Breaking News: Dutch Cabinet plans strict coffeeshop policy!

[Gastro]

So now its all about the backbone of the municipalities. Can they withstand the pressure of Wilders and Opstelten, or is the temptation of a seat in parliament or a cut in subsidies too much for the municipalities.

 

[Gastro]

Maastricht's coffeeshops are changing their policy from the 1st of october onwards. From that point on people with a french or luxembourgish passport, and all other countries are no longer allowed inside the Maastricht's coffeeshops. The exempted nationalities are the direct neighbours, the Belgians and the Germans, and the Dutchies ofcourse.

 

[soulclappin]

I will be visiting Dam in sept, i hope coffeshops are still up and running then

 

[420empire]

I would def. be pissed, if people were walking down the streets where i lived, drunk an a bit too stoned. I myself is a dedicated cannabist and of course it is cool people smoke out diffrent areas, but when some of the tourist plan to get fuckt up, as possible, then there is a problem. Spread the shops, don´t sell alchol, and don´t led drunk people in. The two times I have been to the Dam, lots of people where fuckt up mostly on alcohol, and I think the two things in a combi, is bad. When all this moral bullshit have been said, then I think the lads at the EU should pull them self together and legalize the herb.

Peace -

 

[homme]

puh I am lucky to have read the news above, and that there might not change any thing in Dam... I pay a visit to Amsterdam every other year, and was really p*ssed when I heard of the recent plans.

Amsterdam we'll meet again

 

[Gastro]

Coffee shops in Den Bosch closing doors after finding drugs in stock
Last modified: Saturday, September 3, 2011 - 10:38 AM | Author: Hans Janssen

DEN BOSCH - Pistachio and Twins, two coffeeshops in Den Bosch, closed since Thursday. The owner of these establishments, the Grass Company, has decided, says a spokesman for the church.

He says they no longer have stock. This, says the church also, the hemp action earlier in the day to Rietveldenweg in Den Bosch. The police then stopped in a commercial one person, a man of 48 from Tilburg, and took eight pounds of hemp products and 15,000 pre-rolled joints to complete.

The spokesman of the municipality could not say whether the owner of two coffee shops has been for her. The municipality first wait for a report from the police before any action is against the owner of the coffee shops. Pistachio is at the Emma Square, the Twins Maastrichtseweg.

Storage
The conscious business premises served as a so-called stash. This is a repository from which traded hemp and coffee shops are supplied. These stashes are according to the police an important link in a larger criminal process, which is controlled by criminal organizations. The police action is therefore the responsibility of the Task Force against organized crime. This group is designed to criminal organizations in Brabant to address.

Hidden space
The hemp was found in a hidden room. There were sofdrugs in various forms ready for use. This morning was not known exactly how much was saved.

http://translate.google.com/transla...sch+sluiten+deur+na+vondst+drugsvoorraad.aspx

It is just painful to see that stash is seen as an intrinsicate part of organized crime, instead of cops looking rationally at it and seeing it was a necesarry evil coz coffeeshops can only have 500grams in house. Furthermore, the current law demands organized crime from coffeeshops if they want to be able to provide the goods to sell.

 

[RudeDog]

How much weed is 15,000 joints?

 

[Gastro]

How much weed is 15,000 joints?

5 kilo aproxx.

More great news, the central bureau of statistics, has mentioned again that 58 coffeeshops are still within 350 meter radius of highschools. And the government policy of guestimation, belittling and bureaucracy has stated that all coffeeshops within a 350 meter radius of highschools need to be closed. Because otherwise schoolkids will be stoned all day, which wasnt based on any official research neither the distance nor the effects, and therefore they need to be closed down. About 1/3 of these coffeeshops are located in Amsterdam.
Sofar the news from the We-Hate-Fun-And-Liberty Gestapo in The Netherlands.

http://translate.google.com/transla...eeshops-te-dicht-bij-middelbare-scholen.dhtml

 

[Bazarocka]

Amsterdam Information

Amsterdam Information

There is good news for all the cannabis connoisseurs who like to visit Amsterdam and enjoy the wide variety of weed and hash that is available from the Dutch capital's many coffeeshops. The Dutch Tolerance Policy, that provides the legislation under which the Dutch coffeeshops can operate, will be renewed from 1st July 2011 and will be valid until June 30th 2015.

