CANNABIS CAFES GET NUDGE TO FRINGES OF A DUTCH CITY

MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands -- Watched over by a content Mona Lisa
with a large reefer between her lips, clients of the Smoky Boat offer
a cozy picture of peace, playing backgammon and sipping juice between
puffs from cigarettes laced with hashish or marijuana.

The tranquillity, however, could come to an abrupt end. Marc
Josemans, the owner of the Smoky Boat, a cannabis cafe on a docked
river barge here in Maastricht, said he might soon be packing up his
menu of pungent "Nirvana Special," "Silver Haze" and "Super Skunk."

The mayor wants to move most of the city's 16 licensed cannabis cafes
to the edge of town, preferably close to the border.

Maastricht, a medieval town on the Meuse River in the hilly south of
the Netherlands, has long cherished its rare position, with Belgium
and Germany just a few miles away, giving the people a casual ease
with foreign languages, food and visitors.

But as the southernmost point of the nation with Europe's most
lenient soft-drug laws, Maastricht has also turned into a hub for
foreign smokers and dealers. The police say drug tourists, estimated
at more than a million per year, come to shop from neighboring
countries, some as far away as France and Switzerland.

The multimillion-dollar trade has spawned a supply chain of illicit
growers and underground traders.

It was not meant to be this way.

"People who come from far away don't just come for the five grams you
can buy legally over the counter," said Piet Tans, a police
spokesman. "They think pounds and kilos; they go to dealers who
operate in the shadows."

The police regularly destroy indoor nurseries, often detected because
of the high electricity bills run up by the grow lights, he said. But
new nurseries, hidden in attics and basements, keep springing up to
feed the international clientele. Mr. Tans said the flourishing drug
tourism had also attracted pushers of hard drugs from Amsterdam, who
often harass people on the streets.

Residents complain of traffic problems, petty crime, loitering and
public urinating. There have been shoot-outs between Balkan gangs.
Maastricht's small police force says it cannot cope and is already
spending one-third of its time on drug-related problems.

The mayor, Gerd Leers, and the town council have been searching for
answers. Forbidding sales to nonresidents would likely violate
European antidiscrimination rules, and closing the cannabis cafes is
not the solution either, he said. "The trade will just go underground
because demand will not disappear."

So he has drawn up a scheme to move at least half the cafes away from
the charming narrow downtown streets and resettle them along the
highways near the borders.

He has met with mayors from a dozen nearby Belgian and German towns
and villages, explaining his ideas and pleading for cross-border
solidarity and greater collaboration. Some have signed a cooperation
plan, but others have protested.

Huub Broers, mayor of the nearby Belgian town of Voeren, is one who
objected to getting the new outlets on his doorstep.

The Dutch brought on the problem themselves, he said: if there were
no sales in Maastricht, the French and the Belgians would not go
there to stock up.

But Mayor Leers argues that Maastricht has merely borne the brunt of
a general problem the mayors would otherwise find at home.

Several other Dutch border cities intend to relocate their cannabis
outlets. "We have already moved two cafes close to the frontier with
Germany, where most clients come from," said Rick van Druten, a town
official in Venlo.

"They buy and turn around," he added. "It solved a lot of congestion
and loitering."

The problem in Maastricht and other border towns echoes a broader
tension that has grown since The Netherlands began allowing the
regulated sale of marijuana and hashish in 1976.

As national borders lost their role in Europe's common market, many
domestic laws, including drug policies, have remained far apart. The
Dutch have lobbied for their neighbors to follow them, while others,
including France, want the Dutch to abolish their stand.

In practice, holding a small cache of drugs is rarely punished in
Western Europe, but the Dutch have been clearer about setting rules:
the cannabis cafes can sell five grams per person of marijuana or
hashish. Clients younger than 18, hard drugs and alcohol are
forbidden. In Maastricht, half of the original 32 cafes have been
shut down because of violations.

Despite such clear rules, another basic problem lingers: the cafes
are licensed to sell the drugs, but it is illegal to produce or
transport their supplies.

"It's a crazy situation," said Mr. Josemans, who owns another cafe
besides the Smoky Boat and who is head of the local cannabis cafe
owners' association. "Every day I'm obliged to commit crimes because
I have to stock up illegally. But at the same time I pay taxes on the sales."

"It's all very hypocritical," he said. "So I have delivery boys going
back and forth, because I can keep only 500 grams in stock. A liquor
store can keep a thousand liters and has quality control."

Mayor Leers, who says at heart he is a prohibitionist, and Mr.
Josemans have at least this in common: both believe that as long as
people can sell, they should be allowed to cultivate the plants.
"Illegal growers use pesticides and fertilizer and make smoking more
dangerous," Mr. Josemans said.

The mayor has asked the government to allow Maastricht to experiment
with supervised, legal plantations to cut out the criminal groups. In
speeches and articles, he has railed against the present policy.
"Either you close this back door or you regulate it," he argued in
Parliament. "It's like telling a baker that he can sell bread but he
is not allowed to buy flour."

The impending plan to move out of town has been debated by the owners
of other cafes, like the Blue Dream, Slow Motion and Wall Street;
some of them see new opportunity.

One has proposed buying the former customs office on the
Dutch-Belgian border, a plan appreciated for its incongruity.

Some old-timers see only risks in leaving the intimate atmosphere of
the inner city.

The owners of the paraphernalia shops -- the downtown boutiques that
sell water pipes, candles, rolling paper and other drug accessories
- -- are said to be worried.

Mr. Josemans said he would be one of the first to open an outlet
along the highway near Belgium. "I've been in this trade for 25
years, and I'll do it for a while longer," he said. "I won't
recommend cannabis as a way of life, but it's O.K. for recreation."

And, at least for now, it is still good for business. His new highway
cafe will provide a reading room, snacks, fresh juice and an Internet corner.

"I'll take the risk," he said. "I'm willing to modernize."