Dutch ban on drug tourism?

Dutch ban on drug tourism?

If the EU legal advise is followed by the European Court of Justice, which is usually the case, it may spell the end of coffe shop tourists.
The Netherlands can ban over-the-counter sales of marijuana in Dutch "coffee shops" to nonresidents to end drugs tourism from Belgium, France, Germany and other countries, according to senior adviser to the European Union Court of Justice, on 15 July 2010.



Marijuana not protected

Yves Bot, the high court's advocate general, said that while selling soft drugs is legal in Holland, it is illegal elsewhere in the EU, which means products such as marijuana fall outside the protection of the free movement of goods across the 27-nation bloc.Municipalities could be authorised to limit access to coffee shop establishments to residents of the Netherlands in order to discourage drug tourism.

In Bott's opinion, in a case related to the closure of a coffee shop by the city of Maastricht for infringement of the residence criterion for admission, the advocate-general holds that "such a measure does not fall within the scope of the freedom to provide services" since it is "necessary to maintain public order in the face of troubles caused by drug tourism", according toEuropilitics.Bot's view is not binding on the high court, but the court often follows it.

 The Maastrich case

The high court is scheduled to rule soon in the case of a coffee shop owner who sued the city of Maastricht in 2005 for banning the sale of soft drugs to nonresidents of the Netherlands. The city, which has a population of 120,000, did so to end the influx of 10,000 people a day — the majority of them residents of neighbouring nations— to buy marijuana and hashish.Some 70% of the town's coffee-shop customers come from across the border.

The owner of the coffee shop that was shut down, Marc Josemans, who has sold cannabis to a foreign customer, appealed the decision in court in Maastricht. The local court found that the refusal to serve foreign customers was an infringement of Article 1 of the constitution, which bans discrimination, and ruled in his favour. The Raad van State (Council of State), to which the matter was brought in the final instance, decided to ask the EU Court of Justice to determine whether the measure is compatible with EU rules on the single market and the prohibition of discrimination.

No ordinary commodity

The advocate-general points out that cannabis and other soft drugs are not goods like others and that their sale does not benefit from free movement guaranteed by EU law, in as much as their sale is unlawful even though it is tolerated by the Dutch authorities. Dutch coffee shops cannot sell more than 5 grams of cannabis per person per day and their stock must not exceed 500 grams.Only narcotics that have a medical or scientific application come under internal market rules.He adds that such sales remain banned by all member states and that coffee shop customers may take the goods to other member states, running the risk of criminal prosecution.

Yves Bot considers that the shutdown of the coffee shop is not contrary to freedom to provide services even though it also sells lawful consumer products. He then mentions the classic argument of public order and member states freedom to determine the measures necessary for maintaining public order. The advocate-general concludes that drug tourism represents a genuine and sufficiently serious threat to public order in Maastricht to justify the exclusion of non-residents as a measure necessary to protect residents from trouble caused by the phenomenon. He adds that such tourism conceals international trafficking in narcotics and fuels organised criminal activities, threatening the Union's internal security. The rules in question therefore contribute to combating illicit trade in narcotics in the EU.



Laster...