Pubdate: Sat, 28 Apr 2012
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2012 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: David Jolly

HAGUE COURT CLEARS WAY FOR DUTCH TO BAR NONRESIDENTS FROM BUYING MARIJUANA

PARIS - The Dutch government's plan to prohibit the purchase of 
marijuana by nonresidents cleared an important hurdle on Friday, when 
a court in The Hague dismissed a lawsuit brought by shop owners 
challenging the plan on the grounds that it was discriminatory.

The court agreed with the government that the prohibition was 
justified because of crime associated with people who travel to the 
Netherlands to buy marijuana and hashish, a resin derived from the 
cannabis plant. Although illegal in the Netherlands, soft drugs are 
tolerated. Licensed shops, called coffee shops, have been allowed to 
sell them since 1997, and Dutch citizens may grow up to five 
marijuana plants for personal use without fear of prosecution.

The center-right government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which took 
office in 2010, is seeking to tighten controls on the shops with what 
is known as a "weed pass" system, under which each shop would be 
limited to 2,000 customers and required to maintain a register of 
clients; the sale of drugs to nonresidents would be illegal.

Friday's ruling cleared the way for the system to go into effect on 
Tuesday in the provinces bordering Germany and Belgium in the south, 
the areas most widely identified with drug-tourism crime. The rest of 
the country is to follow suit next Jan. 1.

Even the Dutch people who support the shops acknowledge the problems 
created by drug tourists in the south. Buyers drive in by the 
hundreds, clogging streets and seeking large quantities of drugs to 
take home. That has led to a return of street sales, though a major 
reason for the toleration policy was to squelch them.

"It's of course disappointing, and of course we'll appeal," said 
Michael Veling, a spokesman for the Cannabis Retailers Association, 
which represents most coffee shop owners. Appeals cannot be filed 
before enforcement begins, but Mr. Veling said the shop owners would 
refuse to obey the new system.

"From May 1 my colleagues in the south will disobey, and we expect to 
be arrested," said Mr. Veling, who is also the owner of the Amsterdam 
coffee shop 420 Cafe. Saying the restrictions would be very hard to 
enforce in any case, Mr. Veling added: "We'll just reinvent the 
coffee shops as we have in the past. Before the current system, we 
operated in stealth."

Eric Daalder, a lawyer arguing the case for the government, did not 
immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mayor Eberhard van der Laan of Amsterdam also opposes the change and 
has sought to find alternative solutions. Little crime is associated 
with marijuana outside the southern provinces, and officials in many 
areas fear the return of black market street dealings if the coffee 
shops are closed.

But the government insists it will move forward with its plan. 
"Amsterdam will also have to enforce this policy," Job van de Sande, 
a spokesman for the Ministry of Security and Justice, told The 
Associated Press on Friday.

The possibility remains, however, that the government will drop the 
weed pass plan on its own. Mr. Rutte's government collapsed this week 
in a dispute over austerity measures, though he will remain in a 
caretaker role until new elections on Sept. 12. To win backing for 
his budget, he has had to form a coalition with two small parties 
that oppose the system.

Mr. Veling of the Cannabis Retailers Association said he was 
optimistic that with the inclusion in the government of the two 
parties - D66 and the Greens - the weed pass system would ultimately be dropped.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom