Coffeeshops in Limburg turn members only
24 April 2009
Starting next year, all coffee shops in the Dutch province of Limburg will become private clubs; only registered members will be able to buy soft drugs.
The new rule is an attempt to curb nuisance from the sale of cannabis and the drugs tourism from neighbouring countries. The private club idea originated with Maastricht mayor Gerd Leers.
Leers had previously suggested concentrating all the coffee shops in the town on three "weed boulevards" close to the borders with Belgium and Germany. But the idea met with so much resistance that he was forced to look for an alternative.
The mayor would have liked to make the membership cards available to Dutch residents only, but European regulations forbid excluding foreign customers. Still, the membership system is expected to discourage drug tourists as it will take several days to process. That might prove unpopular with customers coming from Belgium, France and Germany.
According to Leers' plans customers should apply for membership with the coffee shop owners, who will also process the applications. The local authorities will not be involved. Sales are limited to three grammes per customer per day. Payments have to be made electronically, making anonymous purchases impossible. Once the three-grammes limit is reached, the same customer will not be allowed to buy from another coffee shop anywhere in Limburg within the same 24-hour period.
Mayor Leers says justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin and home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst are enthusiastic about the Limburg approach. But another idea from Limburg to allow coffee shops to grow their own weed, is meeting with resistance from The Hague. There is also some doubt as to whether Limburg has enough police to prevent the soft drugs trade from going underground.
The Limburg municipalities plan to publicise the new policy with a marketing campaign directed at drug users in France and elsewhere.
Source
Coffeeshops in Limburg turn members only
the province of Limburg really fucks me up in the last couple of months. first they start to make many many shops having a fingerprint-system, closing down shops in some towns, AND NOW THIS?
wtf are they trying to do? I know there are cities where the tourists (AND the dutch as well!) act like they can do whatever they want in front of coffeeshops, but there are cities where even though there are coffeeshops is no disturbance at all. I really cant understand what they are trying to pull, I would suggest the drug tourists are more important to Limburg than any other province in Holland. All of the cities are very small and dont have that much of people, so I would say if the drug tourists dont come things like restaurants and so on will be in trouble....but who cares, I always liked to spend some money in the shops and give something back by the taxes you pay in a shop.......the bad about this is, the mayor of Maastricht sounds like a dick, but he is the only one trying to keep the coffeeshops IN limburg open for the drug tourists because he knows his city would otherwise lose many of the tourists....they should come back to what the coffeeshop-thing is really about - keeping the people away from hard drugs and criminals!!!!!!!!!
wtf are they trying to do? I know there are cities where the tourists (AND the dutch as well!) act like they can do whatever they want in front of coffeeshops, but there are cities where even though there are coffeeshops is no disturbance at all. I really cant understand what they are trying to pull, I would suggest the drug tourists are more important to Limburg than any other province in Holland. All of the cities are very small and dont have that much of people, so I would say if the drug tourists dont come things like restaurants and so on will be in trouble....but who cares, I always liked to spend some money in the shops and give something back by the taxes you pay in a shop.......the bad about this is, the mayor of Maastricht sounds like a dick, but he is the only one trying to keep the coffeeshops IN limburg open for the drug tourists because he knows his city would otherwise lose many of the tourists....they should come back to what the coffeeshop-thing is really about - keeping the people away from hard drugs and criminals!!!!!!!!!
.I can see how the drug tourism issue is becoming more problematic. However......
With the supply of cannabis to the dutch coffeeshops being underground there is a ever-growing criminal infrastructure whose business is to sell cannabis. These people do not care about selling to foreigners, or a daily limit. They just want cash for weed and tbh, that is not difficult to find.
The longer we tolerate these cartels (through our governments' naive attitude), the worse this situation will get, as they will become more powerful and their product being distributed to a wider audience.
The ONLY solution is to take control of this trade by legalising the supply of weed to coffeeshops and all neighbouring european countries to do the same.
With the supply of cannabis to the dutch coffeeshops being underground there is a ever-growing criminal infrastructure whose business is to sell cannabis. These people do not care about selling to foreigners, or a daily limit. They just want cash for weed and tbh, that is not difficult to find.
The longer we tolerate these cartels (through our governments' naive attitude), the worse this situation will get, as they will become more powerful and their product being distributed to a wider audience.
