Markedet ønsker cannabis regulert som alkohol
«Etter 1. mai har ikke lenger coffeeshopene i de tre sørligste nederlandske regionene Limburg, Noord-Brabant og Zeeland lov til å selge hasj og marihuana til utlendinger. Samtidig ble hasjkafeene gjort om til medlemsklubber hvor bare nederlendere har adgang mot at de registrerer seg og skaffer seg et medlemskort.»
«Hasjsalget er tilbake på gata i Nederland. Nye regler skulle få slutt på hasjturismen. Nå holder også nederlenderne seg borte fra coffeeshopene» skriver Birgit Vartdal for Rus & Samfunn.
Amsterdam stenger ikke turister ute
De nye reglene for weed-pass trer i kraft 2. januar 2013. De lovlige utsalgsstedene for hasj og marihuana blir medlemsklubber med registreringsordning. Det blir ingen endring i Amsterdam.
Ordføreren i Amsterdam vil ikke stenge turister ute fra de lovlige utsalgsstedene i byen, fordi:
«The 1.5 million tourists will not say ‘then no more marijuana’, they will swarm all over the city looking for drugs. This would lead to more robberies, quarrels about fake drugs, and no control of the quality of drugs on the market – everything we have worked towards would be lost to misery.»
Mayor Van der Laan put an end to the confusion on the sale of cannabis to tourists. Tourists visiting Amsterdam will not be banned from using the city’s coffeeshops he said once again to the local news outlet AT5.
Anita Nyholt på coffeeshop i Amsterdam 2004
Motvilje mot registrering
Mange av coffeeshopene har stengt i protest mot registreringen av kunder. Kunder som ikke ønsker å registrere seg kjøper heller cannabisen i andre byer som ikke har innført weedpass ennå, eller fra det illegale markedet (som før coffeeshopene kom).
Når man fjerner tilgangen til lovlige utsalgssteder for en stor gruppe (turister) så vil den nødvendigvis svare med å kjøpe fra det illegale markedet. Når mange ikke ønsker å registrere seg (weed-pass) kjøper også de fra det illegale markedet. Når det illegale markedet blomstrer opp og tilgjengeligheten blir «bedre» (ingen aldersgrense og åpningstider) vil det konkurrere sterkt med de lovlige utsalgsstedene. Ordføreren i Amsterdam vil derfor fortsatt la turister få handle hos coffeeshopene, for å unngå gatesalg. Det blir nok derfor heller ikke registreringsplikt der.
Markedet ønsker cannabs solgt som alkohol
Nederlendernes motvilje mot å registrere seg kan også ha vært medvirkende til at regjeringens apotek-modell med registreringsordning ikke ble så godt mottatt som de hadde forventet. Av de estimerte 10 000 til 15 000 man trodde ville be om marihuana på resept benyttet bare 1 300 seg av muligheten til å bruke apotekmodellen i 2010 (0.08 pasienter per 1000 innbyggere). Det har selvsagt også sammenheng med at kundene ikke bare ønsker å få kjøpt marihuana, men også hasj.
De aller fleste ønsker cannabis solgt som alkohol, ikke som reseptbelagt legemiddel.
Ønsker endring av FN-konvensjonene
En gruppe med representanter fra politikk, offentlig forvaltning, rettssystemet og politiet i Nederland ba i 2007 om en internasjonal debatt om endring av FN-konvensjonene:
Dutch government urged to open international debate about UN drug control conventions
A group of representatives from politics, public administration, the criminal justice system and police and drug policy experts gathered on October 31, 2007, in The Hague, to express the urgent need to end the negative consequences of the current policy of leniency regarding the sale of cannabis.
Participants confirmed that many countries worldwide experienced similar negative effects related to their own cannabis policy. This means that there is a shared responsibility to look for adaptations in the current system of international conventions that are an obstacle to further developments in national Dutch cannabis policies.
Participants argued that the Netherlands, in cooperation with other nations, should aim to revise the current framework of international law in order to achieve a more credible and effective alternative that is not just based on repression for the existing cannabis policy at the national level.
The signatories of this resolution
I. concluded that the current cannabis policy:
a. is based on an outdated international law framework created in the 1960s which is not appropriate to tackle contemporary problems resulting in a stagnation of the development of just and effective policies;
b. is being implemented by a policy of tolerance (“gedogen”) on the basis of a justified lenient interpretation of the current international law framework and that this policy of tolerance is a practical solution but at the same time temporary response which on the long term will discredit the credibility of public authorities;
c. is inconsistent and difficult to explain to citizens because use and sale of small quantities are not prosecuted in practice while production and large scale distribution are still prosecuted; is also inconsistent with policies regarding substances with a similar health risk such as alcohol and tobacco;
d. is ineffective in several aspects: despite positive facets such as the separation of markets between soft and hard drugs and the limited involvement of criminals in the retail market, other policy options such as legal possibilities to control the quality of cannabis (THC content and pollution) and other measures to reduce health risks are lacking in the current system, which is still facilitating significant illicit gains at the level of production and wholesale and is encouraging in-house cannabis growing;
e. is causing considerable and unbalanced administrative and judicial burdens and continuous criticism of some countries and UN drug control agencies.
