A study published Friday in a British medical journal may have finally uncovered the secret behind Australia’s laid-back lifestyle, and it turns out to be more than just sun and surf: The denizens Down Under, it turns out, consume more marijuana than any other people on the planet…

The study’s co-authors…reported that as much as 15 percent of the populations of Australia and New Zealand between the ages of 15 and 64 had used some form of marijuana in 2009…

The Dutch are among the lowest users of marijuana or cannabis in Europe despite the Netherlands’ well-known tolerance of the drug. Among adults in the Netherlands, 5.4% used cannabis, compared with the European average of 6.8%, according to an annual report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

The cultivation of Cannabis Hemp is big business in the Netherlands, with profits estimated to have reached over 2 billion euro a year, according to figures from the police and the Dutch Task Force for organized cannabis. Only around 10 percent of the crops are sold legally in the country’s many coffee shops, according to the Dutch police. The vast majority of it is smuggled abroad.

According to the Dutch police, hemp cultivation long lost its innocence in the Netherlands. They are not harmless home growers but large criminal organizations. They don’t fear violence, corruption and assassinations, said the police.

Apart from the criminal aspect, the police fights hemp growing because there regularly cause dangerous situations. Often growing places tap electricity illegally and cause fire hazard.

Dutch Grid operator Stedin recently started to distribute Marijuana Scented Postcards to Dutch households, meant to inform Dutch citizens of the scent of marijuana.

The idea behind the campaign is that if people can smell pot farms within their communities they will be able to report them to local police.

The Dutch government said Friday that it would move to classify high-potency marijuana alongside hard drugs like cocaine and ecstasy, the latest step in a continuing reversal of the country’s famed tolerance policies.

Economic Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen said marijuana containing more than 15 percent THC, its main active chemical, is so much stronger than what was common a generation ago that it should be considered a different drug. The decision means most of the marijuana now sold in designated cafes would have to be replaced by milder variants.

The Dutch government says high THC content is detrimental to mental health, particularly when used at a young age, and that it wants to send a clear signal that strong cannabis poses an unacceptable risk to users.

Dutch coffee shops are spread over 100 municipalities. In 14 municipalities, one or more cannabis coffee shops are situated within a distance of 350 metres from a secondary school, measured along the road. Altogether, 58 coffee shops were within a distance of 350 metres from a secondary school. More than one third were in Amsterdam, 21 percent in Rotterdam and 10 percent in Haarlem.

According to Statistics Netherlands, there are nearly 1,300 secondary schools in the Netherlands; 39 are located within 350 metres from a coffee shop. Together, these schools are attended by more than 23 thousand pupils, i.e. 2.5 percent of the total number of secondary school pupils in the school year 2009/’10.

The Dutch coalition agreement stipulates that cannabis coffee shops must be located at a distance of at least 350 metres from the nearest school. Last year, 58 coffee shops in the Netherlands were located within a distance of 350 metres from a secondary school, i.e. 9 percent of all coffee shops. One third are found in Amsterdam.

There were more than 650 cannabis coffee shops in the Netherlands last year; 267 were located in the province of North Holland and 214 in the municipality of Amsterdam. The province of South Holland occupies second place with 22 percent. Flevoland, Zeeland and Drenthe have the lowest amount of coffee shops. Together, these three provinces account for just under 3 percent of all coffee shops. The number of coffee shops per 100 thousand residents is also the lowest in these provinces.

Ninety percent of coffee shops at least 350 metres from schools
Most cannabis coffee shops are not too close to a secondary school. Nine in ten are at a distance of at least 350 metres from a secondary school; 3.5 percent are at a distance ranging from 300 to 350 metres from the nearest secondary school and 5.3 percent are at a distance of less than 300 metres.

The organization is currently doing an immediate investigation into the economic impact and image of the capital.

A quarter of the tourists also visit a coffee shop, while one in ten especially come to Amsterdam to visit coffee shops. According to head of the largest Dutch tour operator TUI, the decision would clearly make an negative impact for Amsterdam.

“The coffee shops belong to our culture”. Like the Red light district. It is a huge tourist attraction for the city. “That will really hit the city bad. Also many young foreigners after their first visit will not return at an older age when they have more money.

The Netherlands has one of Europe’s most liberal soft drug policies and its coffee shops are a popular tourist attraction, especially in Amsterdam and border cities near Belgium and Germany.

Amsterdam, home to 223 coffee shops, is already in the process of closing some in the red light district to tackle criminal activity in the area, and was studying the government proposal.

The government‘s plans for a tourist ban, whereby only holders of a resident’s pass would be allowed to buy hash, has not yet been formally put into law and no timeframe has been proposed.

Around 10% of males between the ages of 15 and 20 are regular users compared to 5% of girls in the same age group, says the CBS.

The higher the education the more young people have experimented with cannabis. The CBS survey also indicates that young people with a higher education are more likely to experiment with cannabis. Some 36% of university and college (HBO) students have tried cannabis compared to 27% who left school at 16, says the CBS. But regular cannabis use is more prevalent among the lower educated.

Cannabis is smoked significantly more in the big cities than in rural areas, reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). The number of young people there who had geblowd in the past month was nearly three times as high as in rural areas. More than one in ten smoked a joint in the last thirty days.

Young people living in big cities are three times more likely to smoke cannabis than those in the countryside, according to the CBS.

Also Cannabis factories are not safe. The unmanned aircraft can stay in the air for several few hours. The Task Force for Organized hemp growers hopes that with the use of cannabis chopper they can combat illegal cannabis crop growers more effectively.

The Police uncovered a cannabis factory during the first test flight of the mini-helicopter. In the outskirts of Doetinchem, they discovered cannabis farm. Seven suspects were arrested and several kilos of hemp were intercepted.

The cultivation of Cannabis Hemp is big business in the Netherlands, with profits estimated to have reached over €2 billion in 2008 alone. Only around 10 percent of the crops are sold legally in the country’s many coffee shops, according to the Dutch police. The vast majority of it is smuggled abroad.