Are they going the other direction or are they just trying to get more control? They aren't changing their main policies. They aren't closing down all their coffeeshops. Drug use by the Dutch isn't really a problem there like it is here and in many other countries in the EU. They have two problems there, drug tourists and organized crime. They have drug tourists because the Netherlands is the only place where people can go into a shop and choose from a variety of marijuana products. People go there for the novelty of it. They get a lot of young people who go there to party and some of them go overboard, drinking, taking other drugs and just generally getting out of hand. Neighboring countries complain too, both because they don't like that their citizens go there to buy pot (even though it's already easy to get it just about everywhere in the EU), and they don't like the big time illegal commercial dealing that goes on. In the Netherlands retail marijuana sales are allowed from these shops with permits, but commercial production and wholesale sales are forbidden. The coffeeshops buy their supply from the black market. Naturally organized crime has stepped in to supply the coffeeshops and of course they'll sell it to anyone who wants it and they'll sell more than just marijuana, so the Netherlands has become a major drug supplier and transshipment point for Europe.
If they would legalize and regulate production and wholesale sales of marijuana this would be much less of a problem. They can't do that though because they are part of the European Union and they signed on to the same international conventions and treaties on drugs other countries most every other country has signed off on.
They're working through these issues, but the majority in the Netherlands are happy with the way they do things. They don't really have a big drug problem there. Even though they have open marijuana sales there are several countries in the European Union with higher percentages of their populations that smoke marijuana. When you look at per capita marijuana use rates the Netherlands is middle of the road for the European Union. A lot bigger percentage of our population smoke marijuana even though it is illegal here and we have about the most harsh anti drug laws and enforcement in the Western World. Marijuana should really be legalized and regulated everywhere in the West where it is already prevalent and easy to find. Governments would have a lot more control over it if it was legal and regulated than they do in today's entirely unregulated marijuana industry that is run in large part by organized crime.
In Australia, the government has restricted alcohol and pornography going to aborigines, and it’s working.