NL: Capital calls time on booze-hash cafes

11/06/03

AMSTERDAM: Amsterdam's coffee shops, where cannabis and alcohol top
the menu, suffered a knockout blow on Wednesday when the city council
announced the cafes will in future have to decide which "drug of choice" to
sell.

In other cities and towns in the Netherlands, cannabis cafes are tolerated as long
as they do not sell alcohol on the same premises. Cafes in the capital have an
exemption from this regulation, but Amsterdam City Council said this privilege
would be withdrawn in the next three years.

From now until 2006, coffee shop owners in Amsterdam will be given the
opportunity to continue business as an alcohol-free cafe or to stop selling soft
drugs, Dutch associated press ANP reported.

There are several hundred coffee shops in Amsterdam and 64 of these sell both
alcohol and cannabis. The municipality and justice officials have worked for
years to separate the supply of alcohol and cannabis and the number of alcohol-
cannabis cafes has fallen from 100 to 64 since 1998.

At this rate, it would take 18 years for the last alcohol vending cannabis cafe to
die out and the council is not willing to wait that long.

The new plan is the latest in a string of blows to hit the Dutch cannabis industry.
On 5 May, the Justice Ministry said it was considering imposing restrictions on
the active THC content in locally produced cannabis.

The government is concerned about the strength of Dutch marijuana, grown
indoors, which can allegedly be twice as strong as imported crops.

A few days before that, the Health Ministry seemed to put the future of all coffee
shops at risk when it said they would have to provide a smoke-free environment
for staff by the beginning of 2004.

Collectively known as the horeca, ordinary cafes, restaurants and hotels have
been granted a 12-month extension, but cannabis shops are not covered by the
horeca laws and will have to enforce the new anti-smoking regulation in six
months time. Given the nature of their business this will be practically impossible.

[Copyright Expatica News 2003]