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Dutch Minister to restrict coffee shop access !

Dutch Justice and Security Minister Ivo Opstelten has ordered a test project in the province of Northern-Brabant restricting coffee shop acces to Dutch nationals only. He intends to “reinstate the small scale sale to the local population” by means of a weed pass system.

Weed pass
The weed pass is one of the measures that are to be carried out by a special Task force that was recently created in the city of Breda, in the south of the Netherlands, in order to fight organized crime in the Northern Brabant marihuana sector. Only inhabitants of the city a coffee shop is situated in will be able to obtain a pass, thereby excluding access to foreign drug tourists.

Task Force
This was announced by the Minister last Thursday night, immediately after having held urgent consultations with the mayors of 5 cities of the province of North-Brabant. Eindhoven, Helmond, Breda, Tilburg and Den Bosch. The meeting was convened to discuss the upsurge in drug related violence in the southeast of the province. It was decided to form a task force that would be assigned to do “whatever is necessary” in order to crack down on organized crime.

Stricter control on coffee shops
By introducing the pass system, the government wants to tighten its control on coffee shops and discourage foreigners from buying their weed in the province of Brabant. Opstelten wants to have coffeeshops return to their original function, i.e. the small scale of cannabis to the local inhabitants.

Not just in Brabant
On a more long-term basis, the intention is to introduce the system in the whole of Holland. The introduction of the pass system in Brabant that is soon to take effect serves a test project for the rest of the country. This means even Amsterdam will be affected by the new measures, despite the opposition by Amsterdam Mayor Ebenhard van der Laan. He believes tourists that visit the Amsterdam coffee shops “don’t just come to Amsterdam to smoke weed but also want to see the city for other reasons”.

Mixed reactions
The proposition is met with cries of opposition coming from various corners of the country. Coffee shop owners in the city of Breda consider the introduction of the pass system to be unrealistic, arguing that “buyers will simply go and buy their stash elsewhere”. Coffeeshop spokesman Rik Brand asks himself “who knows what kind of cheap stuff people will try to sell to you”.

According to Brand, the pass system also poses a risk to the privacy of Dutch cannabis smokers, who will have to register in order to obtain a pass. A coffee shop owner in the city of Tilburg points out that “the real problem isn’t the front door, but rather the back door of coffee shops, i.e. cannabis supply. The pass system merely focuses its attention to the front door, targeting weed users. It will not prevent the shootings from taking place. It seems they cannot come up with any better ideas than this”.

Member of Second Chamber Lea Bouwmeester shares the same opinion: “It seems as if Minister Opstelten has heard the alarm ring, but cannot find the “off-button”. She intends to open a debate on the matter.”

Proponents
The task force does get all the support from the mayor of Roermond, a city in the Dutch province of Limburg. Henk Van Beerst. He believes the province of Limburg is actually even more in need of a pass-based system than the province of Brabant. For years, Limburg is flooded with German, Belgian and French drug tourists, he says. He asks Minister Opstelten to expand the taskforce to the province of Limburg.

For Onno Hoes, the mayor of Maastricht, the introduction of the pass system will depend on the ruling of the European Court of Justice, on December 16th, as to whether it is allowed to refuse foreigners access to Dutch coffee shops. He prefers to wait for the decision of the Luxemburg-based Court.

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