Uh oh– if you were planning on taking a trip to Holland in your lifetime for a specific reason, better go ASAP because the Dutch government is getting pretty strict!! Dutch politicians are saying that THC levels have increased by a large amount in the last generation, so now the government is reclassifying some strains of the plant to the same category as hard drugs. More details after the jump…
Coffee shops famous for selling cannabis in the Netherlands will be forced to remove some types of the drug from their stores after new restrictions are brought in.
Due to higher potency levels, the Dutch government is reclassifying some strains of the plant to the same category as hard drugs.Â
Dutch politicians say the more popular high-strength cannabis, known as ‘skunk’, is more dangerous than it was before and will have to be removed from coffee-shop shelves.
It is claimed that the amount of the main active chemical in cannabis THC, has gone up, making it far more potent than a generation ago.
The new restrictions will mean that anything containing more than 15% THC will be treated the same way as hard drugs, such as cocaine and ecstasy.
The news has come as a blow to the coffee shop owners as they will have to replace about 80% of their stock with weaker varieties.Â
Marc Josemans, who runs a cafe in Maastricht, told the BBC that he believes that the new tough approach is being driven by the increasingly influential far-right in Dutch politics.
He said: ‘You immediately can taste the difference. Everything which is considered unusual for them – they call it ‘left hobbies’ and under this name they want to ban all ‘left hobbies’, like using cannabis,’
The ban on the high-strength ‘skunk’ is expected to be introduced next year, when police will start doing random checks in the cafes.
From next year, the Dutch government also plans to ban tourists from entering coffee shops across the country.
