The Dutch government said yesterday that it wanted to try and ban tourists from buying cannabis in the famed “coffee shops” in the country where hash is on sale legally. The Netherlands has one of Europe’s most liberal soft drug policies and street-side coffee shops have been a popular tourist attraction in Amsterdam and border cities for decades. There has already been an effort to clamp down on what the country calls “drug tourism” in the country’s border cities near Belgium and Germany. The Dutch border towns of Maastricht and Terneuzen have already restricted the sale of marijuana to foreigners in hopes to limit crime and disturbances such as traffic jams.
An advocate-general of the European Court of Justice ruled in July that the border towns in the Netherlands have the right to refuse foreigners entry into the coffee shops. With the ruling on their side, the Dutch minister for security and justice confirmed on Wednesday that a wider crackdown is coming after coalition parties agreed to push for such a ban back in September. The current government administration that took office last month has agreed to limit the sale of cannabis to Dutch residents only to curb crime linked to it’s production and trading.
The countries minister, Ivo Opstelten told the major media broadcaster, NOS on Wednesday, “No tourist attractions, we don’t like that” he added, “The heart of the problem is crime and disturbances surrounding the sale. We have to go back to what it was meant for: local use for those who would like it.” Amsterdam, the mecca of many cannabis tourists has 223 coffee shops and is already in the process of closing some in the red light district to tackle criminal activity that has sprung up in the area. The government’s plans for a tourist ban, whereby only holders of a resident’s pass would be allowed to buy hash, has not yet been formally been put into law and no time frame has been proposed.
You are allowed to posses up to 5 grams of cannabis or hash in the Netherlands but large-scale production and transport is a crime. The new rules will not affect this year’s annual High Times “Cannabis Cup” that begins next week. Many of the attendees will begin arriving tomorrow for the event, it what we hope will not be the last of it’s kind.
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idiots… They are going to lose revenue from the sudden drop in purchases.
not to mention, if they keep it around for “those who like it” why don’t they legalize the damn stuff already? is it because the US will freak out and bomb them or something?
Yes, as usual, Brett, America IS the problem.
I think that the tourist dollars that were streaming from American tourists have already been declining with the growing acceptance and decriminalization of cannabis, not to mention so many Americans are now experiencing what amounts to “legal” marijuana though medical state measures. Since they are keeping cannabis legal for their own residents, obviously the problem is with prohibition in the neighboring countries. The answer, of course, is to legalize, tax and regulate in Europe.
Yes, it’s pressure from mainline politicians in neighbouring countries, which is indirect pressure from the (UN/US/UK) Axis causing the problem. As you so rightly point out, a sensible approach from a central position (legalisation) is the only way to deal with the issue.
Unfortunately, the Dutch have been waiting for the rest of the world to discover how simple logic and basic intelligence can work since 1976. The pressure to give in and join everyone else in the morons’ club, together with traffic jams and lines into coffee shops around the block and down the street on most days in NL border towns, has given Luddite politicians the leverage they’ve been trying to get kiss enough buttock and climb into the prohibitionists’ (Axis) lower bowel. In 1976, and for many years since then, most Dutch people just assumed others would eventually realise how silly they were being and take measures like the Dutch to stabilise drug consumption. It’s quite amazing that countries with as much money as the Axis, like the US and UK, should be able to stubbornly resist outbreaks of intelligence for as long as they have. This, I believe, is what has eventually defeated the Dutch – the pig-headed refusal to apply intelligence to the issue. No-one in the NL some thirty-odd years ago could have believed such an outcome might come about. I still have trouble believing it, and I’m not even Dutch! How primitive we must seem to them; like bullies on the playground who eventually get their way.
This is the best thing that could happen actually. We could watch them re-institute US style prohibition. Then the levels of cannabis use would rise dramatically showing the world that the harder you try to crack down, the more glamorous its use becomes, the more kids are going to smoke it and the general public as well. It would be the PERFECT illustration of our points.
Sure it’ll suck to not be able to go to Amsterdam and get good bud out of the coffee shops anymore, but the case in point it would generate would be undeniable.
Remember, just because they make it more illegal doesn’t mean less people are going to smoke it. More will and the societal ills that come along with increased black market supplies will show the world this is not worth it and we want the old way back, please!
Well, yes and no: it’s not going to work out quite as you envisage. They won’t introduce Axis-style prohibition for their own citizens. That’s what the legal wrangling in Maastrict was all about. Their legal (EU) right to ban foreigners from coffee shops has been established – no discrimination there. They will make it so that the only way you can patronise a coffee shop is by paying with a debit card from an NL bank. That, however, doesn’t mean it will be impossible for foreigners to get good ‘bud’ (cannabis – both herbal and resin) from coffee shops. It just means it will take a bit longer.
You will now need to spend a few minutes outside the coffee shops finding an agent with an NL bank card (I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding one hanging around the shops in Amsterdam and the border towns.) who will go in and make a purchase for you. You will pay more, you will be ripped off and some people will have problems dealing with criminals, but it won’t stop many people enjoying good cannabis in Holland. They’re just moving their level of social development down a notch to appease bullying politicians and the intellectually challenged who elect them. For those with a bit more money who don’t want to walk the streets (Americans) I’m sure a host of small hotels (Try the Hotel Abba on Overtoom in the first instance.) will find a way of providing the much-needed service.
Will this accelerate the process of legalisation? Yes, in this sense, Joshua, I believe you’re right. The Dutch will resent it, just as they have always resented pressure from foreign bullies, which is probably a large part of the reason why they adopted their policy ahead of its time in the first place, which should help to support them in their efforts to educate others. They often do this. It’s a wonderful country.
More importantly, an intelligent approach to anything is a moral obligation. Stubborn refusal to apply intelligence will not win God’s favour. Prohibition, as an extension of slavery, is morally wrong. God sees everything.
Look at how the Netherlands has dealt with Afghanistan – most admirable; but again they’ve been forced to get down on their knees and take it back. God sees everything. You can’t get away with that forever. It’s not too far away now.
So, yes, Joshua, in that sense you’re right – the more straws loaded onto the camel’s back, the more quickly it should break.
Can they rally get away with that? It seems to me like telling somebody of another race you can’t eat here because you’re not the same as everybody else. If that’s the case we should ban their people from here because they’re not American! If I see people from there I’m thinking about telling them to go back to where they come from! We don’t need you here! But that wouldn’t be anymore right then what they are doing. Right? Or wrong???
This particular action by the Nl.gov’t is,as I read it,is an attempt to bar tourists from aquiring or consuming hash.The report says ………banned from shop that sell hash.The tourist dependent shops will drop it from their menu,take a small hit and go on as usual. The question is,are recent actions, attempts to tigthten a business that has gotten a little intrusive,or a “Death by a thousand cuts” plan to severely cut back or eliminate the cannibis tourist trade.