FruityBud
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Six of the eight coffee shops in Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal have closed down, as a ban on the sale of cannabis in the towns comes into force.
The cities in the southwest, close to the Belgian border, say their coffee shops attract 25,000 Belgian drug tourists a week a source of nuisance and irritation to the locals.
In the Netherlands, cannabis is not actually legal, but retail sale of up to five grams in so-called coffee shops is tolerated. However, Dutch border towns have been wrestling with the problem of how to deal with the stream of Belgian, German and French tourists who cross the border to buy the drug. The tourists annoy local residents and attract illegal street dealers.
Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal have chosen to deal with the problem by banning the sale of cannabis altogether. From Wednesday, the cities coffee shops are obliged to live up to their name and stick to selling coffee. Those that flout the ban face a five-year closure.
Six coffee shop owners tried to take out an injunction to prevent the local authority from changing the rules. However, the request failed on a technicality: the court ruled they should have brought the case against the local authority and not against the mayor. The owners have announced they will be staying closed pending a further court case. The two other coffee shops have not said whether they plan to abide by the new rules, but in both cities the police are out in force to clamp down on any infringements.
A publicity campaign has been launched in Belgium aimed at leaving would-be drug tourists in no doubt about the Dutch message on border-town tolerance of drug tourism: its over cest fini. This is the title of a website pointing out the policy change to Belgians. The campaign is accompanied by a comedy video clip showing disappointed Belgian drugs tourists ending up in the back of a police van. Despite the campaigns French name, it is in Dutch, aimed at Flemish-speaking Belgians on the other side of the border.
In practice, the border-town ban simply means that Belgians will have to travel further into the Netherlands to track down a coffee shop selling cannabis, as in the rest of the country the policy of tolerance remains unchanged.
The city of Maastricht, sandwiched between Belgium and Germany in the southern province of Limburg, is taking a different approach to the drug-tourist problem. It proposes to introduce a coffee shop pass system: foreign day-trippers trying to buy cannabis without a pass will be turned down.
Quick Note: C'est Fini is to indicate that you don't want to continue whatever you are doing, cross your arms in front of your chest, hands up and palms out, then swing them down and out, while saying, "C'est fini."
hxxp://tinyurl.com/qxybva
The cities in the southwest, close to the Belgian border, say their coffee shops attract 25,000 Belgian drug tourists a week a source of nuisance and irritation to the locals.
In the Netherlands, cannabis is not actually legal, but retail sale of up to five grams in so-called coffee shops is tolerated. However, Dutch border towns have been wrestling with the problem of how to deal with the stream of Belgian, German and French tourists who cross the border to buy the drug. The tourists annoy local residents and attract illegal street dealers.
Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal have chosen to deal with the problem by banning the sale of cannabis altogether. From Wednesday, the cities coffee shops are obliged to live up to their name and stick to selling coffee. Those that flout the ban face a five-year closure.
Six coffee shop owners tried to take out an injunction to prevent the local authority from changing the rules. However, the request failed on a technicality: the court ruled they should have brought the case against the local authority and not against the mayor. The owners have announced they will be staying closed pending a further court case. The two other coffee shops have not said whether they plan to abide by the new rules, but in both cities the police are out in force to clamp down on any infringements.
A publicity campaign has been launched in Belgium aimed at leaving would-be drug tourists in no doubt about the Dutch message on border-town tolerance of drug tourism: its over cest fini. This is the title of a website pointing out the policy change to Belgians. The campaign is accompanied by a comedy video clip showing disappointed Belgian drugs tourists ending up in the back of a police van. Despite the campaigns French name, it is in Dutch, aimed at Flemish-speaking Belgians on the other side of the border.
In practice, the border-town ban simply means that Belgians will have to travel further into the Netherlands to track down a coffee shop selling cannabis, as in the rest of the country the policy of tolerance remains unchanged.
The city of Maastricht, sandwiched between Belgium and Germany in the southern province of Limburg, is taking a different approach to the drug-tourist problem. It proposes to introduce a coffee shop pass system: foreign day-trippers trying to buy cannabis without a pass will be turned down.
Quick Note: C'est Fini is to indicate that you don't want to continue whatever you are doing, cross your arms in front of your chest, hands up and palms out, then swing them down and out, while saying, "C'est fini."
hxxp://tinyurl.com/qxybva
