cannabisnews.com: Dutch Authorities Oppose Tighter Drugs Law 





Dutch Authorities Oppose Tighter Drugs Law 
Posted by CN Staff on April 27, 2004 at 20:19:10 PT
By Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam
Source: Scotsman UK
Plans to tighten up the Netherlands’ famously liberal attitude towards cannabis have met with strong resistance by local authorities across the country. The ruling conservative coalition drafted the new tougher drugs policy in the face of evidence showing a sharp increase in the potency of marijuana openly sold in many towns. The prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s cabinet proposed to reduce the number of "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold and to ban sales of cannabis to foreign tourists in border areas.
For nearly 30 years, small quantities of marijuana and hashish have been sold at coffee shops. Though the practice is tolerated, cannabis remains a controlled substance and technically its sale and use is illegal. But the policy has been met with opposition by the Association of Netherlands Municipalities which said the move threatens to undermine years of successful drugs control. Lex Estveld, a policy adviser, said the government was trying to fix a system that was not broken. "The entire Dutch drugs policy of controlling and containing soft drugs has proven reasonably successful in recent decades. If you ask me, we haven’t done bad when you compare us to other countries," he said yesterday. In its policy statement to parliament, the cabinet called for research into the health risks of higher potency cannabis amid concerns over a sharp increase in the content of THC, the active chemical of the cannabis plant. If tests indicate the more powerful cannabis is psychologically damaging, it could be reclassified as a banned drug like cocaine and heroin, the cabinet statement said. The cabinet acknowledged the long-standing policy of toleration had not led to higher rates of marijuana use. But it said "the strong increase in THC content, and the link between cannabis users and psychological disorders, is a reason for concern". The average percentage of THC in Dutch marijuana called Nederwiet, the most popular on the market, has doubled in three years to 18 per cent, said the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction. The most potent hashish now has a THC content of up to 66 per cent, it said. Under the government plan, the southern town Maastricht, bordering Germany and Belgium, will conduct a trial of the policy barring the sale of marijuana and hashish to tourists. It was not clear whether customers would have to produce proof of Dutch nationality. A joint statement issued by 483 municipalities said the proposed measures would force the marijuana business underground. "The tone of the letter is too influenced by foreign [opinions] and gives insufficient credit to the successes of local coffee shop policies," said the statement. "Concentrating the trade in soft drugs at coffee shops has the clear benefit of making it transparent and controllable." Roughly 780 coffee shops exist in the Netherlands, but half are in the three big cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. About 80 per cent of municipalities do not permit coffee shops. Government figures say the number of people who have tried marijuana in the Netherlands ranks in the middle of a range of EU countries, the United States and Australia.Source: Scotsman (UK) Author: Anthony Deutsch in AmsterdamPublished: Wednesday, April 28, 2004Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 2004 Website: http://www.scotsman.com/Contact: Letters_ts scotsman.com Related Articles:Dutch Try To Cut Drug Tourismhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18722.shtmlCabinet Moves To Ban Super-Strong Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18614.shtmlDutch Coffeeshops Face Ban on Strong Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18594.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #6 posted by rchandar on April 28, 2004 at 12:22:24 PT:
municipalities oppose new proposals
hah--i knew it, i knew it couldn't be going down that easy. i'll keep posting, keep smokin'!--rchandar
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by Critto on April 28, 2004 at 03:55:25 PT
Strange kind of "conservatives" they are!
"The ruling conservative coalition"Yep, I know they call themselves 'conservative'; and, that most of the so-called 'conservative' political movements and parties oppose liberalization and/or decrim/legalisation of cannabis. It's really strange to see the XXth/XXIth century 'conservatives' taking such a ridiculous stance; after all, under one of the most conservative regimes in the world: the Victorian rule in England, both cannabis and opium were legal and widely recognized in the society. The 'conservatives' of today seem rather to follow the authoritarian socialists in their 'social reform' bigotry, while most of the non-authoritarian 'socialists' are rather liberal in the matter. We live in a very strange times.
