‘New drug regulations will be ineffective’
Minister Opstelten of Security and Justice is making plans to take tougher action against people who make money off of cannabis cultivation. But according to Nicole Maalsté, researcher at the Tilburg Law School, these plans are hardly effective.
Time for a quick resume: in the Netherlands, certain coffeeshops are allowed to sell cannabis – but ironically, growing it is officially forbidden. Large busts of industrial-scale marijuanafarms are a regular feature in the Dutch press. Furthermore, all kinds of third parties are making money off of cannabis cultivation. Home grow shops, for example – shops that promote sell seeds and cultivation equipment. Minister Opstelten intends to take tough action against these shops when they perform illegal activities. Transport companies, letters of warehouses and equipment installers are to be regulated more strictly as well.
Researcher Nicole Maasté argues in an interview with Dutch news station NOS that it remains to be seen if these measures are going to work. “The bottom line is that there is a market for cannabis. You have to take that into account when you regulate it. When coffeeshops are prevented from being supplied with cannabis, these wares will be imported from criminal organizations – which is even worse.” Maasté thinks that the provisioning to coffeeshops needs to be regulated better. However, the current Dutch government strongly disagrees with this.
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