Dutch coffee shops say cannabis smoke here to stay

By Sabine Fiedler

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Could a smoking ban spell the end of Amsterdam's world famous coffee shops, where smoking cannabis is one of the main attractions?

No chance, says local conservative politician and coffee shop owner Michael Veling.

The Dutch may well follow other European countries in banning tobacco smoking in restaurants, cafes and bars, but Veling says it should still be possible to smoke dope.

"It is ridiculous to think that a smoking ban would be the end of coffee shops," the 50-year-old Veling says.

He says the clientele who have been coming to coffee shops to buy and inhale cannabis are flexible enough to find a way around any ban on smoking the tobacco products they routinely mix with marijuana resin or leaf in rolled paper "joints."

"You can bring parsley or old socks if you want, cut them here and smoke them, nobody will say anything," Veling said.

"Plus there are plants that have a every similar structure to tobacco and can maybe substitute for it."

A tobacco smoking ban, which could come into force at the start of 2008, may also boost the use of some of the weirder contraptions used for inhaling the active part of marijuana, THC, which gives users a high.