Dutch to classify super strong marijuana alongside heroin

[nooris]

Dutch to classify super strong marijuana alongside heroin

Tuesday 20 November 2012

The government is planning to classify strong strains of marijuana and cannabis as a Class A drug alongside heroin and cocaine, justice minister Ivo Opstelten told parliament in briefing on Monday.

‘Hard drugs have no place in the coffee shops and in the future they will only be able to offer cannabis with a THC level of below 15%,’ the minister said. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana.

The Netherlands has some 500 cannabis cafes, known as coffee shops, where people can buy up to five grammes of the drug for their personal use.

Opstelten did not say when the THC restriction is to be introduced but according to RTL news, it is unlikely to be this year.

Dangerous

Last year a report for the government said marijuana with more than 15% THC is so dangerous it should be classed alongside heroin and cocaine.

Experts say the THC content of Dutch-grown marijuana is between 15% and 18%. Some 75% of the marijuana sold in the country's cannabis cafes is grown in the Netherlands.

Mark Josemans, spokesman for the Maastricht coffee shop owners association, said the minister is ‘doing all he can to make the illegal circuit as big as possible’.

‘Weak weed in the coffee shops, strong weed on the streets – then the choice is pretty clear,’ he told the Volkskrant. Marijuana with a higher volume of THC is not more dangerous to health, he said. ‘A user smokes less, just as people don’t drink rum out of a beer glass.’

Wietpas

Opstelten also gave more details of the cabinet’s plans to immediately drop the controversial membership scheme – or wietpas - for coffee shops, which was introduced in the south of the country on May 1.

While coffee shops will only be open to people with official documents which show they live in the Netherlands, it will be up to local authorities to decide how to introduce the new rules, he said.

Councils, police and justice ministry officials will draw up ‘good plans’ to counteract drugs nuisance, Opstelten said. ‘The best insights into which measures are effective are found at a local level,’ he said.

Councils should draw up their approach by the new year when the rules come into effect. ‘I want to see serious action,’ Opstelten said. ‘Councils will be able to draw up their own supervisory policy but the rules must eventually be phased in.'

Amsterdam

At the beginning of this month, Amsterdam’s mayor Eberhard van der Laan told the Volkskrant newspaper tourists can continue to use Amsterdam’s 220 cannabis cafes, even if they are not resident in the Netherlands.

At least 1.5 million of the city’s seven million visitors a year go to a coffee shop – the name for licenced cafes where small quantities of marijuana can be sold for personal use.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... strong.php

[nooris]

Let the panic begin

[Smirks]

What about erm a pass, a weedpass if you like, for purchasing the strong stuff? Only seasoned smokers need apply.

[nooris]

What about erm a pass, a weedpass if you like, for purchasing the strong stuff? Only seasoned smokers need apply.

Two birds with one stone (no pun intended)

[Lazaris]

I think it's about time the justice minister Ivo Opstelten smokes some over 15% weed and stfu...for ever!

Politicians believe and assume that they are the new Popes!

Always preaching their BS opinons.

As if these politicians have exclusive insights coming from a source that the "sheeple" are not allowed to connect to, and they are the chosen ones for spreading this information.

[Lazaris]

here's what Chimera posted on icmag about this:

It's unenforceable.

What are they going to create some system/department to test all the weed in the coffeeshops?

This is a media play to the conservative base; without creating a system that comprises legal production, distribution, and sales of cannabis it is simply not possible to control all the levels of any compounds within the flowers

Even if they could create such a system, which they can't the current model, there is a simple solution:

Sell untrimmed flowers, which are typically below 15%. Users can trim their own, and this will increase the potency back above 15%.

This is just proof that decriminalization simply does not work. For years the dutch left the model open and pragmatic, and the system just rolled along.

Absolute legalization is the only solution to deal with the cannabis issue. Only under complete legalization can quality be monitored throughout the production and distribution system, ensuring compliance of the producers and retailers, and safety of product for consumers.

-Chimera

[Quazer]

At least as dangerous as hard drugs - if not more dangerous even

Those m*therfuckers still act like they don't know... great acting btw.

