Holland to ban 'skunk' marijuana from coffee shops over fears it is as dangerous as heroin and cocaine

Cafes barred from selling cannabis with more than 15% of active chemical

Country's 500 licensed shops will now have to replace about 80% of stock

Critics claim move will push harder forms of drug onto the black market



Super-strength marijuana is to be banned from Holland's coffee shops under tough new laws that could see 'skunk' reclassified as a class A drug.

Dutch justice minister Ivo Opstelten wants the country's famous licensed cafes to only sell cannabis containing less than 15 per cent of the main active chemical, THC.

The decision will be a major blow to hundreds of coffee shop owners, many of them in Amsterdam, who will have to replace around 80 per cent of their stock with weaker varieties.

Snuffed out: Super-strong marijuana will soon be banned from Holland's famous coffee shops over fears it can be as bad for your health as cocaine and heroin

Critics claim it will make the problem worse by pushing stronger versions of the drug onto the black market.

Mark Josemans, the spokesman for the Maastricht coffee shop owners association, told the Volkskrant newspaper: 'Weak weed in the coffee shops, strong weed on the streets - then the choice is pretty clear.

'It makes it harder for society. A user smokes less, just as people don't drink rum out of a beer glass.'

According to the Daily Telegraph, the government is acting on a study by Dutch mental health charity, the Trimbos Institute, which found that skunk can be so dangerous it should be classed alongside heroin and cocaine.

THC is the compound that gives users the 'high' and in large quantities has been blamed for causing psychotic reactions.



Burning issue: The decision will be a major blow to hundreds of coffee shop owners who will have to replace around 80 per cent of their stock with weaker varieties

At present, the country's liberal laws allows customers to buy up to five grammes (0.18 ounces) of marijuana for personal use in around 500 licensed cafes.

The decision comes as Jacqui Smith, the former home secretary, admitted it was a mistake to upgrade cannabis to a Class B drug in Britain.



She now argues that it would have been better to improve education about the drug rather than raise the level of criminalisation.

When Mr Opstelten announced the tougher laws, he also relaxed a mandatory plan to ban foreigners from cannabis-selling cafes.

Under the rules, which had been branded 'tourism suicide', only Dutch residents would have been able to enter coffee shops.

Potential customers would also have been forced to sign up for a one-year membership, or 'dope pass'.