It's a strange world. Under new Dutch national health guidelines set to go into effect in January, smoking will be banned in all public places -- including the country's famous cannabis coffee houses, whose customers seek out to light up in a convivial atmosphere. Although the new rule is aimed at tobacco, the coffee houses will be not be excluded.
The smoking ban has already generated tremendous opposition from bar and restaurant owners in the Netherlands, where one-third of the adult population smokes tobacco. The industry has won a one-year exemption from implementing the new rules, in part by arguing that the ban would cost 50,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in revenues annually. But no such extension has been granted for the country's 800 coffee houses, which attract tourists by the millions each year.
Health Ministry spokesman Bas Kuik told the Associated Press the law was not aimed at the coffee shops, adding that they could create designated smoking areas, while Willem van den Oetelaar, head of Clean Air Now, the anti-smoking lobby that spearheaded the drive for the ban, said that while banning pot smoking in the coffee houses was not the intended purpose of the campaign, he still supported it. "It's not our priority, but it is a good thing," he said.
Clean Air runs a telephone
hot line for complaints about smoking in public places, Van de Oetelaar
It's a strange world. Under
new Dutch national health guidelines set to go into effect in January,
smoking will be banned in all public places -- including the country's
famous cannabis coffee houses, whose customers seek out to light up in
a convivial atmosphere. Although the new rule is aimed at tobacco, the
coffee houses will be not be excluded.
The smoking ban has already
generated tremendous opposition from bar and restaurant owners in the Netherlands,
where one-third of the adult population smokes tobacco. The industry has
won a one-year exemption from implementing the new rules, in part by arguing
that the ban would cost 50,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in revenues annually.
But no such extension has been granted for the country's 800 coffee houses,
which attract tourists by the millions each year.
Health Ministry spokesman
Bas Kuik told the Associated Press the law was not aimed at the coffee
shops, adding that they could create designated smoking areas, while Willem
van den Oetelaar, head of Clean Air Now, the anti-smoking lobby that spearheaded
the drive for the ban, said that while banning pot smoking in the coffee
houses was not the intended purpose of the campaign, he still supported
it. "It's not our priority, but it is a good thing," he said.
Clean Air runs a telephone
hot line for complaints about smoking in public places, Van de Oetelaar
said. It had received about 2,000 complaints since October, not one about
a coffee shop.
No word yet from coffee shop
owners about a response.
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