Amsterdam, the Netherlands - By making strong hashish and weed a hard drug, these THC resources will be sold on the black market. Crime on cannabis will drastically increase. The user will be exposed to other harder drugs.

This is a warning from the English professor in psychiatry and neuropharmacology ,David Nutt during a hearing in the Dutch parliament about the Dutch drug policy.

The committee-Garretsen advised the Dutch parliament to no longer tolerate strong cannabis in coffeeshops. It will be about cannabis which contains more than 15% of the psychoactive substance THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol). If this becomes a hard drug penalties will be higher and coffeeshops will not be allowed to sell it.

Randomness

Professor David Nutt called this limit random. As a comparison to alcohol he said ' Beer (approx.5%) would be legal and wine (approx. 12%) would be illegal'. This randomness could harm the confidence of the public in the Dutch drugs policy. A representative of the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI) said it is not difficult to determine the THC-level in a laboratory but disposable tests to test on location do not excist yet.

Just like other experts on the hearing professor Nutt discussed the benefits of legalizing the production of marijuana. Coffeeshops can sell it at the moment but they have to buy their stock from criminal wholesalers.

At the moment Dutch weed contains between 15 and 18 percent THC. Weed is good for almost 75% of the coffeeshops turnover. Risk of addiction and psychotic disorders are to high said the committee. The intention is to reduce the THC-level to an average level of 11 to 12 percent.