Dutch cannabis buyers face biometric testing
By Sabine Fiedler Thu Jun 21, 8:04 AM ET
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Buying cannabis in the Dutch city of Maastricht will soon mean having your fingerprints taken, your face scanned and your biometric data recorded.
ADVERTISEMENT
All 15 coffee shops in the southern city are spending about 100,000 euros ($134,000) installing a security system that makes it harder for an under-age cannabis smoker to enter than a terrorist to set foot in Europe, according to Marc Josemans, head of the local coffee shop union.
"We are ashamed for this attack on your privacy," reads an explanatory leaflet about the system starting in September.
The coffee shops face a continual struggle to prove they are not selling to people under the age of 18 or more than 5 grams of cannabis a day to any one individual.
If they can't, they risk being shut down.
"If a 17-year-old comes here, shows the ID of his very similar-looking older brother and then gets caught by the police with cannabis bought in our shop, we have to prove that he broke the rules, not us," said Josemans.
Cannabis is theoretically illegal in the Netherlands but has been tolerated in small amounts since the 1970s.
Customers in Maastricht will have their fingers and face scanned. The scans will be compared with stored data and, if everything matches, they will be able to enter the coffee shop.
No names and addresses are stored and details on the amount of cannabis bought every day will be saved only until midnight.
The information is completely secure, coffee shop owners say. But Josemans concedes 90 percent of his clients don't like the system and he expects the new measures to hurt sales initially.
"I don't like them registering what you buy, it's too much Big Brother," says Barry, 34. "But a fingerprint is okay."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070621/sc_ ... shops_dc_1
Dutch cannabis buyers face biometric testing
It is very 'big dobber' but in all honesty if it means that the coffeeshops can stay alive and are more secure from closure from underagers frequenting the establishment then who cares?
That is only providing the info really does get deleted at midnight, but does that cover your fingerprint aswell? I know for a fact that I wouldn't like my finger print and my face scan being kept by anyone.
My friend co-owns Fantasia in Maastricht, I'll drop him an E-Mail and see what he's got to say about the whole affair...
That is only providing the info really does get deleted at midnight, but does that cover your fingerprint aswell? I know for a fact that I wouldn't like my finger print and my face scan being kept by anyone.
My friend co-owns Fantasia in Maastricht, I'll drop him an E-Mail and see what he's got to say about the whole affair...
..........
-
cattales1960
- Posts: 2975
- Joined: Sun 25th Jun 2006 06:20 pm
- Location: Saint Louis MO
Aye, that was my point ... is ALL the info deleted at midnight? or just what you bought? If it's the latter then it's entirely wrong keeping that sort of information on people just because they choose to take part in a tollerated past time...cattales1960 wrote:Its not a good thing for people from the USA. what it will do is put you on lists of people who "MIGHT" smuggle drugs into the USA and therefore subject you to unnecessary hassles.. I dont like it one bit.
..........
