create a nuisance (anti-social behaviour), sell cannabis to youth under 18
years or sell more than 30 g to a person at one time. Local municipal
governments could decide for themselves how to deal with coffee shops.
Some chose a zero-option, meaning that they did not accept any coffee
shops within their municipal boundaries.
The increase of cannabis selling points resulted in a new situation, which
became the Achilles heel of the Dutch policy. In the process of law making
in the 1970s, the production of cannabis (more than five plants) was forbid-
den, so that supplying cannabis remained an illegal activity. This created a
schizophrenic situation: cannabis was legal at the front door, but illegal at
the backdoor. At first this was not seen as a big issue, but because of the
large increase of coffee shops, police began to wonder where all the canna-
bis came from and their answer was organized crime. According to many
local authorities, the increase also resulted in anti-social behaviour by
young male clients of the coffee shops.
The Criminalization of CannabisIn the mid-1990s, the central principles of harm reduction and the separa-
tion of hard drugs and soft drugs were still in place, but the emphasis
shifted to a more repressive approach to coffee shops and the production
of cannabis. The general goal of this policy was to reduce the number of
coffee shops. Some rules changed: buyers could now only purchase 5 g or
less, alcohol consumption was prohibited and coffee shop owners could
only have a stock of 500 g of cannabis in their shop. Coffee shops are clo-
sely monitored on their compliance with the law and if they break the rules
sanctions will follow, such as temporary closure for three to six months or
final closure. The rules fall under administrative law enforcement, which
means that the city and the mayor are in charge of the process of enforce-
ment, law administration and the execution of penalties. The monitoring of
coffee shops has become even more strict since 2007, when local authorities
prioritized the monitoring of coffee shops, a procedure which can take
place up to ten times a year per coffee shop (van Laar & van Ooyen, 2009).
Since the late 1990s, Dutch policy can be characterized by an increase in
lawsto regulate and reduce the number of coffee shops. These laws focus
mainly on three themes: organized crime, vulnerable youth and anti-social
behaviour, and have resulted in the closure of many coffee shops. In 2011,
there were 651 coffee shops left in the Netherlands (Bieleman, Nijkamp, &
Bak, 2012).
144 THADDEUS MU ̈LLER