Coffeeshop (Netherlands)

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A coffee shop is a tolerated sales point for so-called soft drugs in the Netherlands .

Coffee shop in Amsterdam

The trafficking and possession of some drugs is still illegal , in accordance with the 1961 United Nations Convention. In 1976, on the recommendation of a commission, the government was advised to redefine the priorities of the police in order to relieve them. With the reform of the Opium Act , the handling of soft drugs in the Netherlands was redefined. Prosecution has now been waived under certain conditions.

Requirements and legal provisions

RockIt Amsterdam, a small coffee shop

The operation is connected with requirements according to the AHOJG criteria:

  • A ( geen a ffichering ) means: No advertising, neither on the outside of the café, nor in the form of media advertising (radio, press, leaflet) or promotional gifts such as lighters, pens or other.
  • H ( geen h arddrugs ) means: Neither sale of hard drugs nor the tolerance of possession or use thereof by guests.
  • O ( geen o verlast ) means: No disturbance of the peace or nuisance to residents and passers-by.
  • J ( geen verkoop aan j eugdigen ) means: No sale to young people under 18 years of age.
  • G ( geen verkoop van g rote hoeveelheden ) means: No large quantities, neither when selling to guests (max. 5 g per person per day) nor when stocking in cafés (max. 500 g).

When the law was amended in 1995, the regulations were tightened: Since then, cannabis may only be sold to people over the age of 18 and only in a maximum amount of 5 g per person. Previously, it was allowed to be sold to young people aged 16 and over and the maximum sales amount was 30 g.

Amsterdam coffee shops are visited at irregular intervals by a so-called drug police. This inspects the coffee shops and, after a successful inspection, hands over a rectangular green and white seal with a number, which distinguishes a proper coffee shop. The shopkeeper must attach this seal to the front door of his shop.

Another criterion is that no alcohol may be served in coffee shops. In Amsterdam and The Hague, in particular, there are exceptions to this rule: In the course of a normalization policy with regard to alcohol and cannabis , some coffee shops have also been licensed to serve alcohol.

As of July 1, 2008, a nonsmoker protection law came into force in all restaurants, bars and cafes in the Netherlands. However, this only applies to tobacco products and compounds and not to pure cannabis use. However, the law allows separate smoking rooms to be set up in coffee shops, in which cigarettes and other tobacco products can be smoked.

A fundamental problem of the tolerance policy remains unsolved: the achterdeurproblematiek , the problem of the back door. The police could easily ruin any coffee shop if they intercepted the drug couriers at the delivery entrance, because the cultivation and import of drugs are still illegal and can be punished with up to four years in prison. A request for a new regulation with regard to the suppliers of the coffee shops in 2000 has not yet been addressed, stating that they want to do this in coordination with the neighboring countries. Therefore, the prices for soft drugs in the Netherlands are nearly as high and sometimes higher than z. B. on the German black market, since the growers are rewarded for this risk.

In order to deal with drug tourism from neighboring countries in the Netherlands, there are constant discussions about various measures.

  • In May 2009 there were press reports according to which from January 1, 2010 the sale of cannabis could be limited to three grams per day across stores in the province of Limburg. Customers should therefore only be able to shop there with the help of a special club card and only cashless (with a Dutch EC card or credit card). The aim is to remove the anonymity of customers and make the coffee shops less interesting, especially for German drug tourists. So far, however, this plan has not found a majority and the additional financial resources and police forces required to implement it have not been committed.
  • At the end of May 2011 the Dutch government passed a nationwide regulation that coffee shops are no longer allowed to sell soft drugs to non-residents, but only to Dutch citizens of legal age from autumn 2011. This failed due to resistance from many cities and municipalities. Among other things, the mayors of Amsterdam ( Eberhard van der Laan ) and Maastricht (Otto Hoes) refused to implement it.
  • In 2011 it became known that the government at the time was planning to introduce a club ID card ( Wietpas ) nationwide on January 1, 2013 . In the southern provinces of Zeeland, Brabant and Limburg, the ID became mandatory on May 1st, 2012. There should be a maximum of 2000 members per club.

The newly elected government in 2012 agreed in its coalition agreement not to implement the nationwide introduction of the Wietpa. De jure , the Wietpas has been compulsory since January 1, 2013, as long as the laws of the previous government still apply.

Approval of coffee shops

The permit must be visibly attached to the coffee shop

Since each city or municipality is allowed to decide how to deal with soft drugs for itself, the handling can be different in every city and municipality, until coffee shops are not tolerated at all in the cities and communities governed by Christian Democratic mayors of the CDA . Therefore, most of the shops are in the big cities. In 2018 there were a total of 173 coffee shops in Amsterdam alone. There are currently around 560 corresponding stores in the Netherlands (as of 2019). The trend is falling: from 1997 to 2004 the number of coffee shops in the Netherlands as a whole decreased by 36%.

After protests from France and Germany, the government created a space that no new coffee shop can be opened within 30 km of the borders with Germany and Belgium .

In accordance with the amendment to the Dutch Opium Act of March 17, 2003, cannabis products may be prescribed by a doctor and, since September 1, 2003, can also be obtained from the pharmacy.

