Editing Drug policy of the Netherlands (section)

== Public health ==
[[File:Smokers-as-a-percentage-of-adult-pop.jpg|thumb|left|Cigarette smokers as a percentage of the population for the Netherlands as compared with the [[Smoking in the United States|United States]], [[Smoking in Norway|Norway]], [[Smoking in Japan|Japan]], and [[Smoking in Finland|Finland]]]]

Large-scale dealing, production, import and export are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, even if it does not supply end users or ''[[Coffeeshop (Netherlands)|coffeeshop]]s'' with more than the allowed amounts. Exactly how coffeeshops get their supplies is rarely investigated, however. The average concentration of [[THC]] in the cannabis sold in coffeeshops has increased from 9% in 1998 to 18% in 2005.<ref name="Drug2006">{{cite web |url=http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2006.html |title=Word Drug report, 2006, Chapter 2.3 |publisher=Unodc.org |access-date=2011-04-20 |archive-date=22 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922073843/http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2006.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This means that less plant material has to be consumed to achieve the same effect. One of the reasons is [[plant breeding]] and use of [[greenhouse]] technology for illegal growing of cannabis in Netherlands.<ref name="Drug2006"/>
The former minister of Justice [[Piet Hein Donner]] announced in June 2007 that cultivation of cannabis shall continue to be illegal.