Maastricht Bans Marijuana Sales To Most Foreign Tourists (VIDEO)

Coffee shops in a Dutch town on the border with Belgium will voluntarily ban foreigners from buying legal marijuana in an effort to discourage petty crime, traffic gridlocks and illegal drug dealing.

The city of Maastricht, 130 miles south of Amsterdam, had tried to ban sales of marijuana but was rebuffed earlier this year by the Netherland's top legal body, the Council of State, which said the city couldn't regulate sales. The new effort skirts the ruling by inviting coffee shops that sell drugs to voluntarily participate in the prohibition.

The city says the legal drug trade is spilling into the streets and drawing unsavory dealers in illegal substances. In Amsterdam, the city is taking the opposite approach, saying any ban on tourists in drug-friendly cafes will have a negative effect on tourism.

In a nod to neighbors, Maastricht will allow Belgians and Germans to frequent the coffee shops even though they're technically foreign tourists. According to the BBC, "most" of the 6,000 daily visitors to the city's shops are from Belgium and Germany.

Dutch City Bans 'Drug Tourists'

Comments

[iconico62]

11:48 PM on 10/04/2011

Does anyone ever go to Maastricht for their coffee shops? Amsterdam is a far cooler, more hip city all around anyway. Kinda like settling for a greasy hamburger when you can have filet mignon.

[Tony Booth]

03:55 PM on 10/07/2011

amsterdam is mainly for tourists, if you want less tackiness and more reality go to Haarlem (or anywhere but the Dam). worth it for the museums etc but not for coffee shops.

[hempster]

06:22 PM on 10/04/2011

Not much here. Move along.

[crabby316]

12:36 PM on 10/04/2011

amsterdam was/is the best place i've ever been! nice people, beautiful city, relaxed atmosphere and good coffee shops. if i remember right, you couldn't buy alcohol in these shops, just cannabis. maybe that was just in the shops i went into, i don't know. but the pot was good.

[rjhuntington]

08:22 AM on 10/04/2011

Prohibition is the problem.

[Kelly L White]

04:49 AM on 10/04/2011

Every coffee shop I go into swears they will do as they did at the beginning- and ignore the law. For those too young to remember, the coffee shop owners and staff quite simply kept going to jail until the government stopped trying to shut them down. If they were i sitting on a given day, someone else went and opened shop. This was back in the seventies, and they haven't changed their ideas one bit. Wherever you go, today, the shops tell you not to worry, they aren't going to comply.

[normanx]

03:42 AM on 10/04/2011

I was in Amsterdam earlier this Summer, when a stricter ban throughout Holland was going to be put in place keeping all but Dutch citizens out of the weed selling coffee shops. I asked many a local how this was going to play out, and they all scoffed at the idea that the government was going to succeed in this effort. It made no sense... and it seems that the courts now agree.

[llyd wlsh]

10:53 PM on 10/03/2011

WHEW....i almost cashed in my ticket to holland

[Hank007]

10:20 PM on 10/03/2011

So many people fail to get what really happened: Germany and Belgium don't want their citizens making drug runs to Maastricht, and have pressured the authorities. In true Dutch fashion, the authorities agreed to ban weed sales to tourist, but exempted Belgians and Germans. Everybody wins.

[Hank007]

10:13 PM on 10/03/2011

This is prohibition Dutch style: The overwhelming majority of tourists causing trouble are Belgian and German. All tourists are banned, except Germans and Belgians. Basically it allows them to be tougher on trouble makers, while still raking in the revenues. Avoiding Maastricht because you can't buy weed is like avoiding Denver because you can't gamble. There are much better cities for coffee shops.

[DMT8665]

07:18 PM on 10/03/2011

Backward logic

[HairFarmer]

06:39 PM on 10/03/2011

I was there in '96 and '99, nice little old style city that I will not be spending any more coin in unless they wise up and end this idiotic policy.

[toastt]

08:07 PM on 10/03/2011

Kind of sad you base your tourism and holidays around drugs.

[ridethewave]

09:11 PM on 10/03/2011

marijuana is not a drug, it's a plant...please educate yourself.

[TruEngineHearing]

09:28 PM on 10/03/2011

yeah, and you base your evening on dinner - so what? Try thinking like a free adult human, or get out of the road...

[silverball]

05:58 PM on 10/03/2011

yeah...prohibition is the answer...that works sooo well...see: america/alcohol (1920-1935)

[violettefemme]

06:52 PM on 10/03/2011

Yep. Also see, America/marijuana 20th Century and now 21st, cause we so proudly stand strong on the damn war on drugz. Cause prohibition is always so successful, as you pointed out.

[silverball]

04:42 PM on 10/04/2011

a "war" that can NEVER be "won"....talk about a waste of time and $$$.....and human lives that have been trashed for smoking a plant....but, it's a great industry and good for job security, i guess....the entire justice system (and most obviously, the prison system)...kind of like the military industrial complex....really only good for profiteering by the top 1%......and keeping "the little people" in line....or under control...or something like that, or so they think......

[JoGo3338]

05:21 PM on 10/03/2011

THis is almost funny..although I believe that Amsterdam is doing the right thing..Marijuana isn't the problem and legalizing it and allowing people access probably cuts down on crime..what they should do is have the police ban it on the street..I neve saw anyone selling ont he street in Amsterdam..you could only get it in a coffee shop..it is part of the attraction and I am sure that it brings in a lot of money for the people and the government..as it would do here, in the good old USA. We would rather put people in jail, at a huge cost to the taxpayers than legalize marijuana which is not really dangerous..it does not cause people to go onto hard drugs..it may be said that all heroine users might have used marijuana, they also would have gone to heroine even without using marijuana..I think the prescription drug problem is a bigger and more dangerous problem than marijuana ever was or will be..so lets see what happens in this place that is banning pot..I bet they develope other problems that will prove to be worse..

[Henk]

09:48 PM on 10/03/2011

The only people I saw smoking pop in the streets in Amsterdam were Americans. Everyone else kept it out of sight.

[JoGo3338]

07:04 AM on 10/05/2011

I didn't see people smoking in the streets. I wouldn't know the Americans from the locals as they speak ENglish, dress the same..anyway..Pot should be legalized in the US..if Alcohol is legal, pot is far less dangerous then alcohol..but then, those that feel it is a dangerous drug will continue to fill the jails at a huge expense, will continue to keep the bad guys selling off the streets and will not keep people from using it..stupid laws that don't do any good.

[gurukalehuru]

04:49 PM on 10/03/2011

I suspect this is a move to placate Belgian and German authorities, but they've left enough exemptions and loopholes that it is basically meaningless.

[Hank007]

10:14 PM on 10/03/2011

You got it, exactly. That is how the Dutch roll.

[ksjr]

04:28 PM on 10/03/2011

Question? (which is a little off topic) But, when the prohibition of alcohol was repealed, it was the start of NASCAR. When the prohibition of marijuana is repealed it will be the start to what sport?

[gurukalehuru]

04:43 PM on 10/03/2011

Couch surfing.

[JoGo3338]

05:21 PM on 10/03/2011

It will be the start of happy people...yay