High-potency cannabis reclassified as hard drug
News item | 12-10-2011
The government plans to place cannabis with a THC concentration of 15% or higher on the Opium Act’s Schedule I, making high-potency cannabis a hard drug.
The government made the announcement in its response to a new report on drug classification by the Garretsen Committee. The system of two classification Schedules under the Opium Act (I for hard drugs and II for soft drugs) will remain in place.
The government sees high-potency cannabis as carrying an unacceptably high risk. It is a contributory factor in increasing damage to health, especially when used at a young age. That is why the consumption and production of this type of cannabis needs to be discouraged.
Higher penalties
Coffee shops will soon no longer be allowed to offer cannabis with a THC level above 15%. Higher penalties will be imposed for trafficking, importing and exporting high-potency cannabis.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Reblogged this on 4:20 Smokers Blog.
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Hey Gez, how is a cafe owner going to know whether a haul has 14.75% THC or 15.1% ? I mean you’d have to be a pretty experienced toker to spot the difference – and where is the head of the line for applying for the testing jobs ? Are they just going to use Beagles ?
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I think the minister has received some flak over this latest proposal. It seems lofty but hard to implement. Anyway, I suppose the foreigner, mainly from the UK, is the culprit. They come over for the week-end, get stoned and go back to return to fish and chips, insult Pakis and cause riots at soccer games.
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That’s because they’re thugs and idiot Gerard… not because they smoke hashish!
After all, as you seem to indicate yourself, there’s no trouble with the local populace, only the tourists… and if it was legal everywhere there probably wouldn’t be any more tourists – at least, not for that reason, anyway! – and I’ll just bet the locals would soon begin to miss them. I’ve seen the same ambivalent relationship between locals and tourists in seaside towns all along the Cote d’Azure… best way to describe them is ‘necessary evil’ (and as a busker I came to view them in much the same light, I might add; I’m not coming the ‘holier-than-thou’ bit!)
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I wondered what emmjay wondered. How are the dudes going to determine the difference and tracker dogs are going to have to rack it up a few notches if they intend to keep their jobs..
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I see… so it’s the change in classification which makes it a hard drug? Riiiiiiight!
😉
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On Monday, Dutch justice minister Ivo Opstelten told parliament that the government is attempting to classify strains of marijuana with a THC level above 15% as a Class A drug. This would put these strong strains on par with heroin and cocaine in terms of enforcement.
Opstelten explained, “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 did not reveal when the new THC limitation would be put into effect or how it would be regulated. There are over 500 marijuana coffee shops throughout the Netherlands.
Shop owners are disappointed and confused by the announcement. A higher THC content does not make marijuana more dangerous to anyone’s health, it will just get them higher more quickly.
Maastricht coffee shop owners association spokesman Mark Josemans said that with higher THC levels, “A user smokes less, just as people don’t drink rum out of a beer glass.”
Josemans stated that he believes the minister is only helping the black market by putting limitations on the marijuana coffee shops can carry. He said, “Weak weed in the coffee shops, strong weed on the streets – then the choice is pretty clear.”
During the same meeting, Opstelten also elaborated on the cabinet’s plan to abandon the “Weed Pass” program that would have limited who could go to coffee shops. Legally, only people with documentation showing they are citizens of the Netherlands are allowed into coffee shops, but now it is up to local law enforcement to decide how they will implement the new rules.
Coffee shops in Amsterdam draw over 1.5 million tourists per year.
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Thanks for the update, Gerard…
I’ve always thought of Holland as a beacon of light in this regard; it’s disappointing to see such hypocrisy as these new rules offered as a sop to the rest western europe’s ‘war on drugs’ mentality…
Such a mentality is better called a ‘war FOR drugs’ mentality because in the end it promotes them and only serves to exacerbate what otherwise would be relatively small and entirely personal, medical problem, rather than the monstrous society-wrecker that it HAS turned out to be!
🙂
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No, I think there are too many who think the liberal attitude is causing more harm then it is worth. The Dutch are also very bourgeois in many ways, they don’t like the attention that all this pot and soft drugs is focusing on Holland with thousands coming over and e-mailing home how they got stoned, all legit in an Amsterdam cafe. They prefer peace and harmony with a nice herring dipped in raw onion with an early night under the blankets with a nice missus afterwards.
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I realise that Gerard… but it’s so sad!
It’s only a problem ’cause it’s still a ‘big deal’… if anyone could smoke wherever they liked (say in their own cafes or homes in their own countries…) there wouldn’t be anything unusual, so no reason for what apparently has become the negative side of the tourist trade.
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Rather than being for reintroducing stricter drug control laws, the Dutch should be for legalizing cannabis everywhere else in europe… that way they’d have the best of both worlds; they’d have fewer problems with loutish behaviour, but, as one of the earliest places in europe to legalise it you’d still get a fair bit of tourist trade… though not so frenetic!
🙂
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Gerard, is this law in response to genuine evidence on the evils of high THC grass, or is it to (partially) bring the Netherlands in line with the EU?
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I took this from a page on high THC cannabis investigation on real evidence presented by the Dutch minister of health. The problem with cannabis and the tolerance by the Dutch has resulted in many foreigners now mis-using this ‘freedom’ and going bananas in Holland giving it all a bad name. I’ll try and find out a bit more and will let you know.
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I get the impression, from Dutch colleagues and friends, that the Dutch will purchase a THC based product in a cafe, consume and get high for a little while, then back to normal business. This, according to the medical literature, doesn’t result in the fifteen to twenty cone/day habits that we see in Australia. As you say, it must be the bloody foreigners!
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Investigations by whom, Gerard?
Often ‘investigations’ into such things as drugs turn out to be little more than scaremongering tactics used by people who are not above falsifying their ‘results’ (assuming any real study was actually done!) to tell the story they want them to tell… Most of it is simply hysteria… intended to stir up social panic so certain vested interest-groups get things their way… still!
🙂
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It wouldn’t be a problem for them if they legalized it in the rest of Europe though, would it?
🙂
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If you give me weed, whites and wine, and show me a sign……..
I’ll be willin’
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… and the rest of my teenage years singing this one! Thanks Googlehoover! I knew you were a ‘kindred spirit’!
😉
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A real classic from the movie ‘Easy Rider’… spent most of my teenage years singing this song!
🙂
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