-- Critto
LIBERTARYZM=LIBERTARIANISM
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by E_Johnson on April 27, 2004 at 22:20:27 PT
Russian antidrug force attacks club
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2004/04/28/002.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Virgil on April 27, 2004 at 21:47:13 PT
1,150,000 is the largest March on Washington
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040425/nysu015_1.html - This story at Yahoo is on the March on Washington Sunday for Women's right to chose. It is significant in the big picture because such a show has meant the misadministration has retreated on pushing for abortion records from doctors. When the anger becomes visible, and it looks like defeat if policy continues, things can change.Now this is about unrelated to anything except that it shows a certain power of the Internet and I would like to give the guy credit for his words where he thanks people from "the heart of his bottom." This guy put up a wedding dress with a little story and he modeled it as there was no woman in his life since his divorce. In the last hour he has received about 150,000 hits at this one item on E-bay. In 4 days and 7 hours this obscure listing has managed to attract 1,643,360 hits. The bid was $275 about noon and I showed it to someone at $900 about 7 PM. Now it is at $99,001,000. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4146756343Giving credit for the "from the heart of my bottom" is relevant and I direct it toward all prohibitionists. The other thing to watch is if the Internet itself makes the news. Anyone that has any real intellectual curiousity of our present situation has to be insulted by the media if they have spent any time at all on the Internet. The learned will grow with the Internet and I thought this one illustration of the most obscure attracting attention showed the power of the Internet.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by jose melendez on April 27, 2004 at 21:39:48 PT
Hear, hear.
Ath. And is our legislator to have no preface to his laws, but to
say at once Do this, avoid that-and then holding the penalty in
terrorem to go on to another law; offering never a word of advice or
exhortation to those for whom he is legislating, after the manner of
some doctors? For of doctors, as I may remind you, some have a
gentler, others a ruder method of cure; and as children ask the doctor
to be gentle with them, so we will ask the legislator to cure our
disorders with the gentlest remedies. What I mean to say is, that
besides doctors there are doctors' servants, who are also styled
doctors. Cle. Very true. Ath. And whether they are slaves or freemen makes no difference;
they acquire their knowledge of medicine by obeying and observing
their masters; empirically and not according to the natural way of
learning, as the manner of freemen is, who have learned scientifically
themselves the art which they impart scientifically to their pupils.
You are aware that there are these two classes of doctors? Cle. To be sure. Ath. And did you ever observe that there are two classes of patients
in states, slaves and freemen; and the slave doctors run about and
cure the slaves, or wait for them in the dispensaries-practitioners of
this sort never talk to their patients individually, or let them
talk about their own individual complaints? The slave doctor
prescribes what mere experience suggests, as if he had exact
knowledge; and when he has given his orders, like a tyrant, he
rushes off with equal assurance to some other servant who is ill;
and so he relieves the master of the house of the care of his
invalid slaves. But the other doctor, who is a freeman, attends and
practises upon freemen; and he carries his enquiries far back, and
goes into the nature of the disorder; he enters into discourse with
the patient and with his friends, and is at once getting information
from the sick man, and also instructing him as far as he is able,
and he will not prescribe for him until he has first convinced him; at
last, when he has brought the patient more and more under his
persuasive influences and set him on the road to health, he attempts
to effect a cure. Now which is the better way of proceeding in a
physician and in a trainer? Is he the better who accomplishes his ends
in a double way, or he who works in one way, and that the ruder and
inferior? Cle. I should say, Stranger, that the double way is far better. Ath. Should you like to see an example of the double and single
method in legislation?From: http://www.infomotions.com/etexts/philosophy/400BC-301BC/plato-laws-346.txt
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Virgil on April 27, 2004 at 20:44:13 PT
It is not going to happen
You do not reverse enlightenment and the Dutch are not going to give up their leadership in the movement to make cannabis free. The right wing government will be gone with the next election. 
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment