Google – AFP, 31 January 2014
Policemen
dismantle a marijuana plantation in Roelofarendsveen,
Netherlands, on August
13, 2011 (ANP/AFP/File, Valerie Kuypers)
|
The Hague —
Dutch cities called Friday for the government to decriminalise cannabis
cultivation and wholesale, which remain illegal despite easy access to the drug
in hundreds of licenced coffee shops.
Eight of
the Netherlands' 10 biggest cities, including Amsterdam and Rotterdam, signed a
manifesto in central city Utrecht calling for "creating a national system
of certified and regulated cannabis cultivation," they said in a
statement.
Although
cannabis is technically still illegal in the Netherlands, the country in 1976
decriminalised possession of less than five grammes (around a sixth of an
ounce) and it is widely available over the counter in coffee shops.
However,
growing and selling any quantity over five grammes is illegal, meaning the
cultivation and wholesale of cannabis is in the hands of organised crime.
Critics say
government policy is hypocritical because it obliges coffee shop owners to buy
their supplies from criminals.
The
government reaps hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars) a year in taxes from
coffee shops, Dutch media reported.
The Dutch
finance ministry told AFP that it could not say how much money it made from
licenced coffee shops.
"We
want cannabis cultivation to be regulated so the national market is manageable
and more transparent, and to decrease the influence of organised crime,"
said the manifesto, signed by 35 municipal councils.
"Organised
crime supplies the coffee shops," it said.
The manifesto, entitled "Joint Regulation" and supported by renowned Dutch politician and former defence minister Frits Bolkestein, also calls for better quality control of cannabis and safety norms for decriminalised weed plantations.
Cannabis
seeds displayed in a tourist shop in Amsterdam on October 31,
2011 (AFP/File,
Nathalie Magniez)
|
The manifesto, entitled "Joint Regulation" and supported by renowned Dutch politician and former defence minister Frits Bolkestein, also calls for better quality control of cannabis and safety norms for decriminalised weed plantations.
"Virtually
all illegal plantations are fire risks," the cities said, citing a report
saying that a quarter of fires in Dutch urban areas are connected to the
lighting and electrics of illegal cannabis plantations.
The seat of
government, The Hague, and Almere, east of Amsterdam, are the only big cities
not to have signed the manifesto.
Justice
Minister Ivo Opstelten rejected the proposals: "I really don't think this
is the solution," the Liberal minister told Dutch public television.
"Mayors
just have to learn to live with it," he said.
He said
that the proposed measures would not resolve the problem, claiming that around
80 percent of cannabis grown in the Netherlands is for export.
Opstelten
has offered to help municipalities to resolve problems of criminality related
to cannabis in a different way, notably with more police.
The
minister has previously said that international treaties would prevent the
government getting involved in cannabis cultivation in any way.
The town
councils noted that Uruguay last year became the first country to oversee the
production and sale of marijuana, while US states Colorado and Washington in
January legalised recreational cannabis shops.
Map showing marijuana use by country and main producing states (AFP)
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