- Title: NETHERLANDS: Dutch mayors meet to discuss a soft drug policy
- Date: 26th November 2008
- Summary: (L!1) BERGEN OP ZOOM, THE NETHERLANDS (NOVEMBER 17, 2008) (REUTERS) EXTERIORS OF KINKY CORNER COFFESHOP (2 SHOTS) READY-MADE JOINTS IN GLASS JARS VARIOUS OF HANDS MAKING JOINTS FOR SALE (5 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 11th December 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Netherlands
- Country: Netherlands
- Topics: Domestic Politics,Lifestyle
- Reuters ID: LVA42IQ6HIZR4QH0JD5ZX97OJRXW
- Story Text: The Dutch government should regulate the supply of cannabis to marijuana-selling coffee shops and seek a European-wide solution to the problem of soft drugs, Dutch city mayors meeting on Friday said.
The meeting of 33 mayors or city council representatives also backed a continuation of the Dutch "soft drugs" policy of toleration, but stressed that although a ban on the use of marijuana is not a solution to the problem, the use of the drug should still be discouraged.
Annemarie Jorritsma, Almere Mayor and a former Dutch government economy minister, said a total ban is not a solution.
"A total ban on soft drugs is apsolutely not a solution for a problem. The mayors want to regulate and control it," Jorritsma said on the news conference after the Weed Summit.
The policy on soft drugs in the Netherlands, one of the most liberal in Europe, allows for the sale of marijuana at coffee shops, which the Dutch have allowed to operate for decades, and possession of less than 5 grams (0.18 oz).
But the cultivation or supply of the drug to the shops, the so-called "back door" of the business, is banned, leaving the door open to a criminal element.
"We want to regulate the "back door" in order to cope with criminality which is now combined with that," mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen said to Reuters.
The mayors called for a pilot scheme to evauate a regulated supply, called for regulation of customer entry to coffee shops to distinguish between foreign or Dutch customers. They also said the Dutch council of municipalities VNG should enter talks with the Dutch government before the Christmas period.
The meeting in Almere was called amid renewed opposition to the Dutch policy of toleration after the Dutch cities Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, located near the Belgian border, recently said they will close all coffee shops in their jurisdiction within two years to combat drug tourism and criminality.
Maastricht, a Dutch border city in the south of the country, also angered Belgian authorities earlier this year by proposing to move its city centre coffee shops to the edge of the city as it also battles problems stemming from the coffee shops.
The Dutch Justice and Health ministeries will publish next year the findings of an evaluation of the Dutch soft and hard drugs policy.
A ministry spokesman said the proposals agreed on at the Almere meeting of city mayors may be included in the evaluation or taken into consideration in any decison making.
Earlier on Friday, Amsterdam said it will close 43 of the city's 228 coffee shops by the end of 2011 because they are too close to schools, but also threw its support behind the continutaion of the coffee shops and regulation of supply.
Dutch government policy states that coffee shops near schools must be closed, that coffee shops close to the borders must be discouraged and large-scale cultivation curtailed. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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