DutchNews.nl - Cabinet to fund cannabis pass trials

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Cabinet to fund cannabis pass trials

Wednesday 26 August 2009

The government is to invest €150,000 in a trial to introduce entry cards for cannabis-selling cafes in Maastricht.

Maastricht city council hopes introducing membership cards for so-called coffee shops will reduce the nuisance caused by tourists coming to the city specifically to buy drugs. The scheme was first mooted earlier this year.

In addition, ministers are to put €6m into council experiments to tackle problems associated with coffee shops, where users can buy up to five grammes of the drug without fear of prosecution. In particular they want to reduce the number of bigger coffee shops and try to reduce the involvement of organised crime.

The Netherlands has some 700 cafes selling cannabis.

The towns of Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom on the Dutch-Belgian border said last year they plan to close down all the cafes which sell marijuana because of the problems being caused by drug tourists.

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Readers' comments

I am not sure what will be accomplished by this other than driving the market underground. Any idea when this is supposed to begin? 150K Euro is not going to do much for stepping up enforcement of this silly idea. Silly boy that mayor is

By Bobke | August 26, 2009 8:04 PM

That is actually a very good idea. Or perhaps an I.D. check to ascertain dutch citizenship. It would also eliminate the ugly sight of german cops pulling over folks at the border to conduct random searches.

I also might add that any govt. recieveing one cent of profit from the sale of "jane" is a travesty of the highest order. At least in the staes, we take the all risk, and KEEP all of the PROFIT. Does that quantify me as a "republican"? LOL.

By Sid the ugly american | August 26, 2009 8:39 PM

This is a purely political act by right wing Christians and EU lickspittles. Another small step to eradicating all coffeeshops in the Netherlands. Tell the politicians to stick the trial where the sun don't shine. BigBrother comes to Holland. I hope the Dutch don't just lie down like they done when the Germans invaded 60 years ago.

By AntiWilders | August 27, 2009 8:44 AM

this is crazy, it will be pushed underground, hey if business is booming HIRE MORE POLICE DUH !!!, really i dont think these ultra christians do much thinking, what do you think the anonting oil Jesus used was made from, CRISCO, no, it was cannabis oil, VOTE FOR FREEDOM, why do you think NL has the lowest rate of hard drug users in the world, cannabis

By adhd | August 28, 2009 2:43 PM

Here we go again, - Duh!
Whoopee! - we are allowed to buy a whole 5 grams of the forbidden tabooed plant that falls under the "SOFT Drugs" category, while the HARD DRUG "Alcohol" is unlimited and can be as addictive as cocaine! If Michael Jackson had instead taken an overdose of cannabis, he would have slept well, and woken up with an appetite! The government's only reason to forbid cannabis is that it cannot make a monopoly. This dried plant, gram for gram makes more money than all the coffee in Brazil, and mostly black money. My congratulations to Balkende for keeping it underground and wasting billions! Cannabis does not kill, but alcohol and fast-food does!

By stevie | August 29, 2009 4:28 PM

When does this come in to effect, anyone??

By ian booth | October 2, 2009 8:08 PM

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