MAYOR WANTS TOLERATION CANNABIS CULTIVATION

Although mayor Leers is known for his zero-tolerance policy he has the opinion to start tolerating the supply of Dutch cannabis to the coffee shops. He is one of the growing group of local politicians and civil servants that emphasise the need to solve the so called backdoor problem. They think the actual policy is contradictory: the sales of small quantities of grass and hash in coffee shops are tolerated, but the cultivation and supply of the soft drugs is forbidden.

A few years ago another mayor already called this policy hypocrite. He asked the former Minister of Justice to start with an experiment to allow the controlled cultivation of cannabis. In the accompanying report was called 'No sales anymore at the backdoor' it was suggested that the cannabis should be cultivated by approximately twelve tolerated plantations that than could be controlled seriously. The permission to put experiment in practise never came. At the time there also was a lot of approval of other mayors to tolerate the cultivation of cannabis.

A special foundation that wants a drug policy that decreases the health risks and the criminality, found out trough research that 60 municipalities were in favour of a regulation of the backdoor of coffee shops. The foundation formulated a proposal wherein a system for the supply is set out. The chairman of the foundation suggests using bar codes. In this plan the coffee shops are only allowed to sell soft drugs with the bar code of a tolerated cannabis plantation.

In a Dutch documentary about a company that dismantles around 700 cannabis plantations a year, it is estimated that there should be at least 150.000 plantations in The Netherlands producing for the national and European markets. The dismantling company does research for the police and the public prosecutor and they take the cannabis and equipment out of the secret plantations that are usually found by accident. Most of the time neighbours report suspected plantation locations to the police, or the secret activity is revealed because of flooding or odour nuisance.

Already in 2000 the Dutch parliament took on a motion wherein the government was summoned to come up with proposals to solve the backdoor problem of coffee shops. But the former government neglected the motion.They did not want to embarrass the other EU members and the United States with innovative soft drugs policy. Also the actual Minister of justice does not have the plan to change the system.

Opponents say that when The Netherlands would tolerate the cultivation of cannabis it would violate international treaties. This is already the case with the toleration of coffee shops. Locally the mayors are confronted with the negative effects of the ambiguous soft drugs policy. The coffee shops need to purchase the soft drugs, but since the cultivation and transportation is illegal, through this criminality is promoted. Besides this the justice department and the policy loosefar too much manpower and time to fight the cannabis growers.

The mayor of Maastricht thinks that the actual hypocrite system should change. He pleas for tolerating the production and supply under strict conditions. He also has the opinion that the national government should promote the famous Dutch soft drugs policy a lot better. Every day the Dutch cities at the borders experience the annoyance of the thousands of drugs tourists that come and visit. The harmonising of the drugs policy, especially on regional level would hold back the flood of drugs tourists. In April 2005 Maastricht will organise a cannabis conference with the neighbouring municipalities to discuss the plan to open a cannabis boulevard near the border. more features

March 15 , 2005