> AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - This city's many fine coffee shops have faced
> many problems over the years and are still going strong. But, on July 1,
> the Netherlands will be one of the last European countries to ban smoking
> in bars and restaurants in compliance with EU law.
>
> The Health Ministry says the ban will apply to cafes that sell marijuana,
> known as coffee shops. But this being Holland, which for centuries has
> experimented with social liberalism, there's a loophole: The ban covers
> tobacco but not marijuana, which is technically illegal anyway.
>
> But that still leaves coffee shops and their customers in a bind. Dutch
> and other European marijuana users traditionally smoke cannabis (both pot
> and hash) pot mixed with tobacco.
>
> "It's the world upside down: In other countries they look for the
> marijuana in the cigarette. Here they look for the cigarette in the
> marijuana," said Jason den Enting, manager of coffee shop Dampkring.
>
> Shops are scrambling to adapt. One alternative is "vaporizer" machines,
> which heat weed smokelessly. Another is to replace tobacco with herbs like
> coltsfoot, a common plant that looks like a dandelion and that smokers
> describe as tasting a bit like oregano.
>
> But most shops are just planning to increase their sales of hash brownies
> and pure weed — and are hoping the law isn't enforced.
>
> Michael Veling, owner of the 4-20 Cafe and a board member of the Cannabis
> Retailers' Union, said he expected a small decline in sales as smokers are
> forced to separate their nicotine addiction from their marijuana use.
>
> But he expects the long-term effects to be minimal. "It's absurd to say
> that coffee shops will go bankrupt in the second week of July. Nonsense,"
> he said.
>
> Veling is instructing his staff to send tobacco smokers outside, but he
> doesn't expect all coffee shops to do the same. He said some owners will
> ignore the ban — and will probably get away with it, at least for a
> while... coffee shops were illegal for years after all.
>
> But "if obeying the smoking ban becomes a condition of renewing your
> business license, just watch how fast it will happen," he said. "That's
> the way things work."
>
> Chris Krikken, spokesman for the Food and Wares Authority, charged with
> enforcing the ban, said his agency won't be targeting coffee shops in
> particular.
>
> "For the first month we'll just be gathering information about compliance
> in a wide range of hospitality businesses. Depending on what we find, we
> may focus more squarely on a sector that's lagging," he said.
>
> But he said individual businesses caught allowing customers to smoke will
> be warned and definitely checked again. "Repeat offenders will face
> escalating fines," he said.
>
> Marijuana possession is illegal but openly tolerated in the Netherlands,
> but smokers are not prosecuted for holding up to 5 grams. Around 750
> cafes — with almost half of them in Amsterdam — are licensed to have up to
> 500 grams in stock at any one time.
>
> The Dutch "tolerance" policy recognizes that some people will smoke pot
> regardless of laws, so it might as well happen in a safe orderly way.
>
> Cannabis use in Holland ranks somewhere in the middle compared to other
> nations and is lower than in the U.S., France and England, according to
> statistics compiled by the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime.
>
> The Dutch government, currently led by a conservative coalition with a
> religious bent, is slowly squeezing back the number of coffee shops by not
> renewing licenses when shops close.
>
> Growers are arrested, leaving coffee shop owners struggling to obtain
> their main product.
>
> "The rules are being set to pester us out of business one by one, slowly
> but surely," said Richard van Velthoven, manager at The Greenhouse, who
> said he feared being shut down for tobacco violations.
>
> "I've taken the cigarette machines out, I'm putting Coltsfoot on the
> tables, I've bought extra vaporizers, the staff is watching out — what
> more can I do?" he said.
>
> German tourist Lars Schmit said lamented the possible end of an era.
>
> Without coffee shops, he said, "a little bit of Amsterdam will die."
>
> --
>

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