Dutch lawmakers on Tuesday voted in favor of tolerating the cultivation of cannabis, a move that could bring to an end a key paradox of the relaxed Dutch policy on marijuana and hashish.

Buying small amounts of pot at so-called coffee shops has long been tolerated in the Netherlands, but cultivating and selling the drug to the coffee shops themselves has remained illegal.

That hasn't stopped coffee shops flourishing since liberalisation of drug laws in the Seventies, and becoming a major tourist draw card, particularly in Amsterdam, where tourists often visit the cafes to light up a joint.