CRIME GANGS FEED ON DUTCH COFFEE SHOPS

HOLLAND'S tolerance of soft drugs is creating a backlash of widespread
illegal sales by criminal gangs who lure children into their net,
according to a leaked report.

A Dutch government report, to be published this week, shows that in
the past three years the number of illegal outlets for drugs in towns
with a population of fewer than 100,000 has risen sharply. Viktor
Holtes, a Dutch justice ministry spokesman, said: "The increase in
illegal sales is in part a consequence of the government's attempt to
control the drugs scene by shutting down coffee shops."

Coffee shops operate legally in Holland and sell a range of soft drugs
including leaf marijuana, cannabis resin and "magic mushrooms" on
condition that children under 18 are not admitted and that no hard
drugs are offered for sale. The police, however, have found it
difficult to monitor their activities.

Mr Holtes said: "Due to the logistical problems of policing coffee
shops, they have become part of the drugs problem rather than the
solution. That is why in 1995, the government decided to reduce their
number and limit the amount of drugs each customer could buy to five
grams rather than 30." While the number of coffee shops has fallen
from 1,200 to 840 in the past five years, the illegal drugs trade has
expanded, the report discloses. It shows a substantial rise in the use
of soft and recreational drugs among secondary school children. Wim
Van de Camp of the centre-Right Christian Democrats party said: "The
current policy is not working. Coffee shops are not the answer and
simply reducing the number of them solves nothing. It would be better
to close them all down."

According to Mr de Camp, the Dutch have been misled by politicians
into accepting a romanticised view of soft drugs as a harmless
pastime. He said: "Holland is the leader for drugs consumption and
distribution throughout Europe. Unofficial estimates set the annual
value of soft drugs exported from Holland at around 19 billion
guilders [?5.5 billion]." The government's coalition partners, the
Liberal Democrats, say that the law plays into the hands of criminal
organisations. Mr de Camp said the shops are forced to buy their
supplies illegally "which simply strengthens organised drug rings".

Britain's Police Foundation report, whose recommendations on changes
in the drugs laws were rejected by the government last month, proposed
that the possession of cannabis should not be an arrestable offence.
The inquiry conceded that the legislation was circumscribed by
international convention but that there was scope, as in Holland, for
keeping cannabis illegal while creating a regulated market for
small-scale supply.

A former drugs welfare worker in Amsterdam said: "We've been
implementing a policy of tolerance toward soft drugs for more than 20
years. They still aren't fully legalised and it still needs a lot of
work. Any country attempting to adopt the Dutch policy should be wary."