In the border areas in particular, coffee shops attract customers from neighbouring countries, much to the annoyance of governments whose own policies on drugs are geared at least in theory to keeping the sale of any quantity of cannabis, including small quantities for personal use, illegal. Furthermore, the residents of Dutch towns near the borders suffer considerable nuisance as a result, as has already been pointed out.
It has been suggested that the problem of drugs tourism could be solved by banning sales to foreigners under the Schengen Agreement. However, an order to discriminate between Dutch and foreign buyers of cannabis would be in conflict with the Constitution and, moreover, difficult to enforce. If such a distinction were to be made, Dutch citizens would simply be used as intermediaries.
Foreign criticism is not primarily concerned with the use of cannabis on the spot in Dutch coffee shops but rather the import into other countries of quantities which could be regarded as stocks. The 30 gramme limit which divides summary offences from indictable offences was adopted when the Opium Act was drawn up in 1976, on the basis of legislation in the United States, where possession of no more than an ounce of cannabis had been decriminalised. This limit was also chosen because the amount was enough to provide users who shared their supplies with others with enough to keep them going for about two weeks. Such users would therefore still only be committing summary offences rather than indictable ones. Even when the Opium Act was debated in parliament in 1976 this criterion was criticised because there was a risk of more professional dealing developing from it.
For example, 30 grammes of cannabis can be made into between 50 and 100 cigarettes (joints). Average customers in coffee shops buy amounts of no more than 3 grammes, costing about NLG 25. In the border areas at least, quantities of more than a few grammes sold to foreigners are almost certainly destined for export. At weekends, two-thirds of coffee shop turnover in many municipalities is accounted for by drugs tourists*. There are indications that the amounts seized when drugs tourists smuggling drugs across the border are arrested have got bigger since border controls were abolished.
The liberalisation of the criminal law as regards quantities of 30 grammes or less does not apply in respect of import and export. It goes without saying that it has never been the intention of Dutch policy that coffee shops should take on the function of supplying other countries. The export of soft drugs is an indictable offence under the Opium Act, irrespective of the quantity involved. Under certain circumstances the sale of soft drugs to a foreigner or a Dutch intermediary could make the operator of a coffee shop an accessory to the export of drugs, which would render them guilty of an indictable offence, even where the amount concerned was less than thirty grammes.
In the Public Prosecutions Department guidelines the statutory norm for the possession of a quantity of soft drugs for personal use of no more than 30 grammes also applies to the sale of cannabis by tolerated coffee shops. We are of the opinion that the nuisance suffered in the border areas and the criticism from abroad are sufficient reason to reconsider this standard as far as the sale of cannabis is concerned. Coffee shops will be permitted to sell no more than 5 grammes per customer. This adjustment to the guidelines does not endanger the principal objective of the policy, which is to protect soft drug users from the world of hard drugs. The few coffee shops which are non- profit making organisations already only sell amounts of no more than 3 or 5 grammes. Dutch citizens aged 18 and over who wish to use soft drugs will still be able to buy them in coffee shops in the same way. At the same time, simple possession of an amount of soft drugs for personal use which does not exceed 30 grammes will still have no priority as far as investigation is concerned. Foreign visitors will, however, find it more difficult to procure a supply to export. This is bound to have the effect of raising the threshold for young people from other countries.
In itself, it will be no more difficult to enforce the five gramme limit than it is to enforce the current 30 gramme one. Coffee shops which regularly sell amounts over 5 grammes will immediately become known for doing so. Enforcing the five gramme limit should not require any additional capacity if compliance with the thirty gramme limit is already being monitored. Enforcement of the new limit will be one aspect of the stricter monitoring and enforcement regime which will take effect in any case in respect of those coffee shops which remain once the present situation has been improved. If foreign drugs tourism does not decline, periodic special checks will be conducted to establish whether foreign tourists are exporting quantities of cannabis bought in coffee shops or elsewhere which can be sold on; this will be intended to underline the new policy. Where necessary, assistance will be requested from the police authorities in neighbouring countries, under the terms of the agreements concluded in 1990 in the framework of the Schengen Agreement.
By setting a maximum to the amounts of cannabis which may be sold in coffee shops the Netherlands is complying with the obligation it took upon itself in the Final Act of the 1990 Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement to do all it could to combat cross-border effects of its policy on soft drugs, in so far as this differed from that of other states party to the Agreement. The change outlined above will put an end to some of the criticism of coffee shops at home and abroad without affecting their primary social function, namely keeping the consumer markets for soft and hard drugs separate. The Public Prosecutions Department will incorporate the new limit in its guidelines and ensure that it is enforced.
One difficulty faced by operators of coffee shops is that though the sale of small quantities of soft drugs is tolerated, possession of the supplies needed by the vendor is not. Given the way the law is enforced in practice this does not present any major problems. The Public Prosecutions Department guidelines will be changed in such a way that no specific investigations will be conducted where coffee shop operators adhere to municipal and statutory conditions and therefore have in their possession in their coffee shop supplies of no more than a few hundred grammes.