NETHERLANDS MAY REGULATE POT FARMING

Opponents of Regulation Say the Move Would Be Tantamount to Legalization

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.

"This experiment would be at odds with Dutch law and there's a legal
problem" internationally as well, he said.

But legislator Frans Weekers, whose conservative VVD party recently
swung its support to the proposed program, said the 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."

He added there was no support at all for criminalizing marijuana among
either politicians or Dutch society.

After 30 years of tolerating marijuana, usage rates in the Netherlands
are in the middle of international norms. Data from various
governments compiled by Trimbos, the Netherlands' Institute for Health
and Addiction, 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 purchase
their best-selling product.