The mayor of amsterdam has stated that foreigners will still be allowed in coffeeeshops Incoming Dutch Government Ditches 'Weed Pass' Plan - ABC News Amsterdam's mayor states cannabis cafés to remain open - Telegraph
I don't think you guys really got the message. People still have to identify themselves as a Dutch citizen with both an ID-card and an official exerpt from the resident registration. A citizen doesn't have to register at a coffeeshop anymore, but tourists still can't get in. Nothing really changed. A few weeks ago, newspapers in the Netherlands stated that the weed pass would disappear. But there never was an actual weed pass It's just a little trick to save minister Opstelten's face, who made the plan up. Our new prime minister is from the dutch liberal party VVD, as is minister Opstelten. Although he must know, just like everybody else, he cwon't admit the weed pass is a failure, because that would place Opstelten in a bad position, endangering the newly formed government.
The situation is a bit more complex. The whole concept of the "weedpass" is something some political parties (mainly VVD and CDA=liberals/christian) tried to implement for years. As long as the Netherlands where more inclined to the left of the political spectrum they where not able to succeed in implementing the ban. A few years ago we experienced a political shift towards the right and they finally got the power for instoring the ban. It's important to know that their ultimate goal is to close every coffeeshop, headshop or smartshop. For those persons a tolerant society towards drug use is something that is simply not feasible, tolerance is a concept the just don't understand. Another reason for the ban is pressure coming frome the "EU" it's somehow similar to the way the federal governement comes down on states who passed legislation towards MMJ. Luckily in most european countries governements are composed of different political parties so they have to compromise a bit that's the main reason things are not worse today. SP,PVDA, Groenlinks and D66 being for a regulation of the cannabis market. A few months ago the dutch governement fell after Geert Wilders (PVV) stopped supporting the former governement composed mainly of VVD and CDA. Not easy to understand when you are not familiar with european politics. After elections things got interesting, the two big winners where VVD and PVDA, To make things simple they where so close to each others they had no choice but to work together. As always came the time of compromises and agreements. To keep things concrete the first thing that changed for us cannabis lovers is that you didn't had to become member of a coffeeshop to enter. However you still need a dutch ID and a paper from the administration as prove of residency. It's a step forward but it falls short for foreigners. However and that's where things got interesting, there is a special little sentence in the ruling agreement that states that "local policy is possible and the enforcement of access control to the coffeeshops has to happen in agreement with local authorities". So it comes down to this you still need a dutch ID and proof of residence but the enforcement of those criteria is only possible if local authorities wants to. The Mayor of Amsterdam doesn't want the ban and doesn't want it enforced so Amsterdam will still welcome foreigners. If things go as expected a lot of cities won't ban foreigners but those who want to do it have the possibility to do so
[quote name='"Selah Grey"']The situation is a bit more complex. The whole concept of the "weedpass" is something some political parties (mainly VVD and CDA=liberals/christian) tried to implement for years. As long as the Netherlands where more inclined to the left of the political spectrum they where not able to succeed in implementing the ban. A few years ago we experienced a political shift towards the right and they finally got the power for instoring the ban. It's important to know that their ultimate goal is to close every coffeeshop, headshop or smartshop. For those persons a tolerant society towards drug use is something that is simply not feasible, tolerance is a concept the just don't understand. Another reason for the ban is pressure coming frome the "EU" it's somehow similar to the way the federal governement comes down on states who passed legislation towards MMJ. Luckily in most european countries governements are composed of different political parties so they have to compromise a bit that's the main reason things are not worse today. SP,PVDA, Groenlinks and D66 being for a regulation of the cannabis market. A few months ago the dutch governement fell after Geert Wilders (PVV) stopped supporting the former governement composed mainly of VVD and CDA. Not easy to understand when you are not familiar with european politics. After elections things got interesting, the two big winners where VVD and PVDA, To make things simple they where so close to each others they had no choice but to work together. As always came the time of compromises and agreements. To keep things concrete the first thing that changed for us cannabis lovers is that you didn't had to become member of a coffeeshop to enter. However you still need a dutch ID and a paper from the administration as prove of residency. It's a step forward but it falls short for foreigners. However and that's where things got interesting, there is a special little sentence in the ruling agreement that states that "local policy is possible and the enforcement of access control to the coffeeshops has to happen in agreement with local authorities". So it comes down to this you still need a dutch ID and proof of residence but the enforcement of those criteria is only possible if local authorities wants to. The Mayor of Amsterdam doesn't want the ban and doesn't want it enforced so Amsterdam will still welcome foreigners. If things go as expected a lot of cities won't ban foreigners but those who want to do it have the possibility to do so[/quote] Thanks for the logical explanation.
Good post, I knew a little about the dutch parties but nothing in depth. I'm going over to Amsterdam on Tuesday, so happy days! To be honest, I don't go to Amsterdam for any other reason other than weed, if I was going to spunk the money out for flights I'd be going to another major city such as Berlin or Hamburg where I have friends and follow the football a bit, or somewhere warmer. Certainly not going to Amsterdam for the weather! A lot of tourists are the same especially if they've been before and been to the museums and etc. Its a nice city but I don't have any friends or family or connections with the place other than smoking weed.
Now they are planning to ban grow shops and weed with more than 15% THC, those people are just plain dumb. Coffeeshop owners have to test bud that doesn't even exist by law and leave the trade of stronger stains to the black market. Strange world we live in. And banning growshops will really have an impact on the grow-ops we are still in the early 20th century and internet doesn't exist
While I'm obviously not in favour of what they now want to do, business being lost etc, at least you can still go and buy weed in Amsterdam if you are a tourist. As you say you can get all the stuff you need to grow online and its usually cheaper (not sure about Amsterdam but the head shops where I live are really really expensive but weed is illegal). With or without weed higher than 15% THC at least people can still pick up their smoke safely. I'm flying over to Amsterdam in a few hours for a couple of days,
This statement did not came from the ministry of security and judgement, but from local government in Amsterdam. Immediately after the election, when the concept of government policy for 2013-2017 was released, local government in Amsterdam assumed that the changed weedpass-policy allowed municipalities to decide wether they did or did not allow tourists to buy from coffeeshops. The minister of security and judgement reacted on this statement a few days later and said that this was NOT the case and that tourists will NOT be allowed to enter coffee shops. Nothing has changed except for the fact that Dutch citizens do not have to register at a coffeeshop and leave their personal information behind. At 19-11-2012 minister Opstelten send an open letter to departments of the local government, stating that local governments will have the freedom to apply the law to the local situation accordingly, but have to keep some basic rules in mind. That means tourists will not be allowed in coffeeshops if the law in it's current state is implemented in Januari 2013.