Dutch drug policy shaken by coffeeshop closures

[Frazz]

Dutch drug policy shaken by coffeeshop closures

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Author: Robert Chesal

Date: 24-10-2008

Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Copyright: Radio Netherlands Worldwide 2008

 

 

 

 

Two southern Dutch town mayors have taken the dramatic step of shutting down all local businesses currently legally selling cannabis. It's the first time a blanket stop has been introduced in a Dutch town.

 

The two towns, Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, claim they are suffering from the nuisance caused by foreign tourists in search of soft drugs banned in their own countries.

 

In total eight coffeeshops, the name used for the outlets allowed to sell cannabis, will close their doors for good in the municipalities.

 

Neither of the two mayors are opposed to the sale or use of cannabis in principle. As far as they are concerned, it is the public nuisance that goes hand in hand with coffeeshops that they are trying to tackle.

 

"There are 25,000 drug tourists per week who visit these coffeeshops," says Mayor Han Polman of Bergen op Zoom.

 

 

"That leads to a lot of nuisance, and there are links to illegality, there's criminal activity going on. People in our cities are asking us to make the streets safe so we have no choice but to close the coffeeshops."

 

Peeing in public

For this reason, the closing of coffeeshops deserves the support of the Dutch national government, according to Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin, who says the measure "fits into our policy that municipalities themselves are best able to determine what is needed to combat public nuisance."

 

Cities in the south of the Netherlands have been grappling with mass drug tourism for years now. Annually, about 1.3 million soft drug users and couriers cross over the Dutch border from Germany, France and Belgium to buy marijuana or hashish in the coffeeshops. The drug tourists cause problems, say the mayors of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, by driving dangerously, parking illegally and peeing in the streets.

 

New customers

To combat the same situation, Mayor Gerd Leers of Maastricht wants to move all coffeeshops in his city to the border crossings with Germany, Belgium and France. He disagrees with mayors who unilaterally close down coffeeshops without consulting neighbouring municipalities:

"We're simply moving the problem. We're pushing it from Roosendaal to Breda, and then from Breda to Rotterdam. And what's much worse, is that we're pushing the problem into the illegal sphere. The drug runners are celebrating today because they realize they've just won lots of new customers. The demand for cannabis won't go away, it'll just find a new channel of supply."

 

Coffeeshop summit

Leers has asked Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin to call a meeting with the mayors of all border municipalities. He believes the towns on the Dutch border are the victim of the difference in drug policies between European countries.

 

"It's key that we now make a clear decision here in the Netherlands. We have to ask ourselves, are we going to hold on to our own Dutch system and maintain a different drug policy from our neighbours, or should we say no, because of the problems this causes we can't do that anymore."

 

It's a fundamental question, with real consequences for the tolerant Dutch drug policy which has been in place since the 1970s.

 

Listen to Marc Jacobsen, President of the Union of Coffeeshop Owners(Netherlands) explaining coffeshops postion here ;

http://content70b.omroep.nl/40a4113d9750bd...024_44_1kHz.mp3

 

Listen to Mayor Han Polman explaining his decision here;

http://content70b.omroep.nl/1e550471fff40f...024_44_1kHz.mp3

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It should also be noted that some of these coffeeshops also sell other 'drugs' like mushrooms etc

 

many of the complaints in this article are related soley to the coffeeshops near or on borders with other countries who prohibit Cannabis, most of these countries complain about Netherlands spread of drugs through their coffeeshops ... much in the same way Australian states used to complain bitterly about South Australia when they relaxed their laws on possession/ growing of Cannabis ... and like the Americans complaining about Canadian laws on Cannabis ... and so it goes on and on and on , demonising the monster Cannabis ...

 

[linbaba]

IMO its only a matter of time before the whole scene in Amsterdam is forced underground just like the rest of the world.

 

They've already decided to clamp down on shrooms, and other psychedelics and cannabis will suffer a similar fate in the long run I fear.

 

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Oct. 12, 2007

 

(AP) The Netherlands will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the government announced Friday, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a teenager on a school visit jumped to her death after taking the fungus.

 

The decision will go into effect within several months, said Wim van der Weegen, a Justice Ministry spokesman.

 

“The problem with mushrooms is that their effect is unpredictable,” he said, and shops caught selling them will be closed.

 

Marijuana and hashish are technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police do not bother to prosecute people for possession of small amounts, and it is sold openly in designated cafes.

 

Possession of “hard” drugs like cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy is illegal. Mushrooms will fall somewhere in the middle.

 

“We're not talking about a non-prosecution policy, but we'll be targeting sellers” Van der Weegen said

 

full article at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/12/...in3361754.shtml

[Major Overgrow]

Overgrow the evil bastards BIG TIME - Make them Utterly Irrelevant.