legal production a lure for German smokers?

Even raising the debate to parliamentary level is likely to further frustrate neighbor Germany which continues to struggle with the amount of German citizens crossing the border for the sole purpose of getting legally stoned.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily has often clashed with Donner over the subject of the Dutch coffee shops, establishments which legally sell cannabis and other so-called soft drugs over the counter.

Schily, a vehement opponent of the Dutch attitude to soft drugs, has urged his counterpart to close the coffee shops, saying that the sale of any drugs advocated their use. And while there has been ground given on the subject of joint police patrols along the two countries’ shared border in a bid to combat drug trafficking and the possible sale of cannabis to Dutch nationals only, there is still conflict over the Dutch attitude on its own soil and its consequences.

Legal production a lure for German smokers?

But Donner argues that the Dutch drug policy and the existence of coffee shops offered Dutch authorities an opportunity to keep a close check on drug use. “Even though I understand the German opinion on the question of coffee shops, I must say that it is a question for the Dutch and not a problem for our neighbors,” he said at a heated summit with Schily in Berlin in 2003.

Since 1976, the Netherlands have decriminalized the sale and use of cannabis in so called coffee-shops. A typically Dutch invention, these special cafes are authorized to sell up to five grams (one sixth of an ounce) of cannabis to people over 18. Production of cannabis remains illegal as do hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Any moves to decriminalize the production of cannabis in the Netherlands is likely to cause further friction with Schily unlikely to shift on his stance that the availability of drugs in Holland promotes drug tourism among Germans and, on a wider scale, encourages the illegal drug trade in Europe.

Regulation would solve legal problems, say mayors

The mayors of the major Dutch cities, including Maastricht and Amsterdam, argue that a regulated production of cannabis would solve many of the problems connected with illegal cannabis plantations, the main source for the underworld trade.

"The drugs policy is schizophrenic because although it is legal for coffee-shops to sell cannabis, the production is illegal. It is like telling a baker that he can sell bread but is not allowed to buy flour," Maastricht mayor Christian Democrat Gerd Leers told AFP recently.

Dutch border towns like Maastricht and Heerlen receive over a million so-called drugs tourists each year. These tourists, mostly from France, Belgium and Germany, come to the Netherlands to buy cannabis.

To combat illegal cannabis plantations in people's attics and basements, the mayors call for a regulated and controlled production of cannabis for sale in coffee-shops.

Legal production will not cure ills, says Donner

But Donner dismissed the argument, saying that the legalization of cannabis production would solve neither the problems of drugs tourism or of illegal growing. "How will we get one drugs tourist less by regulating cannabis production for sale in coffee-shops?" Donner asked the parliament.

Moreover, he argued, illegal cannabis plantations in Maastricht alone grow more drugs than are consumed in the city's coffee-shops. "Regulating the cultivation for coffee-shops will barely have a noticeable effect on the existing illegal production," Donner said in a letter sent to parliament Wednesday.

Although the government wants to uphold the Dutch model that distinguishes between the soft drug, cannabis, which it says poses limited health risks and hard drugs, which pose "unacceptable risks", it wants to curtail drugs tourism.

Donner is also in favor of a reduction of the number of coffee-shops which already fell from 1179 in 1997, to 754 in 2003. According to the Dutch justice ministry, citing scientific research, the existence of coffee-shops has not led to a rise in cannabis consumption. Cannabis consumption among people aged 15 to 65 is lower in the Netherlands than in France, Britain or the United States.

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reggie_the_dog

The city council of Berlin recently went so far as to say that 10 grams or less of cannabis (flowers or hash) can be possessed by people in the Berlin region and that they cannot be punished for such possession and that the police cannot take the hash or grass from people in such situations. It was also noted by the police that they will do nothing for 15 grams or less. In other german states the level of cannabis one can have (while running the risk of confiscation but no sanction) varies between 5 and 30 grams. So even in the "prohibitionist" areas of Germany a few grams just gets confiscated. In Berlin you can have your stash and the cops cant take your property. So what is the big deal if production is legalized. Perhaps the german minister touches too much mafia money to allow this.

vladimir

weed is decriminalized in all of germany, thanks to the supreme court. which is why i dont see the need to make a big deal out of the dutch liberal attitude, germany is prety lax on it too.

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If a drug (or technique or process) were ever to be discovered which would consistently produce a plus four experience in all human beings, it is conceivable that it would signal the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end of, the human experiment.

reggie_the_dog

Lets see Germany has decriminalized cananbis
Belgium lets you have 3 grams in public and a plant at home
these are the two countries with a land border with the Netherlands, what is the big deal here????

iGame3D

The problems are stemming from the EU, who are putting pressure on the Dutch to return to the American style insanity.

Their is probably a push against the Dutch by organized crime, which would most likely be Afghanistan's and Turkey's Drug Warlords, certainly "tourism" to the Dutch side is hitting their profits somewhere, and they are putting money toward some politicians to get things changed in their favor.

After all, everyone knows, any form prohibition only increases profits for criminals (state or otherwise).