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Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-22, 1:03 am

keithp
Posts: 44
Location: Virginia, USA
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Someone recently told Holland was placing a ban on purchases of weed by non-residents or non-citizens? Is this true?

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-22, 3:01 am

PlayItAgainSamSupporting Member
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It certainly wasn't true in late November/ early December.... I got blasted on Chocolope from Green Place, not to mention vaped a bunch of Amnesia Haze at Amnesia...
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-22, 11:07 am

jgramos Moderator
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Location: UK
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It was pretty much the same as PlayItAgainSam said 10 -- 14 days ago as well! ;-)

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-22, 4:44 pm

block
Posts: 458
Location: Texas 2
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There is indeed some truth in it. The southern region around Maastricht passed some scheme last summer that would make coffeeshops in the area "members only" The plan was to have only Dutch citizens as members. They figured that by doing this it would eliminate folks from Belgium and Germany coming into town and thus becoming what they call "drug tourists" The scheme was supposed to take effect January 1 and I have not been able to confirm whether or not it is actually being enforced although I have heard that it is not. The mayor of Maastricht was the brilliant mind that thought this idea up and now I notice he was forced to resign a few days back because of a scandel.

I am not nearly as smart as former Mayor Leers but it sorta occurred to me that if they made coffeeshops into members only then it would force everything into a "black market"....but once again I catch myself and tell myself that politicians are probably the smartest people on earth and I am just a peon and I need to keep my thoughts to myself......Wished I were sitting at Hunters thinking about all this

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Miles Davis
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-22, 5:11 pm

jgramos Moderator
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With the way the laws were meant to be set in Maastricht, surely it was never going to work because people who couldn't prove they were locals would just go out of town to buy their weed.....and for those "drug tourists" from neighbouring countries, it wouldn't be too far out of their way to go to an area where they could buy weed!

Peace

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-22, 5:55 pm

block
Posts: 458
Location: Texas 2
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I sure wished I could get a confirmation as to whether Maastricht has dropped this plan or not.

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Miles Davis
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-22, 6:56 pm

jgramos Moderator
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Location: UK
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Me too....I'll try finding out through a few avenues. I'll post if I can find out.

Peace

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-22, 7:17 pm

block
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Location: Texas 2
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Thanks...

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-23, 2:35 am

Degenerate76
Posts: 60
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Quote:
The plan was to have only Dutch citizens as members. They figured that by doing this it would eliminate folks from Belgium and Germany coming into town and thus becoming what they call "drug tourists"


Totally contrary to EU law - they cannot discriminate in favour of locals against other EU citizens.
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-23, 1:50 pm

Thepacifist
Posts: 295
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I find it funny how a lot of Americans and people who've never been there keep telling me how tourists can't do this and that. It's not gonna happen to Amsterdam imo, if it ever did, that would be a very sad day. They'd lose so much money.

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-23, 3:36 pm

Royale_w_cheese
Posts: 27
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Quote:
I find it funny how a lot of Americans and people who've never been there keep telling me how tourists can't do this and that.


I come across people like that all the time. "oh the streets are littered with junkies that you have to walk over" or "the city is falling apart due to all druggies" ect,ect,ect....

My reply is always the same "So when were you last there? , oh you mean you've never been there!"

Some people are just sheep.
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-23, 4:18 pm

block
Posts: 458
Location: Texas 2
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Although it is contrary to EU law the scheme was indeed in place and set to be implemented on January 1. The fact that it flies in the face of EU rules was discussed as well. Most folks on this board never visit Maastricht or the Limburg region for that matter but believe me there has been a plan to go Members only in Maastricht. This is not something some American thought he heard. This scheme was indeed real. To my knowledge there was never any talk of trying it in Amsterdam this was for the Limburg Region only. Any furthermore the last time I checked Bergan op Zoom (sp?) has shut down all their shops to combat the drug tourists I have not hear from my friends in that area in awhile but shops there closed their doors back in late summer so I am not sure what the status is in that area.



http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... s_pass.php

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-23, 5:21 pm

aldo
Posts: 138
Location: Italy
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Quote:

"Totally contrary to EU law - they cannot discriminate in favour of locals against other EU citizens."

Oh really? Look, we are speaking about weed and not about normal goods.
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-23, 9:28 pm

block
Posts: 458
Location: Texas 2
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As i recall the scheme was to create "members only" coffeeshops. Someone might have a better understanding but what I have read was by being a "members only" you would be required to obtain a membership and the process would take about two weeks. These memberships would indeed be open to other EU citizens as well as the Dutch. Under the members only scheme you would have to present your membership card and this would allow you to purchase up the 3 grams each day. Your card would be swiped upon purchasing your gear and indicate the amount of your purchase. If you left shop "A" and went to shop "B" and attempted to purchase another 3 grams the card swipe would alert the dealer that you had already reached your daily limit. Again,this has not been mentioned in the context with Amsterdams coffeeshops only the Limburg region in far south and I am not even sure that it is being enforced....still waiting on someone to visit Maastricht and give a first hand account.

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-23, 10:31 pm

jgramos Moderator
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Location: UK
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Don't know too much about it block, but if they're going to limit each person to 3g per day, then the current allowance made by politie throughout Holland allowing you to carry 5 g's would be used in some districts but not maastricht, so if you were travelling fron one area of Holland to another, and went through Maastridht you'd be in trouble if you got stopped there!?

Peace

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-24, 8:30 am

Andreea19
Posts: 1
Location: Amsterdam
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They cannot discriminate in favour of Duch citizens against other EU citizens.
And if they do this is no waaayyy to track the sales of the coffeeshops.They will need
to make another department just for this :P hahaa
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-24, 1:43 pm

martineSupporting Member
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Posts: 9
Location: IE
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What might be possible, would be to limit the 'membership' of these coffee shops to people able to provide evidence of permanent local residence. Then there is no case of descrimination against people from different EU countries or anywhere else, as if people become local residents regardless of nationality, they can then avail of membership.
I can only imagine in Ireland or the UK if you could drive across a border to smoke weed, there would be convoys of boy-racers setting off every weekend on their road-trips...which needless to say would cause problems.
IMHO - this, if it ever comes to pass, will be limited to border areas to discourage casual cross-border weed tourism.
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-24, 2:01 pm

jgramos Moderator
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Location: UK
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Let's hope so Martine!

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Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-25, 4:14 pm

DogsAfirePower Kat XXX
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What, specifically, are the "problems" brought about by the "drug tourists"?

the dogs
Re: Ban on tourist purchases of weed?
Posted: 2010-01-25, 4:50 pm

jgramos Moderator
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Location: UK
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"What, specifically, are the "problems" brought about by the "drug tourists"?"

From my understanding of what I've read in different places and heard from locals when I've bene in the South of Holland, the "problems" brought by the "drug tourists" are as follows:

(1) Usually they go to several coffeeshops in a town and pick up 5g's in each coffeeshop.....therefore if they stop at 6 coffeeshops, they'll have 30g on themselves, and the law in the Netherlands is no more than 5g's. So if caught walking around with more than 5g's you're in trouble.

(2) The transportation of over 5g's of cannabis within the Netherlands is also illegal.

(3) The transportation of any amount of cannabis across the border of the Netherlands is drug smuggling.

However, surely the "drug toursists" are not a new thing......surely they've existed happily for years! If so, a law like this will dent the trade that the coffeeshops currently have, which may cause coffeeshop closures, unemployment, etc....which isn't any good for anyone!

Peace

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