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NL: Belgium Rejects Dutch Cannabis Boulevards

NIS News Bulletin

Thursday 01 Jun 2006

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BRUSSELS, 01/06/06 - Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt is extremely
unhappy about the plans of Mayor Gerd Leers of Maastricht to sell
cannabis at the Belgian border. Consultations will be held at Benelux
level today.

Leers announced on Tuesday that he wishes to move seven so-called
'coffee shops' - bars allowed to sell limited amounts of cannabis - from
the Maastricht city centre to three locations along the borders with
Belgium and Germany. Large parking areas are to be developed there for
foreign customers. The planned locations are popularly known as drugs
boulevards, although Leers has dubbed his scheme Coffee Corner.

Verhofstadt has sent a letter to Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende.
The Belgian premier points out in it that Belgium and the Netherlands
agreed in February "not to take unilateral initiatives in the battle
against drugs and coffee shop tourism".

Verhofstadt expects Balkenende to "respect the principles of good
neighbourliness between our countries". He hopes his Dutch counterpart
will do "everything possible to ensure that these plans, which are
disputable on legal and policy-related grounds, do not become reality".

At Verhofstadt's request, the subject has been included in a previously
planned meeting between the Benelux countries scheduled for tonight. The
Home Affairs and Justice Ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands and
Luxembourg will meet in Luxembourg.

Leers expects that moving the 'coffee shops' out of the built-up area
will make them easier to control and lessen the nuisance caused by
foreign drug tourists in the city. According to Verhofstadt, Leers'
plans will not only generate nuisance in the Belgian border region, but
also violate agreements on free traffic within the EU.

A spokesman for Leers countered that one cause of the problems is the
Belgian tolerance policy. "You are allowed to possess up to three grams
of cannabis in Belgium, but there is nowhere you can buy it. So all
those Belgians come to Maastricht."
www.nisnews.nl

 

 

 

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