geoffk wrote:joossy wrote:Thanks geoff, my opinion is not just formed from one post on a website.
Ok, we're getting somewhere. What do you base your opinion on?
Law Professor Jan Brouwer, who is also director of the Centre for Public Order and Security, says municipalities are free to ignore the weed pass.
“The basis of a ban on the sale of soft drugs to foreigners must be set out in local by-laws,” he says. “If the City Council does not want to do so, the Federal Government can jump high and low, but it won’t happen.”
"Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan said the pass system for coffee shops in Amsterdam to find unworkable. He said that this illegal trade in marijuana grow in the streets, more than nuisance entails trade and use of verifiable coffeeshops. Dutch Bureau of Tourism & Conventions expected negative impact on tourism"
1. The proposed new rule is a national rule, that will have to be implemented locally. If the local council is against this (which 14 out of 22 are), it will only affect limited municipalities, mostly border towns/areas if at all. There are said to be traffic jams and lines down the block on weekends in these towns around shops. Amsterdam has no such problem.
2. Think of the US. There is a federal law against cannabis, yet California and 15 other states have acted LOCALLY to provide it's use medicinally. This is the best analogy.
3. Both Mayor Eberhard van der Laan and the Amsterdam city council are on record as against the 'wietpas'. They fear that tourists will then be constantly offered cannabis on the street.
4. We were told six months ago by the Melkweg venue director of 35 years that the Mayor has stated this will not happen in Amsterdam.
5. Why? It is estimated that the tourism generates 10 billion in income. Any one coming to Amsterdam solely for coffeeshops, also spends money on hotels, restaurants, beverages, museums, CONCERTS etc. etc. Not so in border towns.
Maastricht a local quiet town every weekend is bombarded with germans/french/belgiums buying cannabis and taking it back to their respective countries (smuggling) of course some sort of weedpass is needed to stop this happening, and throughout the rest of the south of Holland. Amsterdam is not a quiet local town, it is a vibrant city , it is set up for tourists, Amsterdam has no problem what so ever with weed been sold in its municipality it adds 26% to the economy and doesn't have a smuggling problem. The local councils and mayors have the final say and the current ones for Amsterdam are saying no the weedpass, they are in office until 2015.
Every coffeeshop websit is clearly telling people not to worry about the weedpass in amsterdam . So why worry?
http://www.rookies.nl/
http://www.thebulldog.com/amsterdam-pro ... em-wietpas
[url]ttp://
www.greyarea.nl/weed-pass.html[/url]