Britain’s 30-year-old cannabis laws, the most stringent in Europe, are to be relaxed under plans announced by the home secretary, David Blunkett. Cannabis – which is tried by more than 40% of British schoolchildren – is to be downgraded from a class B to a class C drug. The police will lose the power to arrest the 90,000 people a year who are currently charged with possession offences.
A crew from BBC news travels to the Netherlands to make a reportage about the liberal Dutch soft drugs policy. The owner and some clients of a coffeeshop in Amsterdam are interviewed about selling and using soft drugs in the Netherlands. And a spokesperson from the Amsterdam municipality, senior prevention worker Roel Kerssemakers from the expert organisation on substance use and addiction Jellinek and a drug specialist from the Municipal Health Services Amsterdam are interviewed about the tolerant Dutch drug laws.
For this news reportage Featurez gave advice, did the research, set-up and planning and accompanied the filming and the live stand-up.