A solid majority of mayors of Dutch towns that currently have cannabis coffee shops are happy with the way they are working and favor legalizing the entire marijuana supply chain, according to polls conducted by Binnenlands Bestuur magazine and the NRC newspaper. Under current Dutch policy, marijuana sales are illegal but tolerated in small amounts at licensed coffee shops, but the production of marijuana to supply the coffee shops remains illegal and not tolerated.
The Binnenlands poll identified 109 municipalities with coffee shops and elicited responses from the mayors of 88 of them. Of the mayors surveyed, 54 said they favored legalizing the entire supply line, while 25 said they were satisfied with the status quo, and nine wanted to ban coffee shops. That means nearly 90% of the mayors surveyed want either the status quo maintained or liberalized.
The NRC newspaper survey asked 70 local councils whether they wanted the national government to regulate the supply of marijuana to coffee shops. More than 75% said yes.
Meanwhile, the number of coffee shops in Holland continues its slow decline under the conservative government. In 1999, there were 846 shops; in 2005, there were 729; last year, the number was down to 702.
The Future
Criminal gangs are waiting for the glorious day when the coffeeshops are gone completely.
On that day all of Europe will purchase their marijuana from the gangs. Money will flow into their coffers like never before, money that will constructively be used to buy weapons and undertake further criminal enterprises.
Glory be to the Conservative Government that they make this day a reality. I hope they get their cut.
the future
i think europe has the momentum to change in the right direction. simply because, the coffeeshop policy has survived eight years of George Bush. It's not something to underestimate, simply because a Republican administration in the United States usually means conservative governments prop up in Europe within one or two years.
with Obama as the US President, I think the CDA's days will be numbered.
Europe is a mixed bag at this time
Because your predictions have held true: quite a few conservative governments have popped up. France, Holland, Great Britain and Denmark (the latter being my country) all got conservtive governments. And then in the middle of all this we got Italy which has a kind of conservative governement, but with decrim of possession of ALL sbstances under a certain amount, followed closely by Portugal with similar decrim values, both of which seems to work quite well. And even the currently conservative Denmark chose to pursue heroin prescription and we're currently trying to implement it. And it's VERY exciting what happens in Schwitzerland, because they have an upcoming monster referendum on many drug issues, including decrim of cannabis and how to proceed with the heroin maintenance programs and so on.
On balance it tips slightly in favor of the conservative side, though. Although that viewpoint could probably be challenged depending on how you see things.
However, this may change in the next period where Obama takes over .Europeans are overwhelmingly in favor of Obama because he is perceived to be "more Socialist" (although he's not really Socialist by any stretch of the word all politicians in "the game" tends to perpetuate this somewhat misleading idea). At the very least he doesn't quite seem like the typical Hawk.
End the Prohibition
There is something terribly WRONG when the police and the organized gangs want the same thing!!!
END the Federal Marijuana Prohibition and STOP funding the gangs!
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