Coffee shops where small amounts of cannabis can be bought, contributed some €400m to the treasury a year, according to estimates by tv programme Reporter.

The country’s 700 coffee shops are responsible for selling some 265,000 kgs of soft drugs a year, mostly Dutch-grown marijuana, Reporter says. This means turnover in the sector is some €2bn a year.
The programme also estimates some 5,500 plantations were destroyed by police last year. Between 20% and 40% of local production is sold in the Netherlands, the rest exported abroad, largely to Germany and Britain.
Police chief Max Daniel told the KRO programme that that marijuana is the Netherlands second or third-biggest cash crop after cucumbers and tomatoes.
In a programme to be broadcast on Sunday night, Reporter also looks at the amount of (illegal) fertisers and heavy metals found in Dutch-grown marijuana.