Dutch Plan to Restrict Marijuana Passes Hurdle
Source: New York Times
The Dutch government's plan to prohibit the purchase of marijuana by nonresidents passed an important hurdle on Friday, when a court in The Hague dismissed a lawsuit brought by shop owners who argued that it constituted illegal discrimination.
The court agreed with the government that the prohibition was justified because of crime associated with people who come to the Netherlands to buy marijuana and hashish, a resin derived from the cannabis plant. Soft drugs are illegal in the Netherlands but are tolerated, and licensed shops, called coffeeshops, have been allowed to sell them since 1997. Dutch citizens may cultivate 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, had been seeking to tighten controls on the shops, ordering the institution of a "weed pass" system, under which the shops would be limited to 2,000 customers each and required to maintain a register of clients; the sale of drugs to nonresidents would be illegal.
Read more: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/world/europe/dutch-plan-to-restrict-marijuana-passes-hurdle.xml
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Someone, somewhere, is having a good time and IT MUST BE STOPPED!
