Some 400,000 cannabis smokers live in the Netherlands, where they can openly buy and smoke the drug, to the ire of neighboring countries. “We are developing a system whereby people not registered in the Netherlands will not be allowed into coffee shops,” Justice Ministry spokesman Ivo Hommes said. The number of coffee shops has been cut to 754 nationwide in 2003 from 1,200 in 1997, according to the latest figures from the Netherlands Trimbos institute for addiction studies. The government also hopes to stub out the illegal growing of hemp plants and sale of soft drugs by criminal groups.