Protest planned against Dutch 'weed pass'

There was one exception: the "Easy Going" shop of Marc Josemans, chairman of the coffee shop owners' association, which remained open just long enough to provoke two legal conflicts he hopes may ultimately derail the policy.


First Josemans turned away a group of foreigners who oppose the rule, and who went to the police to file a discrimination complaint. Then he started selling weed to anybody willing to buy, without checking for passes.--Miami Herald. May 1st, 2012.

 

 

Protest planned against Dutch 'weed pass'

A tourist smokes marijuana at a coffee shop called 'de Dampkring' or 'Atmosphere,' in the centre of Amsterdam, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

AMSTERDAM — A policy barring foreign tourists from buying marijuana in the Netherlands went into effect in parts of the country Tuesday, with attention focused on the southern city of Maastricht, where a cafe was warned over violating the ban and a buyers' protest is planned for later in the day.

Weed is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but it has been sold openly for decades in small amounts in designated cafes known as "coffee shops" under the country's famed tolerance policy.
Under a government policy change, as of May 1, only holders of a "weed pass" are supposed to be allowed to purchase the drug in three southern provinces. Nonresidents aren't eligible for the pass, which means tourists are effectively banned.

The policy isn't supposed to go into effect in Amsterdam, home to around a third of the country's coffee shops, until next year -- and it may never be. The city opposes the idea and the conservative national government collapsed last week, raising questions about whether a new Cabinet will persevere with the policy change after elections are held in September.

Most attention Tuesday was on the city of Maastricht, which borders both Belgium and Germany and which has suffered the effects of a constant flow of traffic from non-Dutch Europeans driving to the city just to purchase as much cannabis as possible and drive back home.

Most shops in Maastricht plan to refuse to use the pass and kept their doors shut Tuesday.

There was one exception: the "Easy Going" shop of Marc Josemans, chairman of the coffee shop owners' association, which remained open just long enough to provoke two legal conflicts he hopes may ultimately derail the policy.

First Josemans turned away a group of foreigners who oppose the rule, and who went to the police to file a discrimination complaint. Then he started selling weed to anybody willing to buy, without checking for passes.

"The police paid me a visit about a half an hour later and warned me I was violating the new rules, and if I do it again, I'll be closed down for a month," he said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press.

Josemans said he planned to continue selling to all comers, and he fully expects to see his shop closed. His response to that would be to take his case to the European Court of Justice.
"Discrimination is never the right answer," he said.

Early reports from other affected cities -- Tilburg, Roermond and Eindhoven, among others -- were that most shops were either remaining closed, or ignoring the pass.

"They'll wait it out until this whole pass plan goes away," Josemans said.

Even most Dutch weed smokers aren't getting the passes, assuming the law won't be enforced. Some are worried the information they have obtained a weed pass will somehow leak from a government database and cause them difficulties with health care insurance or getting a mortgage.

A former chairman of the Netherlands' Police Union Hans van Duijn told reporters in front of "Easy Going" that he believes the new policy's negative side effects will outweigh any benefits and that enforcing it would waste precious resources.

"Everyone who is rejected here will walk a few meters (yards) down the street to the drug dealers who drive over from Rotterdam, among other places, and ride around in large numbers," he said.
Robert Anthony, a Belgian, said he "regularly" comes to the Netherlands "to buy weed in peace."

He predicted it will be "chaos on the streets very soon."

Ironically, the reason the Dutch tolerance policy got going in the 1970s was not on the theory that marijuana was OK -- it has always been viewed as a public health problem -- but because containing it in shops seemed like a pragmatic way to deal with the problems caused by street dealing.

But a growing body of evidence linking the drug to mental illness and a decade-long shift to the political right in the Netherlands has already led to minor changes in the policy, notably the closure of many shops located near schools or known for causing problems.
But the weed pass policy represents a significant change.

Asked whether he thought the policy will succeed, Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten said he was certain it will.

"The next Cabinet can always roll back everything, but they will continue prudent policies," he said. "I think this is smart policy, so I'm not worried about that."

