CLOUD OVER DUTCH POT PARTY

Move's Afoot to Crack Down on Amsterdam's 'Coffee Shops'

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Red lights blink, beer flows and smoke
floats. And floats. And floats.

At ubiquitous "coffee shops" - the popular term for places that
legally sell hashish and marijuana - college kids and Bohemian types
lap up this city's famous free-and-easy lifestyle.

But in an increasingly conservative Netherlands, a new review of drug
laws may bring an end to Amsterdam's anything-goes reputation.

Dutch government officials are to release a "cannabis letter" to
parliament this week proposing a ban on the sale of the country's
strong home-grown cannabis.

As part of their proposal, they will commission a study to determine
whether cannabis - now classified as a "soft" drug - has become
so potent it should now be reclassified as "hard."

Although the use of soft drugs has been decriminalized since 1976,
coffee shops - where customers can order various forms of cannabis
from menus - are prohibited from selling hard drugs.

"There is a growing concern about cannabis, and I believe some
changes to policy will be made," said Bas Kuik, a spokesman for the
Dutch Health Ministry.

The specifics of the cannabis letter - formulated mostly by the
health, justice, and interior ministries - will not be made public
until they are presented to parliament.

But Kuik did say that government ministers have grown increasingly
concerned because levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, the active component
in cannabis, have become alarmingly high in recent years.

Drug analyses show that the THC level in Dutch cannabis climbed from 9
percent in 1999 to 15 percent in 2003.

The effects of this higher potency on users are not known, although
some doctors claim that even moderate use of cannabis increases the
risk of depression.

Harald Wychgel, a drug expert at the Trimbos Institute for Addiction,
said the institute has advised the Dutch Health Ministry to study the
impact of the stronger cannabis, a study that could take a year to
complete.

While it's not yet clear when any ban on cannabis might take effect,
what is clear is that there's a growing sense among many Dutch
residents that drug use by tourists has gotten out of hand.

Even the tourism industry - which profits handsomely from a flood of
drug-seekers that has made relatively small Amsterdam the
fourth-ranking European destination after London, Paris, and Rome -
is ready for a crackdown.

"We don't promote this sort of activity," said Claudette Deddes,
spokeswoman for the Netherlands Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"People in tourism and business communities don't see any problem
with limiting cannabis. There are plenty of other things to do here."

Wychgel said that only about 3 percent of the adult Dutch population
has recently used cannabis. "It's the tourists who are interested in
the drugs, and not the Dutch people," he said.

Rising crime has caused police to more closely monitor coffee shops to
make sure no hard drugs are being sold. At the same time, many coffee
shops now display signs asking patrons to smoke cannabis indoors only.
The government has banned the sale of cannabis near schools, and some
officials have suggested that it be sold only to Dutch nationals.

Indeed, the crackdown has reduced the number of cannabis coffee shops
from 2,000 a few years ago to about 700 today, although they're still
as prevalent as Starbucks outlets are in any large American city.