DUTCH PLOW AHEAD WITH PLANS TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA FARMS

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A broad coalition of political parties
announced a plan Friday to regulate marijuana farming on the model of
tobacco, in what may be the most significant development in Dutch drug
policy in years.

Opponents in the government said the move would be tantamount to
legalization. But the proponents, representing a large majority in
parliament, have threatened a showdown if the government tries to
block the proposal.

Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende and his Christian Democrat party
oppose allowing cannabis cultivation because it would set the
Netherlands another step apart from the rest of Europe.

"When making drug policy, you can't just base it on national
considerations alone, you have to also think international relations,"
Balkenende said in a reaction to the plan at his weekly news briefing.

But legislator Frans Weekers, whose conservative VVD party recently
swung its support to the proposed program, said current policy is
"hypocritical and leading to increasing problems."

"There comes a moment when you say: 'Now we have to take the next
step,' " Weekers said in a telephone interview.

"If this pilot program works and we can show to everyone that it's an
improvement, then you have a good argument to take to foreign
governments."

After 30 years of tolerating marijuana, usage rates in the Netherlands
are in the middle of international norms. Data from various
governments shows usage is higher in the Netherlands than in
Scandinavia but lower than in the United States and Britain.

Under current Dutch policy, marijuana and hashish are illegal but
police don't fine smokers for possession of less than five grams or
prosecute for possession of less than 30 grams. Authorities look the
other way regarding the open sale of cannabis in designated "coffee
shops."

But growers are subject to raids and prosecution, giving rise to a
contradictory system where shop owners have no legal way to buy their
best-selling product.

Growers often operate from underground greenhouses in homes and
garages, leading to the theft of electricity, fires and bringing
criminality into residential neighbourhoods.

Supporters said regulation of production would, like regulating
tobacco, make smuggling large quantities across the border more
difficult. "It will be possible to trace where cannabis is grown and
where it's sold," Weekers said.

It also could open the door to outright legalization and taxation of
an industry with annual domestic sales estimated at the equivalent of
more than $800 million Cdn.

Weekers estimated the plan will be approved by two-thirds of the Dutch
parliament, with consensus across the political spectrum, as happened
before the adoption of other Dutch policies, such as legalizing
euthanasia and gay marriage.