Pubdate: Tue, 03 Apr 2012
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2012 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: David Jolly

LAW COULD HAMPER DRUG TOURISM IN THE NETHERLANDS

AMSTERDAM - The scene at the 420 Cafe on a recent Friday was typical 
of what many travelers have come to associate with Amsterdam. Behind 
the bar, Janne Svensson, 34, a self-described "cannabis refugee" from 
Norway, weighed out small quantities of marijuana and hashish for her 
customers, many from foreign countries. They sat quietly, smoking and 
sipping coffee, as familiar strains of Jimi Hendrix drifted softly 
from the stereo and giant manta rays cavorted in a nature video on a 
big-screen television.

While there are many attractions that draw visitors to the 
Netherlands - including the friendly and straightforward people, 
world-class museums, charming architecture and elegant canal scenes - 
nearly a quarter of this city's more than four million foreign 
tourists a year will visit its coffee shops, where the sale of small 
quantities of cannabis is tolerated.

But Amsterdam's days as a destination for hazy holidays may be 
numbered. Prime Minister Mark Rutte's right-wing coalition government 
is pushing to sharply restrict the operations of the coffee shops and 
to prohibit the sale of the drugs to nonresidents. If the measures 
survive a court challenge and the opposition of local officials, the 
first phase would begin May 1.

"I think that by the end of next year, there will be no drug tourism 
in the Netherlands," Ard van der Steur, a Parliament member and a 
spokesman for Mr. Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, 
said in an interview in The Hague. "We have created an incredible 
criminal industry that we need to get rid of."

Strictly speaking, the sale of marijuana and hashish (a resin 
extracted from the cannabis plant) is not legal. But a longstanding 
policy of tolerance - essentially a set of instructions from the 
Justice Ministry to the police - means that licensed coffee shop 
operators are not prosecuted as long as they deal in limited 
quantities and keep hard drugs and minors out. The Dutch are also 
allowed to cultivate up to five marijuana plants each for their personal use.

In some respects, tolerance appears to have been successful: despite 
the easy availability, the Dutch are far less likely than Americans 
or many other Europeans to use marijuana. About 14 percent of 
Americans use marijuana, versus about 5 percent of the Dutch, 
according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Alex 
Stevens, a drug policy expert at the University of Kent, argues that 
the tolerance policy has reduced the harm caused by prohibition, in 
part by separating the markets for hard drugs like heroin from the 
market for marijuana, and by getting cannabis dealers off the street 
and into a regulated environment.

The impetus for changing the policy originated with, of all things, a 
parking shortage. In the southern city of Maastricht, sandwiched 
between the German and Belgian borders, hundreds of drug tourists 
drive in daily from elsewhere in Europe to purchase marijuana, 
creating an infuriating traffic nuisance.

Spotting an opportunity, clandestine dealers have begun offering 
foreign drivers the option of buying their cannabis without ever 
leaving their cars. Even local residents who support the coffee shops 
are unhappy that drugs are back on the streets.

Mr. Rutte's justice minister, Ivo Opstelten, has said that, as of May 
1, coffee shops in three southern provinces are to be turned into 
members-only clubs, limited to 2,000 Dutch clients each. They are to 
maintain a registry and check IDs. Coffee shop owners who break the 
law will face criminal prosecution. The rest of the country's coffee 
shops are to follow suit on Jan. 1, 2013.

Mr. van der Steur said that the main problem with the current policy 
was that marijuana production had led to the creation of an expansive 
black market. No one knows the exact value of Dutch cannabis exports, 
he said, but they are thought to be greater than the country's annual 
flower exports, which are worth $6.6 billion.

"We now function as a supplier of drugs for the rest of Europe," he 
said. "We never intended to become one of the major exporters of 
cannabis to the world."

Additionally, almost all of the hashish sold in the coffee shops is 
imported, illegally, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Morocco, 
which, he said, badly rankles the right-wing government.

Mr. van der Steur said the government would begin treating 
high-potency marijuana as a hard drug, like heroin and cocaine, 
prohibiting its sale in coffee shops. Growers now breed marijuana 
that is almost three times stronger than it was a few decades ago, he 
said. "The product changed totally, but the policy didn't," he said.

In theory, Mr. Rutte's party, along with its junior partner, the 
Christian Democrats, and parliamentary ally, the far-right Freedom 
Party of Geert Wilders, have the votes to push through the changes: 
83 of the 150 seats in the lower house.

But the change is not assured.

Coffee shop owners have so far failed in court to overturn the ban on 
sales to foreigners, but another lawsuit is being brought by the 
Cannabis Retailers Association, which represents the country's 680 
coffee shops. It should be heard in the next few weeks.

Parliament is also wary of treading on the prerogative of local 
officials, many of whom worry that the change will bring a return to 
street dealing and the crime that accompanies it. Others argue that 
the Netherlands, which is struggling to reduce its budget deficit, 
cannot afford to alienate tourists.

Eberhard van der Laan, the mayor of Amsterdam, opposes the policy 
change on safety and health grounds, even though he supports the goal 
of reducing soft drug use among young people, said Tahira Limon, a 
spokeswoman for the city. Ms. Limon said the mayor was talking with 
the government about other approaches.

Coffee shops are not really an issue for Amsterdam, she said. "The 
problems we have with substance abuse are almost always related to 
alcohol," she said. "That concerns Dutch people as much as foreigners."

Michael Veling, 56, owner of the 420 Cafe, and the spokesman for the 
Cannabis Retailers Association, said he was skeptical that the 
government would get its way. More likely, he said, the policy change 
would be struck down in court, or the issue would be left up to the 
municipal councils.

But if the law changes, "I'm not going to build a register," he said. 
"I'm not going to discriminate on the basis of nationality. I've only 
ever discriminated on the basis of behavior. I'll go back to selling 
alcohol" - illegal in coffee shops since 1996 - "and go back to 
selling bags of weed under the counter," as he did before the 
toleration policy was adopted.

His customers were dubious as well. Kenny and Sean, preppy-looking 
American college students on a tour of Europe, acknowledged that the 
availability of marijuana was one reason for their visit. (The two 
asked not to be further identified so as to protect their future job 
prospects.)

"We wanted to try Amsterdam because our friends all said it was 
awesome," Sean said, between puffs on a spliff, a mix of tobacco and cannabis.

Kenny agreed. "If you smoke weed, you have to go to Amsterdam before 
you die," he said, adding: "This place would die if they changed the 
weed laws. We know that. We're business students."
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