CANNABIS TOLERANCE WARNING

TWO recent disasters in the Netherlands were the result of that country's
"everything goes" attitude, including its tolerance of cannabis use, a
parliamentary committee has been told.

Frans Koopman, head of public relations and prevention at the de Hoop
Clinic, a psychiatric hospital for addicts near Rotterdam, told the health
select committee looking at the legal status of cannabis that New Zealand
should not decriminalise cannabis.

The Netherlands was often thought to have legalised cannabis but it had
not. Rather, it had decriminalised it. "I don't think you should do that,"
Mr Koopman said.

Problems arose because the government took no action against breaches of
decriminalisation rules, such as selling to under-18s. "(It) tolerates
formally what is formally forbidden," he said.

Two disasters -- a fireworks factory explosion last year which killed at
least 17 people and the New Year's disco fire in which nine died -- were
the result of rules not being upheld. Those disasters were not related to
drugs but were an example of the "everything goes mentality", which
included cannabis decriminalisation and legalisation of prostitution and
euthanasia.

"It is finally dawning upon a lot of people that we cannot go further along
this road any longer," Mr Koopman said.

"Somebody wrote recently that it is time in the Netherlands for a policy of
zero nonchalance."

Cannabis use had taken an "enormous toll" among young people and was
leading to them taking harder drugs at an increasingly younger age, he
said. As well, they were confused by its legal status and up to 25 per cent
of under-18s had used it, he said.

Cannabis had played a role in the drug addictions of 99 per cent of
patients at Mr Koopman's clinic, with the number seeking help for cannabis
addiction doubling in recent years.

The committee also heard from Peter Cohen, director of the University of
Amsterdam's Centre for Drug Research, who said attempting to control
cannabis use by making it illegal was a costly and futile exercise that
bred corruption and more crime.