HALF OF ROTTERDAM COFFEE SHOPS CLOSED

After the new Dutch government finally made their new policy public after the ‘100 days of communication with society’, it comes out that a new coffee shop policy prohibits the sales of soft drugs closer than 250 meters from a school. The Rotterdam city hall stated that at least half of the coffee shops in the harbour city will be closed. 27 of the 62 coffee shops will have to close.

The new Rotterdam rules do not count for normal primary schools, ‘since otherwise no coffee shop would survive’, the mayor stated. The spokesman of the Dutch drugs research institute says that the influence of coffee shops near schools on the use of cannabis has never been researched: ‘what happens in Rotterdam is not based on facts, it is a political story.’

Conservatism is still present in the harbour city. Also a specialist of the Amsterdam addiction clinic Jellinek doubts if the new measures will be effective. Youngsters and pupils are not allowed to enter coffee shops anyway. They get their soft drugs via older friends.

The mayor of Amsterdam did not yet react on the Rotterdam plans. Coffees shops are a major attraction in the capital of The Netherlands. A Rotterdam based writer in one of the Dutch newspapers: ‘to me it seems simple: just take the order, jump on the scooter, and take a few euro’s profit; and the young soft drugs dealer is born again.’

In the mean time the city hall of Terneuzen is introducing signs to lead the 2000 sof drugs tourists, that visit the border town daily, to the available coffee shops, to prevent annoyance and problems caused by the soft drugs traffic. The responsible alderman says that the decision caused a serious discussion, but in the end there is not much difference between Ikea and a coffee shop. Coffee shops are legal and can sell unlimited amounts of soft drugs

Highlife, the glossy magazine for growers and blowers, publishes two articles this month that show an increase in measures to fight both the sales as the cultivation of soft drugs. New tax laws will make life very difficult for coffee shop owners and the spokesman of the Dutch national network of Drugs expertise stated in a radio program that they want to stop the toleration of growing cannabis at home for private use.

Now it is tolerated to cultivate up to five cannabis plants privately. The Highlife journalist doubts if the Dutch police force will have enough personnel to find every cannabis plant in The Netherlands, and he asks himself how coffee shops will be supplied in that situation. An anonymous police officers stated, while a illegal cannabis plantation was dismantled, ‘For Gods sake, let them finally organise and legalise this indoor private cultivation of cannabis, so we can spend our time on the real problems.’ more features

September 20, 2006