Europe: Dutch Marijuana Trade Under Pressure

An increase in police raids on Dutch marijuana grows has caused prices to increase and potency to decline, the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute) reported Tuesday. Meanwhile, the city of Rotterdam announced this week it has ordered nearly a third of the city's cannabis coffee shops to close because they are too close to schools. Other locales could follow as concern rises over youth drug use.

According to the Trimbos report [sorry, Dutch only], Dutch marijuana, or nedervviet, had an average THC level of 16%, down from 17.5% last year. At the same time, it now costs 20% more than last year, going for a little over $10 per gram. The price increase is the first one since Trimbos started monitoring pot prices in 1999.

According to Bloomberg News, Dutch police have stepped up raids on the estimated 40,000 home grows in the Netherlands. Police in Rotterdam reported earlier this year they had shut down 600 of the estimated 6,000 home grows there since 2005.

Growing more than five marijuana plants remains illegal in the Netherlands, even though authorities turn an official blind eye to regulated marijuana sales in the coffee shops, leading to a state of affairs known as the "back door problem." Marijuana is bought and leaves the coffee shops openly through the front door, but to supply themselves, coffee shop owners must deal with illicit growers who come in through the back door.

Rotterdam is also taking the lead on shutting down coffee shops near schools. "The sale of soft drugs will have to end by June 1, 2009, in a total of 18 coffee shops within 200 to 250 meters (yards) of schools," said the city council in a statement early this week. It said it was worried about soft drug use among vulnerable young people.

With a national government that would like to shut down the coffee shops, the Dutch marijuana business is under increasing pressure. At the back door, police are squeezing supply, and at the front door, local officials are pulling out the pad-locks. Don't expect the Dutch marijuana community to just roll over and take it, however.