THE HAGUE - The debate on soft drugs lit up in the Netherlands on Wednesday as the country's largest cities called for cannabis production to be legalized, much against the will of the justice minister who supports a stricter drug policy.
A telephone poll of the 30 biggest cities in the Netherlands published in the Trouw daily showed that a majority of the cities are in favour of legalizing, under strict conditions, the production of cannabis.
Despite the growing call from local authorities, the government stood firm on its stricter policy towards soft drugs, in a country where cannabis use and sale have been decriminalized for three decades.
"If we are having problems because of our liberal drugs policy than somebody should explain to me how these problems are going to go away if we go even further with our liberal policies," Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said during a parliamentary debate on Wednesday.
During the debate, several parties including the opposition Labour party called for the government to regulate cannabis production.
Even the parliamentary faction of the governing VVD liberal party called for a legalization of cannabis production within the European Union.
Since 1976, the Netherlands have decriminalized the sale and use of cannabis in so called coffee-shops. A typically Dutch invention, these special cafes are authorized to sell up to five grams (one sixth of an ounce) of cannabis to people over 18.
Production of cannabis remains illegal as do hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.
The mayors of the major Dutch cities, including Maastricht and Amsterdam, argue that a regulated production of cannabis would solve many of the problems connected with illegal cannabis plantations.
"The drugs policy is schizophrenic because although it is legal for coffee-shops to sell cannabis, the production is illegal. It is like telling a baker that he can sell bread but is not allowed to buy flour," Maastricht mayor Christian Democrat Gerd Leers told AFP recently.
Dutch border towns like Maastricht and Heerlen receive over a million so-called drugs tourists each year. These tourists, mostly from France, Belgium and Germany, come to the Netherlands to buy cannabis.
To combat illegal cannabis plantations in people's attics and basements, the mayors call for a regulated and controlled production of cannabis for sale in coffee-shops.
But Donner dismissed the argument, saying that the legalization of cannabis production would solve neither the problems of drugs tourism or of illegal growing.
"How will we get one drugs tourist less by regulating cannabis production for sale in coffee-shops?" Donner asked the parliament.
Moreover, he argued, illegal cannabis plantations in Maastricht alone grow more drugs than are consumed in the city's coffee-shops.
"Regulating the cultivation for coffee-shops will barely have a noticeable effect on the existing illegal production," Donner said in a letter sent to parliament Wednesday.
Although the government wants to uphold the Dutch model that distinguishes between the soft drug, cannabis, which it says poses limited health risks and hard drugs, which pose "unacceptable risks", it wants to curtail drugs tourism.
Donner is also in favour of a reduction of the number of coffee-shops which already fell from 1179 in 1997, to 754 in 2003.
According to the Dutch justice ministry, citing scientific research, the existence of coffee-shops has not led to a rise in cannabis consumption.
Cannabis consumption among people aged 15 to 65 is lower in the Netherlands than in France, Britain or the United States.
04/27/2005 15:14 GMT