As Britain relaxes its cannabis laws, the main coalition parties in the Netherlands are pushing for a harder line on drug dealing and use, including soft drugs.
Dutch tolerance towards the possession and use of cannabis and its sale through coffee shops is regularly cited as the model for countries considering relaxing laws on soft drugs. It is legal in Holland to carry up to five grams of cannabis or to grow five cannabis plants for personal use.
Now, however, change is in the air. The new coalition partners, Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) have this week released a revised agreement in which they state a "policy of discouragement regarding the use of soft drugs will be continued". An earlier statement, released two weeks ago had stated "the policy regarding the use of soft drugs would be continued".
The draft new agreement also includes plans to reduce the number of coffee shops in the Netherlands, although the LPF has said that it "had difficulty with the sharpening of the policy".
Last month, at a meeting of EU ministers of justice aimed at devising a Europe-wide approach to harmonising drug laws, the Dutch minister for justice, Mr Korthals walked out saying the Dutch government could "not get involved in something that attacked Dutch drugs policy" and that EU policy must "not lead to a change in our policy regarding coffee shops".
The EU ministers were in general agreement over harmonising maximum sentences for soft drugs offences to five years but this left little room for Dutch sensitivities, according to Mr Korthals. He said it meant that under new European arrest warrants the Netherlands would be obliged to extradite its own citizens to states with tougher sentences for offences such as possession of five grams of cannabis.