FREE THE WEED 10
A Column by John Sinclair
Happy New Year and highest greetings from Amsterdam, where I’ve been
spending the holidays in utter relaxation at my Poet-In-Residence table at the
420 Café and trying to make sense of the latest developments in the belated
entry of the Dutch government into the front ranks of the international War On
Drugs.
Despite the fact that The Netherlands has enjoyed almost 30 years of its safe,
serene, and extremely hospitable social policy of decriminalization of cannabis
products for the recreational smoker and the growth of a “drug tourism” industry
that brings people here from all over the world to smoke a little weed in the local
coffeeshops and take a few grams back to the hotel for nocturnal delectation,
the current right-wing government of Holland has for some reason decided that
cannabis is bad and drug tourism is even worse.
In the past few years since the ascension of the current political ruling
coalition (within which the “anti-Islam” party is a driving force), the Dutch
government and the legislature (called Parliament) have dropped all pretense
of reasonableness—sort of like the Republican majority in the U.S. House
of Representatives—and begun to attack the cannabis culture as morally
questionable and quite possible a source of social degeneration.
Particularly scurrilous in their view are the people who come to Holland from
other countries around the world to partake in the openness, convenience, and
relative social freedom of the coffeeshop culture in Amsterdam and throughout
the country, or those from neighboring EU states like Germany, France, Belgium
and the UK who come to Holland to cop and take their purchases back home
with them.
The coffeeshop scene in The Netherlands went basically unregulated until about
1995, when the government decided that it was time to institute a system of
oversight and control to rein in the unbridled growth of the fiercely independent
cannabis industry. At that time there were 750 coffeeshops in Amsterdam alone,
and hundreds more throughout the country.
First the purveyors of cannabis across the counter were required to register with
their local authorities and apply for a license to continue operating. They were
made subject to taxation on their profits and their employees were brought into
the official employment scheme.
Cannabis remained illegal per se under the existing drug laws that decriminalized
individual use but kept cultivation and distribution strictly prohibited, the world
of recreational use and commerce was considered a “grey area” that was
allowed to exist without legal sanction through the grace of the Queen and her
government.
Ten years later a proscription against serving cannabis products and alcohol in
the same establishment began to be enforced, and the next year the EU ban on
tobacco smoking in bars and restaurants was instituted in Holland, although the
government ruled that cannabis smoking would be allowed since the substances
were not toxic and posed no threat to employees and clientele.
These measures were relatively rational in their intent and preserved the
essential nature of the coffeeshops as places where you could obtain your
smoke of choice, relax and enjoy it in the company of others over a coffee or a
juice, or take it home with you to enjoy at your leisure.
The concept of coffeeshops had been introduced in the 1970s to distinguish
between the consequences of using hard and soft drugs. The coffeeshops
are permitted to stock up to 500 grams of cannabis products while users can
possess up to five grams for personal use.
A year ago The Netherlands still had 666 licensed coffeeshops—down from 702
in 2007—where small quantities of cannabis may be bought across the counter
by anyone over the age of 18. There used to be hundreds more, but their number
has been steadily reduced since the introduction of licensing in the mid-1990s
and other restrictive measures that have ensued.
Now the national government is moving ahead with its sinister plan to turn all
coffeeshops into members-only clubs of between 1,000 and 1,500 people who
are citizens or official residents of the Netherlands. Additionally, all coffeeshops
will be required be at least 350 meters from secondary schools.
The border towns of Maastricht, Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal have already
taken stern measures to stop drug tourism. Maastricht has proposed closing its
coffeeshops to tourists on the “nuisance” beef, while Roosendaal and Bergen op
Zoom have got rid of coffeeshops altogether.
Meanwhile, In Rotterdam, 16 coffeeshops have been shut down because they
were located within 250 meters of schools. If this proscription were applied
across the country, another 94 coffeeshops would have to close. To make things
even worse, the government wants to extend the distance-from-school rule from
250 to 350 meters, which will shut down even more coffeeshops.
Government ministers claim that turning the coffeeshops into private clubs will
reduce what they call drug tourism and public nuisance. The crack-down on
coffeeshops was inspired by the recommendations of a government commission
in 2009 which said hashish and marijuana contain far more active ingredients
than they did when the policy of turning a blind eye to their use was introduced in
the 1970s.
At the same time, according to the authorities, the bigger the coffeeshops get,
the more likely they are to be in the hands of “organized crime.” To that end, the
commission recommended cafes become smaller and should only sell to locals.
The government is also planning to increase efforts to drive “organized crime”
out of the production and trade of marijuana and to seize the assets of convicted
drug criminals.
The illegal growing industry is thought to be worth some €2 billion a year. It is
said that some 40,000 people are involved in marijuana cultivation and some
5,000 plantations are busted every year.
The crazy thing is that with marijuana cultivation and distribution remaining
illegal, persons engaged in these activities are organized criminals by definition.
If they really want to get “organized crime” out of the cannabis business, they
would simply legalize marijuana completely and all that crime would just go away
since it wouldn’t be “criminal activity” any longer.
In Amsterdam, the City Council opposes the introduction of the membership
scheme. “We are concerned about the problems that will arise from large-scale
street dealing,” one councilman said, adding that
“there are also health concerns, because with street dealing we cannot monitor
the quality of the soft drugs or the age of the buyers.”
Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten has just announced that cannabis cafes in the
south of the country will have to turn themselves into members-only clubs by May
1, 2012. He had wanted to introduce the membership pass system this month,
but many local councils had asked for a delay.
The coffeeshops in Noord-Brabant, Limburg and Zeeland will now become
members-only clubs in May. The system will be introduced nationwide in 2013,
Opstelten said, after a majority of city councillors in Maastricht demanded that
the government delay for at least a year its plans to force the coffeeshops to
become members-only clubs.
The southern Dutch city is also calling on other border towns to join its campaign
for a delay to the new rules, but Maastricht coffeeshop owners have already
banned all but Dutch, German and Belgian nationals from buying cannabis
products in an effort to appease the government forces that are bent on reducing
the number of drug tourists.
The whole thing started when a Maastricht coffeeshop owner was forced to close
in 2006 after two non-Dutch nationals were found on his premises. Last July, a
senior European legal official said The Netherlands was within its rights to ban
tourists from coffeeshops.
EU Advocate General Yves Bot said he considers the move necessary
to “protect public order” and “reduce the nuisance caused by drug tourism.” In
addition, the ban would contribute to European efforts to combat the illegal drugs
trade, Bot said.
The Netherlands’ highest court, the Council of State, has asked the European
court to determine if the Maastricht ban conflicts with EU laws.
This is as much as I know right now, but I’ll keep following these developments in
The Netherlands and keep you posted. Happy New Year just the same.
—Amsterdam
December 21-22, 2011
© 2011 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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