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120501/120501_netherlands_marijuana/20120501/?hub=CP24Extras

Weed Pass U Blift (News items on Dutch miss-courage of Justice))

.....what I call the real DEA - the Dutch English American alliance between the  Royal families and the bankers; they're all inter-related to one another, when you start getting into it you find that George Bush for instance, is related to the Queen of England who's related to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands who's related to most of the major bankers - it's all one big happy family when you get up there at the top.--Robert Anton Wilson, w/ Steven Pratt.

Video of 420 Cafe, in connection with new 'Weed Pass' Proposal.

 http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc.com/47209277/

"THE Dail’s most prominent dope-loving deputy has told how a Dutch ban on tourists getting high is just POTTY.

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan yesterday dismissed the law as “unenforceable” after it won judicial backing in the Netherlands.
The controversial measure, if approved by Dutch MPs next week, will effectively bar Amsterdam’s famous coffee houses from serving cannabis to foreigners — by making them members-only clubs.
Lawyers for 600 cannabis cafes last night vowed to continue fighting their government’s “discriminatory” drive to rid Holland of its druggie paradise image.
And the GRASS-roots revolt won early support from weed campaigner Flanagan.
The Roscommon TD, who has given up the habit to avoid breaking the law, insisted the Dutch economy would feel a massive comedown if Irish tourists were denied a toke.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/irishsun/irishsunnews/4284906/Dutch-capital-set-for-tourist-toke-ban.html

The government’s decision to restrict the use of cannabis cafes to local residents by excluding tourists is not discriminatory, a court in The Hague said on Friday.
A group of 19 café owners and other interest groups had gone to court in a last-ditch attempt to have the membership system overruled. All cannabis cafes in the south of the country are due to become members’ only clubs on May 1.
The café owners say not only is the measure discriminatory but infringes peoples’ privacy.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/04/rt_rules_against_cannabis_cafe.php

So, not that we condone going to the Netherlands just for the pot (The Hague is really cool guys, we promise), but if that's your plan, get your hands on a "weed pass." We're not sure what this pass will look like, but apparently it's one way, according to the AP and the BBC, to tell foreigners and Dutch residents apart. The AP writes that once the Dutch government's rules banning tourist from its legal cannabis go into effect, "It will turn coffee shops into private clubs with membership open only to Dutch residents and limited to 2,000 per shop." The BBC notes the idea of a pass is still up for debate.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/04/dutch-lawmakers-make-it-harder-tourists-smoke-pot/51648/

"Thirty-six years and many millions of joints after the Netherlands' laws on marijuana were relaxed, drug tourists from Britain and other countries are set to be weeded out when a nationwide ban on foreign dope-smokers takes effect.

Yesterday, a court in The Hague upheld a Dutch government plan to restrict sales of soft drugs to local residents in possession of an identity card, nicknamed a "wietpas", or "weedpass".

Since 1976, Dutch authorities have tolerated the sale and consumption of small quantities of soft drugs. The policy was introduced to keep users away from the hard drugs trade, controlled by organised criminals. One consequence was to attract visitors from less-tolerant countries to a land where joints could be rolled, bongs inhaled and "space-cakes" nibbled, without fear of prosecution.
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/want-to-visit-a-dutch-coffee-shop-well-youll-only-get-coffee-from-now-on-7685311.html

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 1st before going nationwide next year, means coffee shops can only sell cannabis to registered members.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0427/breaking41.html

Double-dutch Coffeeshop news-speak and Global news ambiguity.

Double-dutch Coffeeshop news-speak and Global news ambiguity.

I don't know about you dear reader, but I don't get my information (news) from the mainstream newspaper any longer, I get it from individual experienced bloggers (from many fields) from wikipedia, and mostly I get my news from my network of friends.

Friends often provide the extra turn of phrase or primary observation that make the information being communicated fluid, plus the fact that often you can smell your friends and see their facial expression, gestures and human imperfections.

During the months of May and June this year (2011) I have been repeatedly asked the question (will the coffeesshops be closing to foreign tourists?) while at work behind the 'weed counter' at coffeeshop 420, Amsterdam. My answer has always been an optimistic 'NO' due to my interpretation of events which results in the possible adoption of the 'weed pass' (private 'Dutch' members only card) in some of the Dutch boarder towns such as Mastricht, but not here in Amsterdam.

