The biggest political party in the Netherlands wants to close coffee shops

Updated Friday 5 Feb: Due to the absence of the Minister of Health, Ab KLink, the debate on Dutch drugs policy that was scheduled to take place yesterday has been postponed. We will provide further information about a new date for the debate as soon as it becomes available.

Thursday, February 4, the Dutch ruling Christian democratic Party CDA (Christen-Democratisch Appèl) will publish a document outlining plans to crack down on so called “soft” drugs.

The practice of turning a blind eye has failed, and we will do all we can to move towards zero coffee shops, CDA MP Cisca Joldersma told De Telegraaf.

According to Joldersma, the punishment for producing hard and soft drugs should be the same and there are also plans to introduce legislation which will ban the growing of marijuana.

According to the paper, the right-wing Liberals VVD supports CDA´s strategy. The VVD also wants the maximum sentence for smuggling soft drugs to be raised from four to 12 years.

The CDA’s coalition partner, PvdA, is opposed to tougher sentences.