[matty]

I actually have some sympathy with this view. Obviously super-strong weed is nothing like as dangerous as heroin but I do prefer the lower strength more organic weed myself and think that these super strong strains aren't the best for stoners who want to smoke a lot or even for kids first getting in to weed. Maybe getting the really strong stuff out the cshops isn't such a bad idea?

[Not_the_monk]

One big problem with the 15% thing is that it is so arbitrary rather than being remotely scientific.

So 14.9% is safe enough to be sold and consumed openly, but 15.1% is "as dangerous as heroin"? Logic dictates this to be utterly stupid. Can you imagine such a distinction being made with other substances... illegal ones, or even alcohol? 13% wine is fine, but 13.5% is a killer!!!!

What's next, they start legislating about method of consumption? Joints mixed with tobacco are fine, but pure ones are illegal? 5 tokes good, 6 tokes bad?

Although I can understand, even if not agree with, concerns that the direction of cannabis production in the last ~15 years has been towards ever-increasing strength, none of the science about this stands up to even passing scrutiny, and it is very disturbing really that in one of the few countries on Earth who have actually adopted a positive, pragmatic attitude to drugs in the last 40 years, policies are now being determined by a group of people who obviously know and understand very little about the whole subject.

[Lazaris]

another post from Chimera on icmag about the possible causes of this BS info:

It's not about power, it's about looking like you are doing something.

I met with one of the top "Drug experts" from the Dutch police this year at a conference, he gave us this US-style prohibitionist speech. I was with a few educated industry folks, intelligent science-y types, and we gave him a really hard time about the agenda he was pushing. Then I realized we were invited foreign guests in his country, and he was just doing his job giving us the facts about cannabis related crime in Holland from a policing perspective, and he was there to give the "we are doing something about the problem" speech.

At the end of the session, a couple of us pulled him aside and said 'hey man, listen we all know this is bs... and you can't possibly believe this stuff'. He finally admitted that he didn't buy into it, and that he and most other dutch citizens don't care about cannabis use, to them it's a non-issue... the real story is they get all kinds of pressure from neighbouring France, Belgium, Germany etc about the constant flow of people bringing personal amounts back on the trains. Everyday people in these countries get stopped, searched, and arrested/fined for bringing back cannabis from Holland. it's a constant hassle, and they have dogs waiting for many many trains coming out of the Netherlands.

This is a dutch drug image problem.... and I said as much to one of the dutch cannabis scientists we were with, and he said no you are wrong... we don't have a problem, you guys have the problem. If the neighboring countries didn't give us such a hassle about cannabis, it would be legal here.

This whole issue is about making it look like they are doing something, to appease the political pressure from OUTSIDE the country. If the dutch were not constantly judged and hassled about cannabis, these types of laws would never come into play.

Again, this is a completely unworkable proposal... there is no possible way they can test every batch of cannabis or hash that comes into the shops, in fact they won't even be able to test a small fraction of it... there is just way too much, and it would be way too expensive. It simply will not happen.

they may make a few raids, some spot checks, and test a few samples just to make a public show/statement, but it simply is not possible or financially feasible to set up a testing program for all weed sold in the shops.

The only way to get into that paradigm is to completely legalize the plant so they can control and monitor all the way from seed/clone to harvest, and that simply is not happening.

-Chimera

[Quazer]

Pressure from neighbour countries... why doesn't the Dutch government pressure it's neighbours to decriminalize? Mafia agenda...

[Lazaris]

Pressure from neighbour countries... why doesn't the Dutch government pressure it's neighbours to decriminalize? Mafia agenda...

good question...f*cking politics BS

[Stanky Danky]

Push the strong weed that all the tourists flock to Amsterdam to smoke onto the streets for the illegal dealers to sell, these Dutch law makers are just full of good ideas.

[Bocco]

I have come to know coffeeshop owners in general well, and I supect little of them will actually obey these rules.

[Veggie]

man im so sick of this shit...screw the dutch gov......everyone else in the world is starting to lighten up on cannabis... the dutch are moving backwards.....you people need to stand up for common sense cuz this one is for the dutch citizens too......stupid...it could be 100% thc and id doesn't do anything different.......