By Thomas Escritt
AMSTERDAM, April 27 (Reuters) – A controversial law that
will make it harder for foreign tourists to buy cannabis at the
Netherlands’ famous coffee shops has been upheld by a Dutch
court.
The law, which reverses 40 years of liberal drugs policy in
the Netherlands, is targeted at the many foreigners who have
come to see the country as a soft drugs paradise and to tackle a
rise in crime related to the drug trade.
The law, which goes into force in three southern provinces
on May 1 before going nationwide next year, means coffee shops
can only sell cannabis to registered members.
Only locals, whether Dutch or foreign residents, will be
allowed to join a coffee shop, and each coffee shop will be
limited to 2,000 members. Some users regard the requirement to
register as an invasion of privacy.
Fourteen coffee shop owners and several pressure groups
challenged the law in the courts, saying they should not be
asked to discriminate between locals and non-locals.
A lawyer for the coffee shop owners said they would appeal.
The Dutch government, which collapsed at the weekend, had
also planned to forbid any coffee shops within 350 metres
(yards) of a school, with effect from 2014.
The government in October launched a plan to ban what it
considered to be highly potent forms of cannabis – known as
“skunk” – placing them in the same category as heroin and
cocaine.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt, editing by Paul Casciato)
