Amsterdam to ban foreigners from coffee shops

Read Time:1 Minute, 52 Second

Dutch legislators want to ban foreigners

from coffee shops in Amsterdam

Joints for Dutch citizens only

Amsterdam, Holland – Foreign visitors are to be kept out of Dutch coffee shops – where soft drugs are sold legally – by introducing a membership card system for purchasing cannabis. Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten’s plan has already been approved by the Lower House.

amsterdam to ban foreigners from coffee shop jointsCoffee and a joint – It’s the Dutch way

Not just in Amsterdam, coffee shops in other cities and towns on the German and Belgian borders attract many cannabis users. The majority of local authorities here are against the membership card system, as they fear it will encourage the illegal drugs trade. If the membership card system is introduced, tourists will bypass it by buying drugs in the streets. Some officials think the illegal trade will flourish.
 

Tourism in Amsterdam should fall dramatically

The mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, says that if the illegal drugs trade does increase because of the membership system, he doesn’t have the means to adequatly combat it. According to him, 4.5 million tourists from abroad visit Amsterdam every year. Over a million of them also go to the coffee shops. They would then mainly depend on the illegal trade for their weed.

As the plans stand now, coffee shops will become private clubs, each with 1000 to 1500 exclusively Dutch members who all have a membership card. Local authorities are allowed to cut, but not raise the number of members. If it’s up to Minister Opstelten, the membership card system will be introduced in the south of the Netherlands, along the Belgian border, this coming autumn. The other provinces are to follow later.

Chairman of the Netherlands Platform of Cannabis Enterprises, Willem Panders, thinks the measures are “draconian and absurd”. Because introducing the system not only affects tourists from abroad, but also somebody from Groningen who is visiting Maastricht and wants to buy weed, but isn’t a member of a coffee shop in Maastricht. Would a coffee shop be lenient towards this person from Groningen or a foreigner? Mr Panders doesn’t think so.

Things are changing in The Netherlands. Amsterdam, for the moment, is still the heart of liberal Europe.

 

About Post Author

Holte Ender

Holte Ender will always try to see your point of view, but sometimes it is hard to stick his head that far up his @$$.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

2 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Judi
12 years ago

What if you just want to get a coffee?

Admin
12 years ago

I love Amsterdam!

christianity Previous post 6 Ways Christianity can be dangerous to your well being
Next post Arnold Schwarzenegger – Pumping Iron
2
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x