[Quote:]

Police in the northeastern Achterhoek region have begun using an unmanned miniature helicopter to track down the illegal cultivation of cannabis, which often takes place indoors. The so-called “canna-chopper” is fitted with cameras and a sniffer to take air samples out of ventilator shafts and chimneys. A dedicated gas analyser is able to recognise traces of weed smell in the air samples.

Police say they are not breaking the law because the samples can be taken without entering the building. The unmanned dwarf helicopter can stay airborne for a maximum of eight hours. It was designed and built by Dutch police engineers.

This is probably confusing to all foreign readers who think cannabis is entirely legal over here. It isn’t. The Dutch have made a decision not to prosecute small time offenders. This means, a blind eye is turned to possession when the amount is very low (personal use amounts). They also grant licenses to owners of ‘coffee-shops’ to sell cannabis with some fairly tight regulations. I believe the idea behind this is that, as has been discovered in basically every other country on earth, people want to smoke a joint from time to time, and it is better they get it from a regulated (and more importantly, taxed!) business, rather than some guy on the street who will almost certainly try to push the more addictive stuff on to the customer for higher (tax free!) profits.

However, what is not tolerated, is massive scale, cannabis farming which is then sold on for huge profits (without tax being paid, are you spotting a theme here?).