[mountain_goat]

Dutch government to ban tourists from cannabis shops

– Fri May 27, 3:32 pm ET
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.
The Netherlands is well known for having one of Europe's most liberal soft drug policies that has made its cannabis shops a popular tourist attraction, particularly in Amsterdam.
Backed by the far-right party of anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders, the coalition government that came into power last year announced plans to curb drug tourism as part of a nationwide program to promote health and fight crime.
"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.
The policy will roll out in the southern provinces of Limburg, Noord Brabant and Zeeland by the end of the year and the rest of the country next year, the spokesman said.
Amsterdam, home to about 220 coffee shops, is already in the process of closing some in its red light district. Some officials have resisted the measures, saying they will push the soft drug trade underground.
Some Dutch border towns including Maastricht and Terneuzen have already restricted the sale of marijuana to foreigners.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Gilbert Kreijger; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook

[immaculate]

Lame.

[Greyskull]

I just saw this on yahoo...
Wow
They are trying to make the dam for locals only huh?
Guess they want to slow down the tourism economy.... Guess they are rolling in the dough and dont need to attract 'those kinds' of tourists... Bummer.

[Lazyman]

I started a thread on this 4 months ago and it got mysteriously deleted.

[immaculate]

Yeah, I remember when the Dutch PM announced this was going to happen.

Oh dude, it's over for Amsterdam. DONE. over.

Bye-bye 80% of tourism income, bye-bye cannabis cup (essentially) and bye bye all the good press.

Thank god i went over there back in 07. I knew this would happen before I could get over there again...I was hoping I would've been able to get there mid-2012, but I guess not.

Fuck it, California it is. Rollin' out to Cali spring 2012.

[Greenstar420]

Yea this is weak. Still waiting to hear if it will bed heavily enforced or a lax kinda policy, hopefully it wont be enforced at all.

to hell with them

if they do I am gonna boycott the country

those little shoes, their cheese, heineken and any other hollandian product.

amsterdam/holland will be dead to me

would have a hard time boycotting the tulips though



such pretty flowers

[dragongrower]

They have prob. not thought about all the tourist money they will lose.. Because it will be alot!!!

[PoopyTeaBags]

Backed by the far-right party of anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders, the coalition government that came into power last year announced plans to curb drug tourism as part of a nationwide program to promote health and fight crime.

promote health?? cant have tourist smoke weed for health reasons but i can go gangbang ten bitches in the red light district.... thanks for thinking about my health.

fight crime... ? by pushing sales of weed underground and making it a crime? you create a crime to fight?