Amsterdam- As of May 1st, all coffee shops below the rivers should 'become private clubs, with compulsory membership list, weed pass and registration of private data.’ Monday, the Tilburg council committee takes a look into this.

Much has been said and written about this plan of administration Rutte 1; please note that the motto chosen is ”Freedom and responsibility.” The weed pass, but also the hashish ban, the absurd distance criterion for coffeeshops near schools and 15% THC limit: it is purely symbolic politics that restrict the freedom of the citizen and scorns his or her own responsibility.

Risks

I am now forty years old and have been smoking cannabis since I was sixteen. Since my 21th I do it daily. I am the father of three sons, have a happy marriage, work hard and pay taxes properly. I do not cause nuisance, have no mental problems and lead a rich social and civic life. I really ask myself who or what it is that I help when as of May 1st, I have to be a member of a club and must be registered because I like to consume cannabis. An intoxicant with significantly less risks than alcohol. In 2009, the RIVM has prepared a ranking of drugs to individual and societal harm. Alcohol is number three on that list, tobacco fourth and cannabis eleventh.

Payroll

I have two advantages: I do not work in paid employment and have never made ​​a secret of my preference for cannabis. But I do pay health care insurance premium. Who guarantees me that it does not go up if I am registered as ”drug user”? If I were working for the army or police, the discovery of my membership would immediately lead to dismissal. Hundreds of thousands of Dutch people, of all grades, classes and ages, smoke cannabis. Surveys in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Haarlem show that about eighty percent of the coffee shop visitors are not going to register. They choose the illegal circuit or their own cultivation. You do not need to be called Einstein to understand what that means: a strong revival of street trade, house dealers and scooter dealers and a strong increase in the number of home growers. If the illegal circuit grows, all types of drugs become more readily available for all ages. A dealer uses no age limit and laughs at the separation of markets. He sells any drug that makes money. Personally, I will send my own sons, when they come of age, to the coffee shop with confidence. Then I know that they will not come into contact with other drugs and that they buy weed or hash of decent quality in a controlled environment.

Stupidity

It is an embarrassing stupidity that this government is only coming up with unnecessary measures for the front door of the coffeeshop, while the entire Netherlands know that the real problem is at the back door. As long as the government blocks any form of regulation of cannabis cultivation and supply of coffee shops, it continues to encourage crime. That is what the discussion should be about, not about weed passes, distance criteria or other distractions of the Minister of Safety and Justice. Two things are clear. One: True liberals have no business at the VVD anymore and two: the unsuspecting citizen does not know what he/she is up against. When at January 1st, 2013 the new rules apply across the country, the great feast for the black market begins. Remember that all foreign cannabis lovers are welcome too in the illegal circuit. We will long for the coffee shop as it is today: a safe, trusted and verifiable place where adult citizens can buy and consume cannabis anonymously. And when the genie is completely out of the bottle, no Opstelten or Teeven will get it back in. I would say: look before you leap.