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Maastricht investigates effect of cannabis pass

Tuesday 01 March 2011

Maastricht council has asked two researchers from Tilburg university and the COT Safety and Crisis Management Centre in Leiden to look into the effects of the cannabis pass.

The government wants to introduce the special passes for coffee shop users to limit marijuana use to local Dutch people and stamp out drugs-related violence.

The researchers will look at drugs-related problems in areas in South Limburg and along the Belgian border with no coffee shops, and then compare these findings with the nuisance caused in towns and cities with coffee shops.

The results are expected before the end of June.

..and stamp out drug-related violence.

eh?

I can see there being violence on the very lucrative supply side, but this will not go away by attempting to limit the 'legal' sales to nationals. But violence associated with a large number of people wanting to buy small amounts of pot? Can't see it really.

Seriously, it doesn't take much mental agility to work out that these foreigners will end up buying the same pot but through slightly different channels, without it being subjected to Dutch taxes. This more clandestine distribution will almost definitely increase drug-related violence.

Edit - If you want to put an end to drug-related violence, take on the supply side yourself and put them out of business.

What is there not to understand?

This appears to be good news for me; as i'll be spending a few days in Maastricht from 30/4 thru 02/5. I appreciate the info....

I'm wondering if someone would enlighten me on the whole cs id process in Maastricht. Would a USA driver's license suffice or must I show a passport? I tend to lock my passport in my hotel safe & carry my driver's license as a form of id. Also, is id required for entering the cs or just purchasing the gear? Thanks for the help!

Sincerely,
Maastricht Newbie

Kid Chavez wrote: Also, is id required for entering the cs or just purchasing the gear?

id is required for entering the cs

I think the proposed introduction of the wietpas has absolutely sweet F.A. to do with the violence. This is merely a convenient pretext. The wietpas is a political decision. Political Decisions are made by one group in power to appease or please another powerful group. The 'rights' and 'wrongs' of any specific issue are only relevant insofar as they are: a. perceived by anyone whose opinion counts' or, b. unavoidably central to the issue.

The Poll Tax in the UK is an excellent example of what I am saying. The British govt miscalculated just how determined people over here were to protest and resist that legislation but the fuckers still pressed on with it UNTIL the political expediency of backing down outweighed the advantages of politely telling the public to fuck off and lump it cos it was staying. The riots forced the govt here to backtrack - but not really that far. Once the furore had died down, the thing was simply re-packaged as Council Tax (cuntsil tax) and the additional taxation revenue that was originally wanted thru the poll tax was obtained anyway.

The current political flavour in Holland is skewed in favour of the right wing. The 'right wing', just like the 'far left' is populated by individuals whose contempt for all 'freedoms' is legendary.

Countless ACD'ers have pointed out the absurdity of the officially stated reasons for the Wietpas and yet these issues are almost entirely sidestepped by the Dutch Govt. The reasons they give are misrepresentations of reality but, critically, with some truth mixed in: Eg. Yes, there are legitimate concerns in some of the border towns and one can understand local Dutch residents being pissed off with certain aspects of pot-tourism. By emphasising this as a key part of their argument, however, wietpas proponents strengthen their case using undeniable but localised and specific issues to support a blanket introduction of the measure. The media (also politically driven in its loyalties) does a sterling job of playing-up the problems in the border areas and linking them in people's minds, spuriously, to serious drug-related violence. The danger is that the average Dutch citizen (who does not smoke pot) who is just like the average citizen of any other western country, consumes their daily dose of mainstream media and 'concludes' that, well, "something must be done about all this violence and stuff'...Oh, look! There's a solution called a 'wietpas'! Great! Pass the potato chips, will you?!"

'Research'- SHMEESEARCH! The function of the research is to give scientific / academic credibility to the proposals. If 'the experts' say the wietpas 'works', normal, right-minded citizens will support or at least not oppose it. Comparing towns as described in the OP's post will not produce academically rigorous results unless ALL local demographic factors are adjusted for. 'Research', in this case, is rather like the government commissioning an 'independent enquiry' into its own dirty-dealing: i.e. rigged from the start. As a former 'researcher' myself, I know that research can be made to show whatever the fuck you want it to. Commercial clients of mine (may God forgive me for it) used certain types of research to assist in the sales process and, believe you me, they usually had no intention of paying for research that showed them anything other than what they wanted to see...

I hope I'm completely wrong in this case.

CannaSir-absolutly agree.

Ditto, nicely stated CannaSir.

As you stated, researchers can manipulate the findings to support XYZ or to debunk XYZ.
This study is skewed before it began. Read on....
Example:
Compare alcohol-related crimes between a dry town (no alcohol sales) to towns that allow alcohol sales. Guess what the research will prove? That's right, dry towns have significantly lower alcohol-related crimes, is there really a surprise? Same applies to the cannabis issue, or any issue for that matter. An increase in tourism will bring an increase in crime, a point that has been proven many times over.
If the Dutch government was serious about ending cannabis-related violence (is there cannabis-related violence?), then they should legalize it. Just too fucking simple. I guarantee that if cannabis were to be legalized and PROPERLY controlled (managed), cannabis-related crime would almost be nonexistent, if such violence even exists.
Many tourists may/will opt to go somewhere else because one of the reasons, if not the main attraction, is the coffeeshop scene. If there ever were a need for a proper research project, it would be the financial impact the pass system would have on the Dutch economy, not to mention a project to determine the affects (economic/criminal/population/etc...) if they were to legalize cannabis.

A good poll question: Which country will be the first to (all-out) legalize cannabis?
Won't be the US. Simply stated, too many Americans are ignorant/stupid when it comes to cannabis (see California Nov 2010). Hell, this applies to all nations and peoples, so what do we as cannabis smokers do? Keep fighting the good fight, with intellect, compassion, and most importantly, SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. Some good has come from scientific research, just ask the residents of the 15 US States and Wash. DC that passed MMJ laws.

Here's to the day when consenting adults will be able to chose whether to consume cannabis, or not, legally.

Happy toking.

The purpose of academic research is to support politicians' prejudice. If they don't then they just dismiss it anyway.

Maybe its time we helped our dutch comrades to have there own egypt?.

"Results are expected before the end of June"

Well when do they expect this experiment to start? I just came back form Maastricht and it was business as usual.

Chrisuperfly wrote:"Results are expected before the end of June"

Well when do they expect this experiment to start? I just came back form Maastricht and it was business as usual.

I doubt if the experiment will involve coffeeshop visitors. Since they are university professors, they should have a large pool of participants.

Peace,
Balou