Dutch city seeks to end drug tourism
 

Dutch city seeks to end drug tourism - Aug 2010
Maastricht wants to make its legalized use of recreational drugs a Dutch-only policy

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[LINKHOTTEN]

MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands ? On a recent summer night, Marc Josemans?s Easy Going Coffee Shop was packed. The lines to buy marijuana and hashish stretched to the reception area where customers waited behind glass barriers.

Most were young. Few were Dutch.

Thousands of ?drug tourists? sweep into this small, picturesque city in the southeastern part of the Netherlands every day ? as many as two million a year, city officials say. Their sole purpose is to visit the city?s 13 ?coffee shops,? where they can buy varieties of marijuana with names like Big Bud, Amnesia and Gold Palm without fear of prosecution.

It is an attraction Maastricht and other Dutch border cities would now gladly do without. Struggling to reduce traffic jams and a high crime rate, the city is pushing to make its legalized use of recreational drugs a Dutch-only policy, banning sales to foreigners who cross the border to indulge. But whether the European Union?s free trade laws will allow that is another matter.

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:2 cents: That's okay, California is taking over. :rasta

2 million cash spending tourists a year. That's a lot of money to just turn your nose at.

Word..... "oh no, people are spending too much money here! We have to stop this!" :1orglaugh

if its legal then what's the problem?? Shouldn't the fact that police aren't wasting efforts on drug busts allow them more time to stop the other crimes?

I'd hate to live in a city known for its accessibility of drugs myself, can't really blame them.

are they driving high and killing people, or getting violent and getting into fights? If nothing of the sorts is happening, why stop that kind of money coming into the town?

There was a treaty in Europe once upon a time with the name of that City in it... did that not have something to do with equal rights for ALL Europeans etc etc etc?

These people are wasting their time.

Have you ever visited such a city?

That's like trying to stop pedophiles and whore mongers from going to Thailand. Ain't gonna happen.

Drug runners are the main reason for this, search youtube for "Maastricht drug runners" to see them chased by police and the havoc they cause

They won't be able to ban other Europeans from buying.

Maybe the 2 million isn't enough to cover the problems caused by the extra traffic, etc.

Also, young potheads are realllllly annoying sometimes.

Of course they can, the selling and buying of soft drugs is being tolerated, it's not a law nor a right.

There can be good effects to marijuana such as feelings of euphoria.
However, I think there are more bad effects.

Article was misleading then

it is, it's not "legal" but tolerated indeed. Gedoogbeleid is the word for it ;)))