UPI: NL Coffee Shops restricted to Dutch

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20031127-013137-1860r.htm

Dutch potheads keep 'coffee' shops


BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Holland will be allowed to keep its
"coffee" shops, where marijuana is openly sold and smoked, under a new European
Union drugs control law.

Justice ministers from the 15 EU member states agreed Thursday to harmonize
their national drug laws, and drug traffickers across Europe will face 1-3
years in prison for producing or distributing drugs, including cannabis, coca
and opium plants. But individual countries are allowed to set their own
national rules on personal consumption of drugs, providing a loophole for
Holland's famed "coffee" cafes.

But only Dutch residents with identity cards will be allowed to use the
cannabis cafes.

Dutch justice minister Piet Hein Donner said his government would restrict
coffee shop owners from selling soft drugs to non-residents, in order to combat
drug tourists

-- 
Phil Stovell
South Hampshire, UK