This comes from the NORML Newsfeed via the Ny Times:
Maastricht, a medieval town on the Meuse River in the hilly south of the Netherlands, has long cherished its rare position, a short distance from Belgium and Germany, which gives its people a casual ease with foreign languages, food and visitors.
But as the southernmost point of the nation with the most lenient soft-drug laws in Europe, Maastricht has also turned into a hub for foreign smokers and dealers. It is estimated that more than one million drug tourists a year come from neighboring countries to shop.
…
The mayor, Gerd Leers, and the town council have been searching for answers. Forbidding sales to nonresidents would probably violate European anti-discrimination rules, and closing the cannabis cafes is not the solution either, he said. “The trade will just go underground because demand will not disappear.”
So he has drawn up a plan to move at least half the cafes away from the charming narrow downtown streets and resettle them along the highways near the borders.
He has met with mayors from a dozen nearby Belgian and German towns and villages, explaining his ideas and pleading for cross-border solidarity and greater collaboration. Some have signed a cooperation plan, but others have protested.
Huub Broers, mayor of the nearby Belgian town of Voeren, is one who objected to getting the new outlets on his doorstep.
The Dutch brought on the problem themselves, he said: If there were no sales in Maastricht, the French and the Belgians would not go to stock up there.
But Leers contends that Maastricht has merely borne the brunt of a general problem that the mayors would otherwise find at home.
Several other Dutch border cities intend to relocate their cannabis outlets. “We have already moved two cafes close to the frontier with Germany, where most clients come from,” said Rick van Druten, a town official in Venlo.
“They buy and turn around,” he said. “It solved a lot of congestion and loitering.”
What are the Dutch border towns supposed to do? They can’t exclude other EU citizens from partaking in their coffeeshops, the German, French, and Belgian tourists come and illegally stock up on pot, loiter for a bit, and then traffic it across the borders. It’s not fair that the Dutch, who have a sensible cannabis policy, should have to compromise it because of the actions of foreign nationals.
After 30 years of controlled legalization, the worst problems that The Netherlands is having is complaints of what foreigners do when they get home. That’s an important statement on what would happen if Marijuana was legalized completely, methinks.