This means that the feared 'Weedpass', a card only available to Dutch citizens that would factually ban foreigners from buying marijuana at coffeeshops, can only be implemented through local legislation. Since City Councils like Amsterdam do not want the Weedpass scheme and local politicians such as the Mayor of Haarlem have said they do not want it either, it means it will not be possible to implement for at least 4 years during which visitors from abroad can still freely and openly buy hash and weed from Dutch coffeeshops.

http://www.coffeeshopsamsterdam.com/

We'll their you go. For all those wondering..............

 

[vinevamp]

Request update on potential ban of non-dutch tourists from coffee shops

Request update on potential ban of non-dutch tourists from coffee shops

Hi all,

I know this article is from a few months ago but I haven't come across any updates except for the city of Maastricht implementing their own ban that has an exemption for German and Belgian people.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-07/...offee-shops-dutch-drug-pot-shops?_s=PM:TRAVEL

So please, can some folks "in the know" about what is really going on in Amsterdam provide an update on this? If this is true I need to book me a ticket on an aeorplane and get to the Dam before it ceases to be an option for me. I would hate to be sitting around in January saying "coulda woulda shoulda".

Thanks in advance.

Vinevamp.

 

[vinevamp]

So is it safe to say that the news from Karma back in June remains in place; i.e. that while there is a lot of noise still in other parts of the country that Amsterdam is holding to the idea that they are not participating in this insane pass idea for at least the next 3 plus years?

 

[Lion of Judah]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/07/netherlands-potency-cannabis-hard-drug

Netherlands to classify high-potency cannabis as hard drug

Sceptics say move to group cannabis containing more than 15% THC with cocaine and ecstasy will be hard to enforce



The Dutch government has said it will move to classify high-potency cannabis alongside hard drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy, the latest step in the country's ongoing reversal of its liberal policies.
The decision means most of the cannabis now sold in Dutch coffee shops would have to be replaced by milder variants. But sceptics said the move would be difficult to enforce, and that it could simply lead many users to smoke more of the less potent weed.
Possession of cannabis is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police do not prosecute people for possession of small amounts, and it is sold openly in designated cafes. Growers are routinely prosecuted if caught.
Maxime Verhagen, the economic affairs minister, said cannabis containing more than 15% of its main active chemical, THC, is so much stronger than what was common a generation ago that it should be considered a different drug entirely.
The high potency cannabis has "played a role in increasing public health damage", he said at a press conference in The Hague.
The cabinet has not said when it will begin enforcing the rule.
Jeffrey Parsons, a psychologist at Hunter College in New York, who studies addiction, said the policy may not have the benefits the government is hoping for.
"If it encourages smoking an increased amount of low-concentration THC weed, it is likely to actually cause more harm than good," he said, citing the potential lung damage and cancer-causing effects of extra inhalation.
The Dutch justice ministry said it was up to cafes to regulate their own products and police will seize random samples for testing.
But Gerrit-Jan ten Bloomendal, spokesman for the Platform of Cannabis Businesses in the Netherlands, said implementing the plan would be difficult "if not impossible".
"How are we going to know whether a given batch exceeds 15% THC? For that matter, how would health inspectors know?" he said. He predicted a black market will develop for highly potent cannabis.
The ongoing Dutch crackdown on cannabis is part of a decade-long rethink of liberalism in general that has seen a third of the windows in Amsterdam's red light district closed and led the Netherlands to adopt some of the toughest immigration rules in Europe.
The number of licensed coffee houses has been reduced, and earlier this year the government announced plans to ban tourists from buying cannabis. That has been resisted by the city of Amsterdam, where the cafes selling cannabis are a major tourist draw.

I seriously hope someone stops this insanity before they try to implement it. Soon you'll be paying 20 euros a gram for Orange Bud or Top 44.

 

[Max Headroom]

^^^
looks like someone came up with a clever new idea to demonize pot. ("it's so potent, it's a hard drug!")

and the fight continues...

 

[Bazarocka]

UUUmmm

UUUmmm

Threw this up here a few days ago????

But the way I see it, "There gonna create another new Black Market & Criminal Classification."

And The Fight Goes On.

 

[Gastro]

Hi all,

I know this article is from a few months ago but I haven't come across any updates except for the city of Maastricht implementing their own ban that has an exemption for German and Belgian people.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-07/...offee-shops-dutch-drug-pot-shops?_s=PM:TRAVEL

So please, can some folks "in the know" about what is really going on in Amsterdam provide an update on this? If this is true I need to book me a ticket on an aeorplane and get to the Dam before it ceases to be an option for me. I would hate to be sitting around in January saying "coulda woulda shoulda".

