New cannabis law hits Dutch 'coffee shops'

POLICE IN the Netherlands will start random checks on “coffee shops” – where cannabis is sold and consumed legally – from today…

POLICE IN the Netherlands will start random checks on “coffee shops” – where cannabis is sold and consumed legally – from today, after the cabinet agreed on Friday to reclassify strong cannabis as a class A drug, alongside heroin and cocaine.

The decision means cannabis containing more than 15 per cent of the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is banned with immediate effect under the Opium Act, because medical experts believe it is more likely to lead to addiction and psychosis.

Dutch justice minister Ivo Opstelten said last night it would be the responsibility of the coffee shops themselves to monitor THC levels in the cannabis they sold, and the average level of 16 to 18 per cent, which had gradually become the national norm, would no longer be acceptable.

The new law follows the report of the Garretsen Commission – chaired by drugs expert Prof Henk Garretsen – which concluded that more powerful cannabis, known as “skunk”, was more dangerous and detrimental to society than had previously been believed.

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“Extensive epidemiological research supports the view, in particular, that strong cannabis used during adolescence is a serious risk factor in the development of psychotic disorders and dependency,” the report said. “The link is direct: the higher the THC content, the greater the risk.”

The decision will have a significant financial impact on Holland’s 700 coffee shops, which say they will have to replace about 80 per cent of their stock and claim the regulations are driven by the rightwing of the minority coalition government, particularly the Christian Democrats, supported by Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party.

“These people want to ban everything they consider to be ‘left-wing hobbies’, and using cannabis is one of them,” said Marc Josemans, who owns a coffee shop in Maastricht, where new laws were also introduced a week ago banning foreigners, apart from Germans and Belgians, from using the city’s coffee shops.

“The problem is that it’s not clear exactly what the coffee shops need to do,” said lawyer Maurice Veldman. “At best this new regulation will be unworkable. And at worst it will drive the sale of ‘skunk’ underground.”