Famous or infamous, the relaxed Dutch policy towards the use and sale of soft drugs has as many supporters as it does opponents. After years of neglecting the problems that come with this policy, the Dutch cabinet has finally decided to tackle its shortcomings. But coffeeshop owners and soft drugs advocates are critical of the measures it is proposing.

A revision of the Dutch soft drugs policy is a difficult issue politically. The three parties that make up the Dutch cabinet – Christian Democrats, Labour and a small Christian party – have always had conflicting views on soft drugs. While the Christian parties wanted to close all coffeeshops, Labour insisted on further legalisation of the production and use of soft drugs.
 

Foreign tourists
But the Dutch cabinet has finally managed to bridge the gap. Coffeeshops will not be closed, it says, but measures will be taken to keep the number of customers under control. One of the biggest problems caused by coffeeshops is the influx of foreign tourists, especially from Belgium, France and Germany, who travel to border towns in the east and south of the Netherlands to buy cannabis and other soft drugs there.

The city of Terneuzen in the Zeeland province – near the Belgian border – had 2,000 tourists a day when its main coffeeshop was still open, which led to huge traffic and public order problems.
 

Pass system
The cabinet now wants to give local authorities more power to keep coffeeshops small-scale. It is proposing introducing a scheme whereby only local people are allowed to visit a coffeeshop, controlled by a pass system. This would make it virtually impossible for tourists to buy anything in a coffeeshop.

The new measures have been heavily criticised as insufficient to solve the real problems. But Labour MP Laura Bouwmeester says they will bring improvements. 'The world is becoming more realistic', she says. 'People are using and buying soft drugs everywhere and many people are doing it in a very responsible manner. So why would you want to criminalise that?'. She admits that any problems that come with it have to be tackled. 'We are now showing we can offer a solution. That's our gain here'.

Missing link
Soft drugs advocates strongly disagree. Raymond Dufour of the Netherlands Drug Policy Foundation says other steps are necessary. 'There is a missing link in the legalisation of cannabis', he says. 'That's the production of the cannabis. That is not allowed which means criminal gangs can currently exploit this missing link. We should take away this golden cake from the gangs, but unfortunately, the production remains illegal in the cabinet's new plans'.

Mr Dufour also sees many practical problems if local authorities want to bar tourists from going into a coffeeshop. 'We have a problem with European law here, as all European citizens should be treated equally', he notes. 'This question has been put to the European Court of Justice and it will take years before we have a final answer'.

Amsterdam
'It also won't solve the problems in a city like Amsterdam', he adds. 'Many tourists buy their cannabis in coffeeshops there. If they can't buy it anymore, the sale will go underground as in many other cities in the world'.

Mr Dufour has slammed the new plans as the result of a 'tepid compromise' between the three parties in the cabinet with no real solution to the problems in the current soft drugs policy.
 

No end to tolerance
But at least, he says, the new policy won't put an end to the principle of  tolerant views on the use of soft drugs in The Netherlands. “A total prohibition simply won't work, and the cabinet realises that,” he says.

Photo by Shira Golding (at flickr.com)