Good News from the Cannabis Tribunal - Our Coffeeshops are

[Puffin13]

Good News from the Cannabis Tribunal - Our Coffeeshops are safe and secure!

Cannabis prohibition responsible for 50 % of criminality

THE HAGUE, 3 December 2008 - Yesterday the Cannabis Tribunal in The Hague ended with the final conclusion that a ban on cannabis does indeed have more disadvantages than advantages. Representatives of the Christian Democrat Party (CDA) failed to convince an independent judge
of the opposite. On behalf of the organisers, Joep Oomen, spokesperson,launched a call to the Members of the Dutch Parliament to request the Dutch government to abolish this ban as soon as possible.

An amount of 200.000 euro had been offered to the political party thatwould be able to convince an independent court of the positive effects of a ban on cannabis.

The organisers had difficulties in finding people in favour of the ban.Oomen: “There is no doctor in the Netherlands who is willing to maintain that cannabis is a major public health danger and a ban has any positive effect at all.”

Of all political parties only the CDA was willing to accept the challenge. Both mayor Leonard Geluk of Rotterdam as well as Member of Parliament Cisca Joldersma have proposed to further limit the number of coffeeshops.

Argumentation expert and law philosopher Hendrik Kaptein, chairman of the court that was created for this purpose, demolished the defense of the Christian Democrats. Before an audience of scientists, former policemen, coffeeshop owners and cannabis activists he called their
arguments ‘fallacies’ and ‘absolutely worthless’.

The court could not find any argument against the plea for legalisation of the cannabis market proposed by Hans van Duijn, former president of the Dutch Police Association and a member of LEAP. According to Van Duijn, the CDA ­ due to the continuation of the ban on cannabis - is
responsible for 50% of the criminality in the Netherlands, and every year, one and a half billion euro of tax money is wasted on a useless war on drugs. No attempt to contradict either argument was made by Joldersma.

It was also reported that most mayor's of large cities will not be enforcing the so called 250 Meters rule, whereby a coffeeshop that is within 250 meters of a middle school, cannot remain open.

Soon a DVD will be produced of the Tribunal’s proceedings that were
broadcast live on the Internet. The final declaration that was offered
to the Members of the Dutch Parliament can be read at
www.cannabistribunaal.nl

The Cannabis Tribunal was organised by Cannabis College, the Stichting Drugsbeleid and Encod.

Source

[Bollo]

finally some positive news on the future of coffeeshop's!

[Sombrero]

.

[NYCBud]

Hahaha fucking YES!!!!!! stick that up yer arse CDA!!! Does this meen that dam will not be closing the 43 coffeeshops?

[sh@dy]

this is the first good news I hear from the netherlands since months....I am really happy this happened.

[cheese]

seriously.. most of the news i read in the netherlands is horrible news.. and in fact very backwards for what i thought made the netherlands and amsterdam the place that it is.

im glad there are still some good people fighting for a good cause.

[NirvanaEJ]

Hahaha fucking YES!!!!!! stick that up yer arse CDA!!! Does this meen that dam will not be closing the 43 coffeeshops?

its what i hope and pray for

[milehigh]

I was at the Tribunaal both days as an active participant. It was great to see all the Cannabis activist come together.

[recrec]

Fantastic news...about time good sense/common sense prevailed over all this ignorance and hysteria created by some elements in the CDA!

[greenleaf420]

wooooohooo good news