Dutch Cannabis Tourism in Danger?

A Dutch court has upheld the so-called 'weed pass' law which would prevent foreigners from buying marijuana in some Dutch cities:

A Dutch court on Friday upheld a new law that will prevent foreigners from buying marijuana in coffee shops across the Netherlands, potentially ending decades of “pot tourism” for which this city and others became universally known.

A group of coffee shops had challenged the government plan, launched after southern cities in the Netherlands complained of increased levels of drug-related crime. The decision means that coffee shops in the south must stop selling marijuana to foreigners by May 1. They would be allowed to introduce a so-called “weed pass” for Dutch citizens, who would be legally permitted to keep buying cannabis. The plan would roll out to other Dutch cities, including the popular tourist center of Amsterdam, by next year.

Amsterdam coffee-shop owners are pledging to resist the laws with civil disobedience, if necessary. Lots of people think it's already illegal for foreigners to buy marijuana in Amsterdam, but that's not the case, as I can personally confirm.

The background to this is simple: Southern Dutch cities on the border with Germany, most notoriously Venlo, do have a problem with pot tourists. Since Germany has decided to waste scarce resources on the futile enterprise of marijuana prohibition (g)*, many Germans cross the border to buy dope. It also helps that Dutch marijuana is generally pretty good, or at least better than what you can get in Germany. Most of these pot tourists are lower-class punters who clog the cheapest trains with their pit bulls and bargain beer and tattooed bodies. They often do hang out and 'party' near the towns where they buy their weed, causing problems. So I have sympathy with the Dutch border towns about this problem.

Amsterdam, however, is a different story. The desire to legally smoke delicious, high-quality marijuana is a prime motivation for a not-inconsiderable number of tourists visits, and the business is highly profitable and doesn't cause too many problems. Many Amsterdam residents know this and are keen to preserve coffeeshops, even if they don't partake themselves. I'd be very surprised indeed to see the ban reach Amsterdam.

* It's true that enforcement of marijuana laws in Germany is quite relaxed. Each state has a limit under which marijuana is considered for personal use and not prosecuted, and police generally put a very low priority on busting dope smokers. Nevertheless, selling marijuana is still illegal, and there are still almost 150,000 marijuana-related prosecutions brought every year.

Comments

[Someone]

It's a pity that the government all around the world has absolutely no clue of what's going on, and what's the real cause of let's call it "Venlo effect".
Those who do not smoke pot always bad talk weed, and think that it's the cause of drug related crimes, but what they don't know is that many of weed smokers (that do not belong among us) combine alcohol with weed in high quantities, and that is nothing more but the "Venlo effect".
As an example, i was going on the subway in Frankfurt Am Main, when i spotted 3 kids with a 0.75L Jack Daniel's whiskey bottle half empty, and a joint. And i wonder what would have been the result of that, isn`t that the "Venlo effect"? I guess it is...
I one, developed some kind of hate towards alcohol, and maybe i'm absurd, but i still wonder why they don't ban alcohol when so many people are dying because of it, so many families are destroyed because of it, and so many people are jobless.
On the other hand nobody died from weed, nobody destroyed it's family because of weed, as for work, well...i went to work stoned, and stoned myself even there for the past half of year, and i still have a job. While those tattooed guys with pit bulls are exactly the ones i`m talking bad about.
In the end my point is that alcohol is the cause of all these unpleasant events, and alcohol should be banned, not weed.

[M. Möhling]

> I guess you can expand the principle
That's the beauty of it. As with bears, beavers, and skunks, to self-respecting middle class scent glands anything may become a target. Delicate, but indiscriminate organs. Leave your mark, get set, go!

[Norbert]

The "Venlo indeed a problem, but Amsterdam ok" reasoning doesn't make much sense. Inevitably, the tattoed low-lives from across the border would start invading Amsterdam, sooner or later. It's only 180 kilometers, with cheap trains on regular service.

[Junger Gott]

Do I detect a bit of weed snobism here? The sophisticated Amsterdam stoner vs. the lowly Venlo stoner?!
I would have expected it with wine or whiskey, but I guess you can expand the principle.

[M. Möhling]

> 'weed pass'
Trust a bureaucrat to profit from any hot shit hitting a fan. Most Dutch too cautious to carry their passports around have a identiteitskaart, should be quite enough, heck, stamp it if necessary.

> lower-class punters [...] causing problems
We give short shrift to the lower-class causing problems provided it's autochthonous and ugly. Not that I empathise overly. Else yes, the cost of prohibition is prohibitive (even Ahnold knows that), one of the few things a dorky left gets right, if possibly for the wrong reasons. Anyway, thoroughly stoned regressive-progressives do only little harm--put them on a diet, government funded, if you must.