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url: hMPp://www.theprovince.com/life/Dutch+dope+culture+under+siege/6798575/story.htmlDutch dope culture is under siege
Government blocks tourist sales
Read more: hMPp://www.theprovince.com/life/Dutch+dope+culture+under+siege/6798575/story.html#ixzz1yA02nJch
Government blocks tourist sales
Read more: hMPp://www.theprovince.com/life/Dutch+dope+culture+under+siege/6798575/story.html#ixzz1yA02nJch
Several thousand pot supporters gathered in Amsterdam on Sunday to celebrate "cannabis culture" in The Netherlands, now under threat by government steps to ban sales to foreigners, an organizer said.
Up to 4,000 people attended the fourth annual Cannabis Liberation Day, said Joep Oomen, adding it was held this year to protest the introduction of the so-called "wietpas" or cannabis card.
"Today's festival, the largest in The Netherlands to celebrate cannabis culture, is specifically held in protest of the Dutch government's introduction of the cannabis card," Oomen said, adding "this year it's make or break for coffee shops in The Netherlands."
Dutch national TV showed images of visitors, some dressed in reggae colours and others smoking a joint, while perusing stalls selling cannabis paraphernalia, including pipes, at Westerpark, which is northwest of the city centre.
The new cannabis-card law came into effect May 1 in three southern Dutch provinces.
It effectively transforms coffee shops into private clubs as it requires around 80 cannabis cafés in the south to sell only to signed-up members who live in the country.
Its coverage widens nationwide to 590 other coffee shops in 2013, and is aimed at curbing drug tourism linked to disturbances such as late-night rabble-rousing, traffic jams and illegal drug-pushing.
Each shop is allowed to have just 2,000 members, who must be over 18 years old and permanent residents of the country.
Coffee-shop owners in the southern Netherlands have argued the ruling was already strangling business and increased illegal street sales of cannabis.
Officials, however, including in the southern city of Maastricht, which has 14 coffee shops, claimed success by saying there had already been a significant drop in the number of drug-related disturbances.
Although cannabis is technically illegal, The Netherlands decriminalized the possession of less than five grams of the substance in 1976.
© Copyright (c) The Province
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/life/Dutch+dope+culture+under+siege/6798575/story.html#ixzz1yA0NFEFY
Up to 4,000 people attended the fourth annual Cannabis Liberation Day, said Joep Oomen, adding it was held this year to protest the introduction of the so-called "wietpas" or cannabis card.
"Today's festival, the largest in The Netherlands to celebrate cannabis culture, is specifically held in protest of the Dutch government's introduction of the cannabis card," Oomen said, adding "this year it's make or break for coffee shops in The Netherlands."
Dutch national TV showed images of visitors, some dressed in reggae colours and others smoking a joint, while perusing stalls selling cannabis paraphernalia, including pipes, at Westerpark, which is northwest of the city centre.
The new cannabis-card law came into effect May 1 in three southern Dutch provinces.
It effectively transforms coffee shops into private clubs as it requires around 80 cannabis cafés in the south to sell only to signed-up members who live in the country.
Its coverage widens nationwide to 590 other coffee shops in 2013, and is aimed at curbing drug tourism linked to disturbances such as late-night rabble-rousing, traffic jams and illegal drug-pushing.
Each shop is allowed to have just 2,000 members, who must be over 18 years old and permanent residents of the country.
Coffee-shop owners in the southern Netherlands have argued the ruling was already strangling business and increased illegal street sales of cannabis.
Officials, however, including in the southern city of Maastricht, which has 14 coffee shops, claimed success by saying there had already been a significant drop in the number of drug-related disturbances.
Although cannabis is technically illegal, The Netherlands decriminalized the possession of less than five grams of the substance in 1976.
© Copyright (c) The Province
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/life/Dutch+dope+culture+under+siege/6798575/story.html#ixzz1yA0NFEFY
