Test implementation of plan to ban foreigners from buying and consuming cannabis degenerates into chaos.
Plans to ban foreigners from buying and consuming cannabis in the Netherlands’ famous “coffee shops” are in doubt this weekend after the test implementation of the ban in the southern city of Maastricht degenerated into chaos.
Maastricht was chosen to test the ban on “drugs tourists” from May 1st last year because its location on the borders with Germany and France means it attracts some 1.6 million visitors to its 13 city centre coffee shops every year – an influx the authorities say causes rowdiness and disruption.
The first blow to the proposed nationwide clampdown came last November when Amsterdam, whose 220 cannabis cafes are a major source of tax revenue, said it would ignore both the ban on foreigners and a new demand that even Dutch users should register for a wietpas or “weed pass”.
Source: Peter Cluskey, Irish Times, 26/05/2013
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