II. concluded furthermore that:
a. attempts by the Dutch parliament and local authorities to address the inconsistencies in the current tolerance policy – such as proposing to tolerate production of cannabis for the supply of coffee shops – have been rejected by subsequent national governments on account of incompatibility with international agreements;
b. there is a need for an international debate to explore the possibilities for an international framework that allows more room for manoeuvre by national governments to execute a consistent policy;
c. more and more countries feel the need to reformulate their policies to achieve better protection of public health and combat organized crime;
d. cannabis is grown and commercialised worldwide and is used by over 170 million people, consequently the production and distribution is a common problem for the international community;
e. the 10-year review of the 1998 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs and the Ministerial meeting in 2009 devoted to this evaluation, offer an excellent possibility to put the issue on the international agenda.
III. urge the Dutch government to:
a. start an international debate with other likeminded countries in order to work out a credible and effective alternative for the current policy on cannabis;
b. promote actively with those likeminded countries the formulation of proposals that can be presented in the context of the upcoming UNGASS evaluation;
c. provide for human and financial resources to implement these efforts.
The Hague, 31 October 2007
mr. A.A.M. van Agt, former Prime minister 1977-1982
dr. E. Borst-Eilers, ex-minister of Health, Welfare and Sport
drs. A. Apostolou, former member of Parliament
Kathalijne Buitenweg, MEP GroenLinks
mr. R. Dufour, president Stichting Drugsbeleid
drs. G.B.M. Leers, mayor of Maastricht
dr. R.L. Vreeman, mayor of Tilburg
mr. Th. C. de Graaf, mayor of Nijmegen
J.A.H. Lonink, mayor of Terneuzen
dr. J.P. Rehwinkel, mayor of Naarden
W.J.M. Velings MOI, chief of police, region Limburg Zuid
F.J. Heeres MPSM, chief of police, region Midden- en West Brabant
mr. A.D.J. Keizer, former policy official of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport
mr. drs. V. Everhardt, drugs and alcohol prevention expert
drs. M. Jelsma, Drugs & Democracy Programme, Transnational Institute
Se også:
UNGASS 2016
Folkeaksjonen lovlige utsalgssteder for hasj og marihuana
Cannabis på resept vs lovlige utsalgssteder med aldersgrense
Cannabis News Network har vært i Maastricht (som grenser til Belgia) og i Frankrike.
«In the last 5 years, Dutch Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten has come up with several laws in order to stamp out the use of cannabis, and to reduce the nuisance of drug tourism in the southern provinces of the country.»
Street dealers show failure of Dutch drugs policy: http://www.cannabisnewsnetwork.com/videos/cannabis-policy/undercover-street-dealers-show-failure-of-dutch-drugs-policy
Cannabis News Network: On the 9th of March 2015 we published the video ‘Street dealers show failure of Dutch drugs policy’. Today we release the first test of all the cannabis we purchased on the streets in order to get a better idea of its quality: http://www.cannabisnewsnetwork.com/videos/cannabis-policy/cannatest-streettest-cannabis
Rapport fra The Open Society Foundations
“The history of the Dutch approach and describes the ongoing success of the country’s drug policy. This includes the impact of the Dutch “separation of markets,” which potentially limits people’s exposure and access to harder drugs.”
Coffee Shops and Compromise: Separated Illicit Drug Markets in the Netherlands: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/Coffee%20Shops%20and%20Compromise-final.pdf
I 2012 ble det gjort et forsøk på å gjøre de lovlige utsalgsstedene i Nederland om til private klubber hvor medlemmene måtte registrere seg med navn – men det ble stoppet da de lokale ordførerne klaget over at det direkte førte til en økning i gatesalg. Tjuetre lokale ordførere har nå utarbeidet planer for godkjenning og regulering av produksjonen av cannabis i Nederland.
Lagt til senere:
Har sett mer på The Amsterdam Herald, det er ikke et magasin, bare en privat nettside. Er usikker på kvaliteten på det som legges ut der. Når jeg sjekker kildene så kommer jeg til andre steder som heller ikke virker veldig seriøse. Det er ikke usannsynlig at det vil kommer et slikt forslag der snart, men jeg trenger bedre kilder.
Jeg vet ikke om noen legger merke til det, men det må jo være litt interessant, sånn med tanke på folkehelsa, at personene som jeg tok bilde av ikke røyker cannabis, men drikker te – og jeg drikker coca-cola. Til informasjon så finnes det noen coffeeshops som også har alkoholbevilgning, men drikke selges da kun i veldig små glass, og du får ikke kjøpt mange av dem.