Welcome to the VOCM site

The VOCM is an interest association of Maastricht coffeeshops that, since 1999, is trying to clarify the sense and nonsense of cannabis for civilians, local authorities and government.
This to result in a more realistic cannabis policy with less undesirable side effects and a better acknowledgement of the public health aspects.
In 1993 there were 31 coffee shops in Maastricht, this number has been decreased to 16 in 2006.
Therefore the number of tolerated coffee shops has almost been halved. What can be noticed by everyone, is that with decreasing the number of coffeeshops both the illegal street dealing as well as the drug trafficking in the residential areas have strongly increased.
Not only from the point of view of the public safety, but also from the point of view of the public health there is talk of a grave development. Not only will illegal dealing lead to nuisance, it will also increase the risk of mixing the narcotics markets.

The cannabis consumer will then be running a risk to be confronted with hard drugs.

The increase of the not tolerated dealing of soft drugs can not be attributed to the increase of the use of cannabis.
Recent research from the authoritative Trimbos institute shows that the number of blowers has even slightly decreased.

In the media

Lately in the media there has been a lot of questioning about the possible relation between the use of cannabis and the cause of psychoses.
The government has indicated that this subject demands in-depth research, but that for the present there is no reason to modify the policy.
The VOCM supports this method.
This however does not mean that we deny that in the field of psychic health problem cases do occur. We indicate however that in most of these cases it concerns an already present increased ability of behaviour disorder.
People with such an increased ability can, in certain circumstances by use of a stimulant like alcohol and/or cannabis, end up in a mental crisis situation.

Numbers

Figures of the LADIS bulletin for that matter state that of the supposed 420.000 cannabis consumers 0.8% seek for assistance from help organisations.
According to rural cannabis associations the number of frequent cannabis consumers is at least 600.000 which decreases the seek for assistance to 0.5%.
In our opinion that is certainly not an alarming high number.
The increase in seeking help rates can also be explained by the cooperation between coffee shops and the help organisations.
This special cooperation has a lowering threshold effect as a result of which the customer will find his way to the help organisation more easily.
Another possible explanation for the increasing numbers of seeking help is that the not tolerated drug dealing has increased significantly and consumers (for example youth up to 18 years old) in this circuit are not properly informed and drug markets are mixing which will result in increasing health problems.

For more information, read our brochure: Brochure_uk.pdf