The International newswire, however, contrary to my own thoughts on the matter, tends to paint a cut and dried answer to the questions surrounding the new 'weed pass' proposal by imploying meaningless and ambiguous terminology (drug tourism, drugs, organized crime), and then repeating them over and over again across the global newswire, as if the editors at these useless 'disinformation' operations (news media corporations) are in fact nothing more than Zombie's, infected with the beaureacratic stench of the tabloid press and only capable of producing redundant predictable! communications. (see AP, Newscorp, Reuters, CNN etc,. BBC?)

I have noticed a serious inbalance and unfair interpretation in most but not all news stories concerning 'some drugs' (i.e Cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, DMT) but mostly surrounding Cannabis. This media imbalance strikes me between the eyes almost every day as the fact of living and working in a place where almost everybody smokes Cannabis on a regular basis and lives a trouble free and happy life, whereas if you turn to the newspapers and the Government sanctioned reports about Cannabis, especially in Europe these days (America seems to be on a somewhat upward spiral toward intelligent Cannabis liberation) then, if taken literally you may go seek immediate medical help after buying a bullet proof vest.

For me, living here in Amsterdam and working within the Cannabis culture for over four years I have grown to be very sceptical and critical of the news-media, but decided to generally ignore them and their stories and just get on with my own thing, me, my friends and the Global Village, but now I feel an urge to respond and in doing so entertain some new ideas I have about information.

Information equals surprise, predictability leads to less information. I believe this equation is the final call for the corporate controlled news media and their henchment, if they do not change their redundant methods of communication they will die a fast heat death in the entropic vapours of the digital age. Excuse me, they evapourated already, we are now living in the age of wikileaks and anonymous, upon a new playing field or battle field where surprise = information.

In the context of Dutch coffeeshops and international news then, I will simply quote some of the articles to give examples of how almost everything proposed in the 'is' state, on deeper thinking and research into the process, in fact, is not. And LO! begins the Punch and Judy show, right up front at the media circus. A RAW source once stated the fact that the 'war on drugs' cannot be a war on drugs, if it were they would be busting in the doors of every phamacy and drug store in town, therefore to remove a line of semantic distortion we should more correctly refer to 'the war on some drugs'. As simple and as easy as this seems (to just add the word 'some') hardly any news journalists pay tribute and continue with the 'cut and dry' either/or (two valued logic) that went out of style with Hitler.

There are then at least two areas of focus. The first is the actual situations and events or speech associated with the news item, the second is the language or language-trappings associated with the communication of the news item. The message and the media.

In the continued 'war on some people who use some drugs' and the 'culture wars' waged around the globe, language seems to me the first instrument of counter-attack. Artists and poets and musicians emerge for the sport of it all, to put life and love and liberty into a vortex and create something new, to help combat the redundant forces of fixed-stereotypes and the mass medicrity permeating every aspect of modern city life.

The Hermetic forces that have helped shape the modern information explosion are still with every one of us who chooses to tune them in. And since the innovation of general relativity, general semantics and information theory, (also tied to many Hermetic principles and methodologies, somewhat Pagan in spirit, if you will) the misuse and abuse of language by mediocrities and corporate fraudsters and spooks will cease to hold it's spell over the minds of a culture. The chains of law have been broken, follow the link...

So although I like to consider myself an activist for drug peace and tolerance, I am trying to distance myself here from the content or the 'message' itself, and target the corrupted 'medium' (i.e phrases like 'drugs-tourism' and 'war on drugs') and show that the whole field of 'some drugs related' journalism seems infected with a distinct lack of relative terminology and a distinct amplification of semantic distortions. If the medium is the message then the message has also been corrupted by obsolete.
 

--Steve 'fly agaric 23'
Amsterdam, July 2nd, 2011.

"The only solution to get rid of the cannabis tourism in our border areas would be the introduction of cannabis outlets in Germany, Belgium, France and the UK, so they do not have to come to Dutch coffeeshops any more. --http://pr.cannazine.co.uk/201106201481/green/eco-news/dutch-cannabis-exclusion-zone-doomed-says-coffee-shop-owner.html

"Dutch to ban foreigners from pot shops.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/06/07/amsterdam.pot.shops.ban/

"However the Dutch government is keen to crack down on this kind of "drugs tourism." The Dutch executive announced earlier this year that they wanted coffee shops to become private members clubs, only open to the local market. This would mean only Dutch nationals could become members and legally purchase cannabis.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15194412,00.html