from the Detroit Metro Times:
Smoking out tourists?
Closing off access to coffee shops in the name of 'combating drug tourism'By John Sinclair
Published: July 6, 2011
The Dutch government's current attempt to restructure Holland's permissive cannabis culture and cripple the thriving cannabis industry continues to baffle local and international observers. The idea — which the courts and other outposts of the establishment are grappling with — is to limit licit marijuana smoking to Dutch citizens and official residents of the Netherlands.
A recent court ruling may have slowed down the process when the Council of State determined that cities can't regulate marijuana sales, as reported in The International Herald Tribune, because "national law already theoretically bans selling marijuana," implying that "the government must change the law in order to bar foreigners, rather than simply amending policy."
However, according to local news source DutchNews.nl, quoting an official court statement, "the judgment does not mean the mayor has no further statutory scope for taking measures against coffee shops that he believes cause nuisance problems. ... Under the Opium Act itself, the mayor may impose an enforcement order against coffee shops selling narcotics."
In response to the court action, the Netherlands justice ministry "has concluded that the ruling clears the way for the government to turn coffee shops into members-only clubs open only to people who officially live in the Netherlands," DutchNews.nl reported. "It is clear that European law allows foreigners to be excluded from coffee shops, but this will have to be implemented via a different legal mechanism" which "will be solved quickly," a justice ministry spokesman told news agency ANP. ........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://metrotimes.com/mmj/smoking-out-tourists-1.1171459