Court rejects border towns coffeeshops' case

Puffin13 · Post by **Puffin13** » Thu 17th Sep 2009 05:18 am

Court rejects border towns coffeeshops’ case
16/09/2009

Six coffeeshops in Roosendaal and Bergen-op-Zoom were closed Wednesday after their application to challenge the mayoral orders to ban soft drugs was dismissed.

Breda – Six Dutch cannabis-vending coffeeshops near the Belgian border, under mayoral orders to stop selling soft drugs, were closed Wednesday after losing a court challenge, their lawyer said.

The shops in the southern municipalities of Roosendaal and Bergen-op-Zoom "have left their shutters down," Harry Nieland told AFP.

A Dutch judge on Tuesday rejected an application by the coffeeshops from two southern towns against their mayors' plans to stop them selling soft drugs.

The case had wrongly been brought before a civil court and should instead have been taken to an administrative tribunal, said the judge in Breda in the southern Netherlands.

In 2008, the mayors of Roosendaal and Bergen-op-Zoom announced eight coffeeshops near the borders to stop selling cannabis from Wednesday in a bid to ward off some 25,000 marijuana-smoking tourists who flood their communities every week.

They could continue operating as ordinary bars, and violation would be punishable by a five-year closure.

On Friday, six of the eight shops – two in Roosendaal and four in Bergen-op-Zoom – took the mayors to court last week for an order preventing their closure in the event of transgression, but a judge rejected their application on Tuesday.

Of the other two, which did not take part in the court challenge, one remained open on Wednesday but assured AFP by telephone that it was selling "only coffee".

Nieland said his clients were considering different options for filing a new challenge to the mayors' decision with an administrative tribunal.

The consumption and possession of small amounts of cannabis has been decriminalised in The Netherlands since 1976, as is its sale in licensed coffeeshops. Its cultivation remains forbidden.

Source

cantona7 · Post by **cantona7** » Fri 18th Sep 2009 08:30 am

i thought this was all worked out. sure hope this doesn't happen.

seanlyall · Post by **seanlyall** » Fri 18th Sep 2009 09:29 am

Surely 25000 people in places like Breda is a good thing? What else does it have going for it apart from the visits of Football fans?

aradiasraven · Post by **aradiasraven** » Fri 18th Sep 2009 11:44 am

[quote="seanlyall"]Surely 25000 people in places like Breda is a good thing? What else does it have going for it apart from the visits of Football fans?[/quote

FYI BREDA'S SHOPS ARE NOT CLOSED it is the towns of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal that are. The article says Breda because that is where court was held and the news was issued.