The ONLY solution is to take control of this trade by legalising the supply of weed to coffeeshops and all neighbouring european countries to do the same.
All the surrounding countries have to do is, follow the 'Duch example' and open CoffeeShops themselves! This will solve the problem overnight for everyone. The CoffeeShop owners need to take a more 'proactive' position and stop 'lamely' accepting this obvious slow erosion of the Dutch CoffeeShop system! The spoilers and do-gooders want to shut-down any form of 'fun loving, activity, because they themselves have nothing in their own lives...so lets spoil it for others! It's an age-old human trait. The prohobitionist and Drug War crazies gain 'scare/we-told-you-so' cheap publicity, without thinking, taking in the whole picture as to what will happen if it is driven underground once again...because they care little about people, their lives, and choices!
Last edited by recrec on Fri 15th May 2009 11:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
its not as complicated as you state it. the big companies of this world are interested in cannabis/hemp being illegal for several reasons, its as easy as this!recrec wrote:All the surrounding countries have to do is follow the 'Duch example' and open CoffeeShops themselves! This will solve thje poroblem overnight for everyone. The CoffeeShop owners need to take a more proactive position and stop 'lameley' accepting this obvious slow erosion of the Dutch CoffeeShop system! The spoilers and do-gooders want to shut-down any form of 'fun loving, activity, because they themselves have nothing in their own lives...so lets spoil it for others! It's an age-old human trait. The prohobitionist and Drug War crazies gain 'scare/we-told-you-so' cheap publicity, without thinking, taking in the whole picture as to what will happen if it is driven underground once again...because they care little about people, their lives, and choices!
I fully agree...it would put a lot of (particularly American) industries out-of-business overnight, or at least severely 'dent' their profit margins, but still...they could compete, or even better join in!sh@dy wrote:its not as complicated as you state it. the big companies of this world are interested in cannabis/hemp being illegal for several reasons, its as easy as this!recrec wrote:All the surrounding countries have to do is follow the 'Duch example' and open CoffeeShops themselves! This will solve thje poroblem overnight for everyone. The CoffeeShop owners need to take a more proactive position and stop 'lameley' accepting this obvious slow erosion of the Dutch CoffeeShop system! The spoilers and do-gooders want to shut-down any form of 'fun loving, activity, because they themselves have nothing in their own lives...so lets spoil it for others! It's an age-old human trait. The prohobitionist and Drug War crazies gain 'scare/we-told-you-so' cheap publicity, without thinking, taking in the whole picture as to what will happen if it is driven underground once again...because they care little about people, their lives, and choices!
try to explain that to the surrounding countries man....friends of mine were caught with a joint and got a 600€ fine for it, another friend had 3 joints and got a fine of 1300€....this is ridicilious, pot-heads are still junkies in our country, nothing more, people who dont smoke will look down on you, its a shame.milehigh wrote:Exactly, Coffeeshops in Belgium, Germany, and France would solve the problem over night.Kingdoc wrote:If anything it shows the demand for coffeeshops in the benelux countries,& So called drug tourists are not the nederlands problem if you ask me! they are a product of where they come from.
That's outrageous! Is all of Germany that intolerant?try to explain that to the surrounding countries man....friends of mine were caught with a joint and got a 600€ fine for it, another friend had 3 joints and got a fine of 1300€....this is ridicilious, pot-heads are still junkies in our country, nothing more, people who dont smoke will look down on you, its a shame.
it depends on the police-officer you get....when hes a good one then he will let you go with no fine and just throw the weed to the garbage. when you get bad luck, then he will bring it to court and you get a big fine for even smaller quantities....but its different from person to person, some are lucky and get away, some get a small fine, some get a big fine......its crazy.doobydave wrote:That's outrageous! Is all of Germany that intolerant?try to explain that to the surrounding countries man....friends of mine were caught with a joint and got a 600€ fine for it, another friend had 3 joints and got a fine of 1300€....this is ridicilious, pot-heads are still junkies in our country, nothing more, people who dont smoke will look down on you, its a shame.
but I wouldnt say intollerant, you can light a joint in the centre of every big city, the people will look at you, but its not like someone would call the police (ok if bad luck....)