Almost everyone knows coffee drinking is the last reason anyone visits an Amsterdam Coffee House. Stroll into one of the many flag festooned café-like establishments along the Kalverstraat and you are handed a unique menu that instead of Kenyan, Javanese or Blue Mountain beans, contains the daily list of available ganga, weed, Mary Jane, marijuana or hashish - a set of options which partially explains the very mellow, caffeine-free patronage.
So when Dutch law changed last July, bringing a total ban on smoking cigarettes in restaurants, coffee shops were caught in no-win legal bind. Let the guests light up cannabis, something they could legally do in a coffee shop, and risk citation, heavy fines escalating to suspension, seizure of assets and/or closure. Ban smoking completely and they have to close their heavily regulated and taxed doors anyways. Most are practical business people and no one wants to be the industry's test case.
The immediate question raised, was does this ban apply to coffee shops? The initial reaction from all sides in the debate was, yes, it does, because no one smokes pure marijuana. It would be too strong and painful for the lungs so marijuana is routinely mixed with tobacco.
"They are already strictly regulated and taxed," said Rob Milo, a senior partner with Holla Poelman in Tilburg, "yet no one is doing anything about interpreting this law." It seemed as if a line was drawn in the sand but no one knew where it was in a 'legal' dope selling business or when it was (or would be) crossed unless someone was arrested.
Dutch police long ago decriminalised marijuana possession. If you have 5 grams or less they won't even confiscate it from you, "it's not worth the time and paperwork hassle" said Wouter Smits, a beat cop in the Red Light District. "If we spend our night chasing minor crimes, we cannot keep the area safe from pickpockets, burglars and other criminals."
Milo represents a group of coffee shop owners, none of whom would agree to be interviewed, but he said, "the law presents coffee shop owners with a conflict of obligations, their 1st is to abide by the tobacco law but on the other hand they also have to prohibit smoking marijuana on the street and cannot send people away smoking a joint. If these facts are somehow acknowledged in court then the owners would go free and coffee shops would be granted an exception."
To date that has not happened.
It is already a difficult business according to Milo because "a coffee shop can only have a maximum of 500 grams of cannabis on hand at any time so they must continually re-supply the shop and therein lays the real problem, the front door of the shop is heavily regulated but the back door (the supply chain) is not."
The government conducts official inspections four times annually. They used to only check the coffee shop for health, safety and fire violations and the visits were without prior warning. But coffee shop owners have seen tougher inspections since before the law went into affect. Joop owns a coffee shop in a northern city and said, "since late last year local authorities have changed their policy and now not only conduct police and fire checks, but also bring city administrative and tax officers. Together they look into every room and are accompanied by police officers who do illegal searches and seizures."
Said Milo, "it represents a change in policy, an infringement of his client's rights and is fundamentally unfair... they say they are coming to see if regulations are in order but indeed come to check for soft drugs."
And the dilemma grows. No one wants to be the one to make this jurisdictional call. Said Milo, "you cannot complain to a judge - he will say you have to go to the government. You cannot complain to the DA because he says the same thing. The city also says the same. So the only place where we will ever get a definitive answer is The Hague. So I'm telling my clients to get everybody mobilised and let's go with a delegation to the Dutch Parliament's Tweede Kamer."
Said an MP from Rotterdam, who wished not to go on the record, "it's happening everywhere in Holland and is very suspicious. It's almost as if it was discussed locally as a new policy... 'let's pretend we will conduct a normal check' but instead they arrive unannounced."
Said Milo, "this is not OK if it's a tax check, why should someone from the city come unexpected? If fire safety conditions are in order, why can't they say we will be there in an hour? A building is either in good shape or not, one cannot fix a building or fire code violation in one hour's time so it is a case of entrapment. As long as the back door remains unregulated this game of cat and mouse will continue for years to come." Even when I remind him of the fuzziness of his legal standing, there is this over-riding fundamental sense of Dutch fairness.
To date there have been no challenges but everyone still walks around on tenterhooks waiting for the first test case. Meanwhile guests continue to smoke combination cannabis and tobacco joints in the coffee shops. No one pays much attention, the cat and mouse game continues and the classic Dutch response to life remains, "what goes on in your home is your business."
This journalist will be content to continue to follow both this story, and Bill Clinton's example. "I tried it once, but I didn't inhale."