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Drug tourists no longer spotted in Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal
16/09/2009

De Pers reports drug tourists from Belgium and France have vanished from the towns of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal in the southern province of North Brabant after mayors of both towns successfully banned the sale of cannabis in coffee shops.

Terneuzen, a town in the south-western province of Zeeland, closed down its main coffee shop in 2008 after police discovered their supply exceeded the legal maximum. The town had been facing serious traffic problems as a result of the thousands of drug tourists a day who visited the coffee shop.

Against all expectations, there have been no problems. Zeeland police force spokesperson Esther Boot said: “We have been completely taken by surprise. Where have the drug tourists gone? We don’t know”.

According to Boot, there has been no increase in street trading. Police in the Belgian port of Antwerp also report there has been no increase in soft-drug related arrests since the cannabis-selling coffee shops across the border were closed down.

The city of Maastricht and seven other towns in the south-eastern province of Limburg are working on an identity card scheme for local customers to keep drug tourists out.

The paper questions the necessity of setting up a locals-only membership card as the foreign drug tourists have disappeared.

Source

"Where did all the drug tourists go?"

they went to the next town along

i think this is a good thing, at least now a big city like amsterdam will realise the massive negative economic effect limiting to just locals will cause

Well I hope there won't be any changes before me next visit in Oct

No cos they have all been moved onto flanders.

would really like to see some facts about the income of the city from now on compared to the last year

sh@dy wrote:would really like to see some facts about the income of the city from now on compared to the last year

Very little impact, these types of visitors hit the CS and get back on the road.

Marco wrote:

sh@dy wrote:would really like to see some facts about the income of the city from now on compared to the last year

Very little impact, these types of visitors hit the CS and get back on the road.

since you live in Amsterdam, I suggest you dont know this kind of things very well? (sorry if I offended you, I just meant you are not into it, right?)
I remember from every visit to a border-town, that we always went into other stores as well, be it a restaurant, a kiosk or whatever....many "drug tourists" get something to eat before they drive back, or like here in Germany, many of us like the munchies being sold in the Netherlands like Cheetos which is almost impossible to get in Germany.,....so I would say there is an impact

Just popped up to Noord Brabant on the train, and can confirm that Roosendaal offers no more weed! Leastways, not through the coffeeshops. Gutting really, I used to like the Yellow Moon a lot.

So what does the tourist do? He goes to the next town...

I never spend that much money anywhere else, tbh. €4 in the station shop for some food today, plus the price of the train tickets... I'm not sure how much cash the majority of the 'drugs tourists' I used to see in Rosendaal would spend in the town either, particularly as the 4 shops were all station-side of town, away from the centre.

Anyway, let's hope the legal challenges come to something.

those shops pay taxes right ? if drug tourists were a huge problem then must have been a decent level of income the gov miss out on

I remember stopping in Venlo back in 2005 and two shops required customers to buy a white plastic card with a magnetic strip, for 5 Euros. To note, the customer received 5 Euros off of their next purchase, so what's the point? CONTROL! My last visit to Venlo was eight months ago, stopped by Roots/Oasis and sure enough, a membership card was required to purchase gear. Needless to say, I haven't been in a Venlo shop since. Love the city and the surrounding area, so I still visit occasionally.

One would hope that the Dutch government understands that limiting or eradicating the sale of cannabis would have a devastating effect on their economy. First, loss of tax revenue on the sale of cannabis products. Second, loss of tax revenue generated by service related industries: hotels, restaurants, etc... In addition, possibly an increase in unemployment due to cut backs because of the decrease in tourism. Like it or not, many people do come to the Netherlands for cannabis only, and when they stop coming, so does the tax revenue.
So, what to do? One option is to allow Dutch States to regulate cannabis, therefore allowing certain states that have border issues to enact legislation preventing non Dutch citizen from purchasing cannabis. Seems to me that this is already taken place, albeit not at a national level. Not good. Prohibition sucks, period.
Peace.

Venlo is almost the only city with passes for shops, no other cities at the border do it

Venlo may be the proving ground for this type of control. I first noticed the "membership" requirements back in 2005. Could very well be a five or ten year study, tracking various information such as nationality, race, gender, age, etc... The only information that they haven't been able to obtain (yet) is whether any specific person purchased and/or ingested cannabis or its byproducts. I won't be surprised that in the near future requirements will dictate that passports/ID's be scanned at the time of purchase as well. This information can and probably will be shared with border countries. Think a while on this, very disturbing.
All about power and control.
Peace