CANNABIS CAFE CHAINS TO OPEN IN BRITAIN

United Kingdom

Two Dutch cannabis cafe chains plan to open up to 50 ventures in Britain in a full-frontal assault on the police's ability to enforce drug laws.

Following the announcement by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, that cannabis will be downgraded from a class B to a class C drug next year, the firms - The Bulldog and Dutch Experience - are planning to open cafes in an attempt to force acceptance of the drug.

The cafes would be illegal even under the new classification. The owners point out, however, that their businesses are also technically illegal in Amsterdam, but their success has forced a change in policy which allows them to operate freely.

The backers believe that in Britain, too, the police will be so overwhelmed by the number of ventures - and their popularity - that they would be forced to allow them to remain open.

The two chains, which between them run 20 cafes in Holland, are both planning to launch in Britain. In addition, a string of independent cafes is also likely to open within the next year.

While police are adamant that they will not allow cannabis to be sold over the counter, websites for the two businesses already boast of their UK expansion plans.

One British man who is interested in running a Dutch-style coffee shop under franchise, said: "As long as these shops do not provoke the police, I think they will eventually accept them."

He said: "Even in Holland they are technically illegal, but they are allowed to operate unhindered."

Many Dutch cannabis cafes started by allowing cannabis to be smoked and gradually progressed to selling the drug. It is likely the British cafes will at first also limit themselves to providing premises for cannabis to be smoked and will not sell the substance.

Under Mr Blunkett's proposals, personal possession of cannabis will be made a non-arrestable offence, although dealing would attract a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Among the sites being looked at by the Dutch chains and independent businessmen are premises in Bournemouth, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cumbria, Liverpool, Chester, Bath, Rhyl, Milton Keynes, Braintree, Brighton, Taunton, and Lambeth in London.

The movement to open a chain of shops in Britain has taken its inspiration from the independent Dutch Experience in Stockport, Britain's first cannabis cafe, which opened in September. It has been raided by police three times but is still open and attracts around 200 people a day.

Willie Wortel's Sinsemilla, a cannabis cafe in the Dutch town of Haarlem, has already begun to offer British would-be cafe entrepreneurs a course in running such a venture.

Twenty people paid £575 each for a five-day course in May. Jeff Ditchfield, who attended the course, has sold his transport business in Rhyl, north Wales, and bought a cafe in the town which he hopes to open soon.

David Crane, the director of an internet company for seven years, is in the process of raising £250,000 for an "upmarket" cafe in Hoxton, east London.

As well as Stockport, there have been several other abortive attempts to open cannabis cafes.

In Dorset, police arrested four men in April after they allegedly opened a cannabis cafe, called The Dutch Experience 2, in a warehouse in Bournemouth. The cafe remains open and sells teas, coffees and cannabis paraphernalia.