Excerpt from BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4595018.stm
Mayor Leers has told the Dutch parliament that the licensing system that allows coffee shops to sell 5g of cannabis to each customer should be extended, to allow them to grow their own plants. "They should have a permit to grow their own cannabis so that they can cut their ties with the criminals," the mayor says. "That way we can control things. At the moment our system is so hypocritical."
Jaap Louwerier, owner of The Fantaisie in Amsterdam, agrees with that.
"But it is illegal for me to buy the bigger and bigger stocks of cannabis I need to supply these smokers. And the law says I can only keep up to 500 grammes on my premises, which is not enough. In the coffee shops we call this the 'back-door problem'."
In a dim corridor behind the shop, he covertly buys a stash of cannabis from a supplier, while keeping an eye on the door.
"If the police came in now they would confiscate all this," he says. "That's happened once already, and if it happened three times, I'd lose my licence."
Illegal plantations have sprung up across the Netherlands to supply the coffee shops - in outhouses, basements and attics.
