Dutch to ban tourists from coffee shops

[Azathoth]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch government on Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from "coffee shops" and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year.

snip

"In order to tackle the nuisance and criminality associated with coffee shops and drug trafficking, the open-door policy of coffee shops will end," the Dutch health and justice ministers wrote in a letter to the country's parliament on Friday.

Under the new rules, only Dutch residents will be able to sign up as members of cannabis shops.

Dutch customers will have to sign up for at least a year's membership and each shop would be expected to have only up to 1,500 members, a justice ministry spokesman said.

What bunch of idiots. They are just going to increase criminality because the tourists are going to have to buy their weed from dealers again. I'm sure there are parties going on in gangster HQs across the country in anticipation of the return of the domestic dope market

[sandinista]

Yes, fucking ridiculous. When are governments going to stop with this ridiculous charade about a "drug war". Talk about stomping on peoples "freedom".

[.Morticia.]

I feel the desire to watch my Monkey videos before I move somewhere I don't have a telly.

( I read Journey To The West too. It was ... enlightening. )

[Svartalf]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch government on Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from "coffee shops" and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year.

snip

"In order to tackle the nuisance and criminality associated with coffee shops and drug trafficking, the open-door policy of coffee shops will end," the Dutch health and justice ministers wrote in a letter to the country's parliament on Friday.

Under the new rules, only Dutch residents will be able to sign up as members of cannabis shops.

Dutch customers will have to sign up for at least a year's membership and each shop would be expected to have only up to 1,500 members, a justice ministry spokesman said.

What bunch of idiots. They are just going to increase criminality because the tourists are going to have to buy their weed from dealers again. I'm sure there are parties going on in gangster HQs across the country in anticipation of the return of the domestic dope market

Actually, gangers are rejoicing all over europe because, once the Dutch attraction factor is gone, people are going to try and score locally again, and they can start selling overpriced adulterated shit by the shitload again.

[Seth]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch government on Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from "coffee shops" and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year.

snip

"In order to tackle the nuisance and criminality associated with coffee shops and drug trafficking, the open-door policy of coffee shops will end," the Dutch health and justice ministers wrote in a letter to the country's parliament on Friday.

Under the new rules, only Dutch residents will be able to sign up as members of cannabis shops.

Dutch customers will have to sign up for at least a year's membership and each shop would be expected to have only up to 1,500 members, a justice ministry spokesman said.

What bunch of idiots. They are just going to increase criminality because the tourists are going to have to buy their weed from dealers again. I'm sure there are parties going on in gangster HQs across the country in anticipation of the return of the domestic dope market

Actually, gangers are rejoicing all over europe because, once the Dutch attraction factor is gone, people are going to try and score locally again, and they can start selling overpriced adulterated shit by the shitload again.

No shit!

Prohibitionism always leads to criminality. It's as inevitable as gravity.

[Feck]

What criminality do tourists get up too when stoned ?

[Seth]

What criminality do tourists get up too when stoned ?

It's not the tourists, it's the drug dealers. Prohibition never stopped anything, ever. It just made it illegal, and more desirable, and fomented all manner of abuse on the part of government in its vain attempt to control the substance or object.

[apophenia]

They should just make drugs a capital offense. Dry up the market and end over-crowding in prisons in one shot.

(I'm actually in favor of regulation of drug use, but in this rabidly libertarian thread, I'd likely escape with nothing more than my taint intact.)

[Pappa]

Whatever happened to the ban on smoking in coffee shops that was definitely going ahead about 18 months ago? From what I remember it was a done deal, with no exceptions made for cannabis cafes.

Anyway, the Netherlands have a stupid model for decriminalisation. The importation, distribution and manufacture of cannabis is still illegal (and technically so is possession). They didn't want to renege on their international treaty agreements, so they stopped at a half-arsed decriminalisation. In recent years much of the skunk is home grown, but a large part of the supply and distribution is in the hands of criminal gangs. I've also heard that their decriminalisation stops at Amsterdam, so tourists have been arrested for smoking in the street in other Dutch cities.

[Atheist-Lite]

Cannabis today is much more potent than thirty years ago. I'm anti-drugs deep down and say they should be banned unless given for medicinal purposes on presecription. There is a simple way to stop pushers and addicts re-offending - it's called long term prison. If you show zero zolerance crime goes down.

[Svartalf]

Whatever happened to the ban on smoking in coffee shops that was definitely going ahead about 18 months ago? From what I remember it was a done deal, with no exceptions made for cannabis cafes.

Anyway, the Netherlands have a stupid model for decriminalisation. The importation, distribution and manufacture of cannabis is still illegal (and technically so is possession). They didn't want to renege on their international treaty agreements, so they stopped at a half-arsed decriminalisation. In recent years much of the skunk is home grown, but a large part of the supply and distribution is in the hands of criminal gangs. I've also heard that their decriminalisation stops at Amsterdam, so tourists have been arrested for smoking in the street in other Dutch cities.

That one could never fly... the principle of coffeeshops is/was a place where weedheads can go and toke legally... they even regulated sales to be smoked off premises so people couldn't just treat them as regular tobacconists. If you can't buy a decent stash to smoke at home, and you can't smoke there... well, somebody seems to have realized it would be more logical to make them illegal again... which might still happen.

Actually, I wonder how their trying to forbid tourists from going there is going to fly legally, since I'm not sure whether nationality is a valid motive to deny a sale, and the EU might definitely dislike a member denying fellow EU citizens something it allows its nationals.

[Pappa]

Actually, I wonder how their trying to forbid tourists from going there is going to fly legally, since I'm not sure whether nationality is a valid motive to deny a sale, and the EU might definitely dislike a member denying fellow EU citizens something it allows its nationals.

Very good point.

[Seth]

Cannabis today is much more potent than thirty years ago. I'm anti-drugs deep down and say they should be banned unless given for medicinal purposes on presecription. There is a simple way to stop pushers and addicts re-offending - it's called long term prison. If you show zero zolerance crime goes down.

I advocate government-supported "drug houses." large hotel-like structures where those who want to use drugs can go and get any kind of drug they want for free. Pharmaceutical grade, pure quill, unlimited quantities.

The only catch is that it's like the Hotel California...you can check out, but you can never leave. Once you go in, you can only go out in a body bag. But in the meantime you can get as stoned as you like for as long as you like, until you're dead.

[ficklefiend]

From what I can tell, people will lick the inside of a sewer pipe if they thought it would get them high. Legal, illegal, it just pushes people in different directions for supply.

Did I hear that there is some eastern European country where it is legal? It would certainly be a quick way to draw in the tourists..

[Azathoth]

There is a simple way to stop pushers and addicts re-offending - it's called long term prison. If you show zero zolerance crime goes down.

Because that is working so well in america?