Well-known coffee shops

  • The first and so far most successful chain of coffee shops is called Bulldog and was opened in Amsterdam by Henk de Vries. In the coffee shop chain, like in Hard Rock Cafes , T-shirts and similar souvenirs are available. The chain also operates a hotel and sells an energy drink that can also be bought in selected shops outside the Netherlands.
  • Two coffee shops located in the same building in Venlo ( Roots and Oase ) became known under the name McDope , which were closed after the introduction of the so-called Wietpass, which only allows sales to persons resident and registered in the Netherlands. They were only a few hundred meters behind the former Schwanenhaus motorway border crossing (the motorway now runs south around Venlo). The concept of the city was mainly aimed at selling German customers goods on the green field and thus keeping them out of the city center.

Coffee shops in other countries

Canada

In the summer of 2004, the Da Kine Café in Vancouver practiced the sale and consumption of cannabis products; however, the café was closed after a few months and the owner was later sentenced to prison. The conservative government elected in 2006 also announced that it would abandon the old government's drug policy and focus on repression and harsh punishments. 12 years later (2018), cannabis in Canada was fully legalized under strict rules.

Switzerland

Due to a controversial loophole in the law, the sale of cannabis products was sometimes seen as legal if they were not intended for human consumption. This created stores that functioned as coffee shops, where cannabis products were sold as scented pillows or bath additives. These were partly tolerated, but partly also closed with all legal consequences. The procedure was very different in the individual cantons and cities. An amendment to the Narcotics Act has not taken place since then. Since there are very strong lobbies for both final prohibition and tolerance, as in the Netherlands, they have so far refused to deal with the issue. It is currently being discussed whether the cities of Bern, Basel and Zurich will legalize sales under the strictest youth protection laws and open sales outlets.

Belgium and Spain

There are so-called cannabis clubs in these two countries . These are associations whose members grow cannabis together in order to consume it on the association's premises. The associations produce cannabis products exclusively for their members' own use and are financed through membership fees. Cannabis is not sold to outsiders or its own members. Cannabis clubs are legally tolerated in these two countries under strict conditions.

United States

Cannabis sales are now legal with restrictions in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada and (since January 2018) California. In California, for example, the minimum age of buyers is 21 years, and the maximum amount of pure cannabis that can be purchased at once is 28 grams. Marijuana sales in the state of Colorado had been approved since 2014 . Colorado residents can purchase one ounce (around 28 grams) for ages 21 and older; residents of other states can purchase 1/4 ounce. Colorado is the first US state to clear for sale.

Germany

In response to the massive illegal sale of cannabis in Görlitzer Park in Berlin , the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district assembly decided, at the request of the Green parliamentary group, to enable the controlled distribution of cannabis products in the area in the form of a model project. However, the project failed at the beginning of October 2015 when the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices rejected approval .

See also

Web links

Commons : Coffeeshops in the Netherlands  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Drugs. Openbaar Ministry, archived from the original on October 31, 2012 ; Retrieved November 27, 2012 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ RUUD VAN HAASTRECHT: Drank en hasj: dat mixt gewoon niet. de Verdieping Trouw, April 3, 1995, accessed April 23, 2015 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ Frederik Hartig: Smoking ban in Amsterdam : Smoking weed allowed - but only pure hash. In: Spiegel Online , June 11, 2008.
  4. ^ Siggi Weidemann: Smoking prohibited, smoking weed allowed. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 4, 2008.
  5. ↑ Marijuana only with ID. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , May 12, 2009.
  6. ↑ Cannabis cafe pass scheme falls apart. DutchNews.nl, May 21, 2009.
  7. ↑ www.dutchnews.nl: Cannabis cafes set to become private clubs, no entry for tourists , May 28, 2011
  8. ↑ Sales ban: Netherlands prohibit hashish tourism. In: Spiegel Online . May 28, 2011, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  9. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/coffeeshop106.html ( Memento from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed November 2, 2012
  10. ^ Rheinische Post (local section Grenzland Nachrichten) November 3rd, page C3
  11. ↑ http://www.uni-muenster.de/NiederlandeNet/aktuelles/archiv/2012/november/1105drogen.shtml
  12. ↑ In Holland you can smoke weed, but coffee shops are not allowed to buy weed. Handelsblatt, August 8, 2018, accessed on October 20, 2019 .
  13. ↑ The Netherlands are testing "state marijuana" in several cities. Die Zeit, August 29, 2019, accessed on October 20, 2019 .
  14. ^ In Trouw , December 2004 in Dutch. Retrieved April 26, 2009
  15. ^ The Bulldog Company ( Memento from September 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ Der Spiegel (33/2006; PDF; 316 kB) “Supplies for McDope”, seen on September 9, 2008
  17. ^ Rhein-Zeitung online (May 31, 2001) "McDope": Hash shops on the German border ", seen on September 9, 2008
  18. ^ Vancouver "pot cafe" goes public. In: CBC.ca . September 1, 2004 (English).
  19. ^ Dana Larsen, Brooke Thorsteinson: Crackdown in Vansterdam. ( Memento of February 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: CannabisCulture.com . February 14, 2005 (English).
  20. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from June 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ↑ Premiere in USA: Colorado Allows Free Marijuana Sales. In: DiePresse.com . 1st of January 2014.
  22. ↑ Die Zeit - Kreuzberg doesn't get any coffee shops October 5, 2015