Session 10 - Cannabis
a) Cannabis, commerce and controls
Mario Lap
Drugtext Foundation, Koning Inneweg 189, Amsterdam, 1016 TE, Netherlands
Phone no: +31 – 20 66 44 086 E-mail: mario@drugtext.org
The Dutch drug policy
The difference between Holland and the rest of the world is that Holland has coffee shops which sell cannabis. There is no way to explain coffee shops without explaining how Dutch drug policy works or has arrived at the point where we are now. Our drug laws were written in 1928 and were very repressive when cannabis was reintroduced in Europe in the early 1960s. After several commissions in that period there was a new or a changed drug law: the Opium Act of 1976.
The first element of the Act is the decriminalisation of drug use, which means all drug use as such is not a crime in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands decriminalisation is regulated through legislation and guidelines. Two grams of a certain drug or one gram of a certain drug is considered possession for personal use and you are not prosecuted. The second element is the depenalisation of cannabis; meaning possession of up to 30grams of cannabis is not a crime, but is an offence. There are also special guidelines for cannabis that have evolved over time.
In 1976 cannabis was sold in youth centres by a ‘house dealer’, and later began to be sold in coffee shops. Until the 1990s almost all cannabis sold in coffee shops and consumed in Holland was imported from Morocco and Pakistan, the old producing countries. In the early 1990s ‘Netherweed’ was introduced. In the late 1990s about 70% of what was sold in coffee shops was this ‘Netherweed’ or ‘Nederwiet’ because it was very good quality. This may be the most successful import substitution project known to economic history. There was, and still is, no regulation for where the cannabis in coffee shops comes from.
In Holland the police prosecute coffee shops if they are in conflict with the guidelines. These guidelines have changed a little with time but they basically state that coffee shops are not allowed to sell to minors (people under 18) and they should not cause any problems to public order. They are not allowed to sell alcohol but there are coffee shops that are also bars, so it all depends on the town. They are not allowed to sell more than 5grams of hashish or cannabis per transaction. If you bought 5grams from six coffee shops, it would be permitted by law. It would be a crime if the coffee shop sold 30grams to one person. Basically 60 – 70% of the cannabis sold in coffee shops is produced in Holland, but the people producing it are criminals according to the law and that is still the strange situation today.
1993 Cannabis Law proposal
The Cannabis Law proposal was drawn up using alcohol law as a plan. It would require a real change for the law to be implemented, and there would therefore be problems with the drug treaties. The Drug Treaty on cannabis says that there is no medical application for cannabis, which is not true. This Treaty is different from others in that it refutes change as if it had been etched in stone. This is strange because everything changes through time and how we look at cannabis has changed enormously.
In the late 1990s there were some interesting reactions within the Dutch government regarding the cannabis proposal. Nothing has actually happened but there have been lots of discussions and lots of ideas. The former Minister of Justice said she wanted ‘to regulate the back door’, meaning the provision of cannabis in coffee shops. The ink on her paper was still wet when Mr Chirac, the French president, started to say all kinds of negative things about Holland. As a result, nothing came from the proposal apart from a more restrictive policy such as the five gram rule and fewer coffee shops. In 1993, most of the cannabis was produced by students and housewives who wanted to make a little extra money. It is now a profession and is becoming more and more controlled by criminal elements, which has led to a proposal by the Dutch Drug Policy Foundation for a more restrictive policy, especially on production.
The Dutch Drug Policy Foundation
The Dutch Drug Policy Foundation has proposed a plan for the provision of coffee shops under a system of guidelines so that there is no conflict with the international treaties and they can still control the cannabis market. We want to know if cannabis is sprayed with toxic chemicals to fight off pests. It is not very healthy to smoke that kind of toxic stuff. It is known that tomatoes are sprayed and washed before being eaten but nobody washes cannabis. The proposal by the Dutch Drug Policy Foundation has received a lot of attention because it is backed by 20 mayors of Dutch cities. The Dutch Minister of Justice, like the Belgian Minister of Justice, aims to launch a report on this. This is due in May or June 2000.
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