SMOKING BAN COULD CLOSE CANNABIS CAFES

For the Netherlands' famous network of cannabis-peddling coffee shops the
high times could be about to be stubbed out - for good.

A tough new anti-smoking law due to take effect from January of next year
is about to turn the Dutch work place into a smoke-free zone and coffee
shops are not exempted.

Under the new law every company in the country must ensure that their
employees are not exposed to tobacco smoke. Lighting up a joint in one of
800 coffee shops therefore faces extinction from 2005.

Coffee shops will still be allowed to sell joints but their customers will
have to go outside to smoke. Unsurprisingly the country's marijuana
retailers are not pleased. "We might as well just shut up shop," Dick
Langereis, the manager of two Amsterdam coffee shops, told the daily Trouw.
"Just let them try and enforce this in the Hague," added a man called
Gilbert who runs a coffee shop in the city of Nijmegen.

However a spokesman from the Dutch health ministry told the Guardian that
the law will be rigorously policed.

"Consumer authorities will carry out random spot checks," he said. "Coffee
shops are just like any other companies - they will have to follow the law."

Customers could scarcely believe their ears yesterday. "They've got to be
out of their minds," said Annemiek van Royan, a regular at the Kashmir
Lounge in Amsterdam. "The best part is coming here to relax. It makes my day."

The first Dutch coffee shop opened in 1972 and although cannabis is
technically illegal its use and sale has been tolerated ever since. "The
point of going to a coffee shop is to smoke," said Arjan Roskam, chairman
of the union of cannabis retailers. Some have floated the idea of heated
outdoor terraces to get round the ban.

"We only employ smokers," said Mr Langereis. "If you work for us you are a
smoker and all our customers are smokers so this is just crazy."

Coffee shops had a turnover of Euro 300m (UKP220m) in 1999, the latest year
for which figures are available.