Law Could Hamper Drug Tourism in the Netherlands

Law Could Hamper Drug Tourism in the Netherlands

Michel de Groot for the International Herald Tribune

Behind the bar at Amsterdam’s 420 Cafe last month, Steven Pratt showed marijuana products to customers from Romania.

By DAVID JOLLY

Published: April 2, 2012

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.

Michel de Groot for the International Herald Tribune

A proprietor displayed cannabis at a coffee shop in Amsterdam.

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: 75 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.

Law Could Hamper Drug Tourism in the Netherlands

Published: April 2, 2012

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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.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 5, 2012

An article on Tuesday   about the Dutch government’s plan to restrict the sale of marijuana to residents of the Netherlands misstated the number of seats in the lower house of Parliament that are held by People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Christian Democrats, along with their ally, the Freedom Party. It is 75 of the 150 seats — not 83, which includes three smaller parties.