Thanks in advance.

Vinevamp.

It is only Maastricht that has the "neighbour policy" And that is because it is 10 min from Germany and 5 min from Belgium. It is a border town with border problems that date back centuries when things were banned or on the otherside just a whole lot more expensive. However, an interesting detail to the "neighbour policy" is the fact that when you have another nationality except german, belgian, or dutch, you are able to go to a coffeeshop in Maastricht when you have prove that you LIVE in The Netherlands.

Amsterdam is still a save place, you can go there with any nationality and toke, smoke and have a merry good time.

However, the Commission Garretsen, an advisary commision completely made up of Christian Democrats, has adviced the current Cabinet to treat all cannabis products with an THC percentage of 15 and higher has a harddrug. This number is not based on any science, it is completely ARBITRARY. After a hearing with actual scientists that all stated that the number is arbitrary and that a ban on these products does nothing whatsoever for the "problems" of cannabis. The number 15 happens to be a very convient number since the average of level of THC in cannabis products ranges between 16 to 18 percent, thereby virtually banning all cannabis products currently sold in coffeeshops. However, nobody exactly knows because there are no tests other than laboratory measurements to establish the level of THC in a cannabis product.
This means that once this advice has been turned into Law, all coffeeshops will have to go to a laboratory to get there cannabis tested and see if the level of THC doesn't surpass 15%. Which is a rather strange habit to do with a product that already is considered by law to be ILLEGAL anyways.

As it seems now the Cabinet, made up of Christian Democrats Conservative Leftwing/Extreme rights and Conservative-"Liberals", has accepted the advice of the Commission Garretsen, and are planning to implement the advice to law. The Minister of Security already stated they want to enforce the new law very strictly and plan to fine and eventually close down every coffeeshop that doesn't abide by the law.

The War on Drugs has been pumped up to a new level in The Netherlands, and it is starting to look similar to the Prohibition in the USA in the 1920's. It is a blind Razzia by politicians motivated by their own normative sense of justice and society. This movement began about 10 years ago when the Christian Democrats were voted back into power after an absence of 20 years.

 

[yesum]

Another reason I do not attend Christian church. They consider mind altering drugs to be the work of the devil, even though they were put here on earth by God? You are challenging their authority to reach 'God' by their religion alone, and not by any plant based means as in the American Indian peyote ritual.

 

[vSync]

Gastro is totally right in what he says, the border towns such as Maastricht is where the problems are.

I dont see any ban coming for Amsterdam, it doesnt have any support from politicians there.

Also here is an interesting article on the rookies home page
http://www.rookies.nl/

 

[BrnCow]

Maybe the world needs to see the effects of screwing the pot tourist. Maybe a one month boycott of the whole cannabis deal in Holland including tourism. Maybe everyone send a $10 donation to different cannabis vendors or the cannabis organization to keep the vendors afloat while we lay sufferage on the other business crowds who will then raise a king sized bitch at the politicians over there and make them back off. It might send a message to DC also that we can kick their business friends asses also if they continue to piss us off - without firing a shot! lol
But, this could always just be a bs thing to get the DEA off their asses...

 

[BrnCow]

Maybe someone should explain to the Commission Garretsen that the reason higher grade sells so well is that a person has to use less of it to get the same high so it actually costs less most of the time...people that have never tried cannabis should not be allowed to make cannabis legislation...

 

[Gastro]

http://translate.google.com/transla...oratoria-helemaal-niet-klaar-voor-coffeeshop/

This is an article with the Director of one of the forensic laboratories, that is supposed to test cannabis for its THC content. What he states is that although it is technically possible to test cannabis products on its THC content, at cost of a couple of hunderd euros (now still 700 euros), it is legally not possible to test cannabis unless there is a special dispensation. At the moment there are only a few entities in the Netherlands that have this dispensation, one is the Trimbos Institute (an institute that investigates addictions and mental health issues).

Considering the fact that cannabis by law is technically illegal, and would become even more illegal once the 15% THC law is put into to place, it could theoretically be possible that tolerate supplies of cannabis would become virtually impossible to sell anymore. This could happen unless law changes would be made allowing coffeeshops to test their weed at these laboratories.

It certainly is possible that the Dutch parliament is trying to pull an old fashioned American move. Making it legal to grow weed when you have a special permit, but then to actually never supply the permit at all.