Europe: European Court of Justice Hears Case That Could Ban Foreigners from Dutch Cannabis Cafes Stop the Drug War (DRCNet): "Late last month, the European Court of Justice heard arguments in a case that could open the door to all but Dutch citizens being banned from the country's famous cannabis cafes. The case, Josemans v. Maastricht, pits a Dutch border town coffee shop owner against his municipal government, and behind it, the Dutch government and the governments of Belgium, France, and Germany.
downstairs of a coffee shop, Maastricht (courtesy Wikimedia)The case dates back to 2006, when Maastricht, right on the Belgian border and only a half hour from Germany, passed a municipal ordinance prohibiting foreigners from entering coffee shops. Shortly after that, police found two foreigners in the Easy Going coffee shop owned by Marc Joseman, who is also the leader of a regional association of coffee shop owners. That allowed the city to bring a test case, and the ordinance has not been applied pending the result of the case.
The case pits Dutch drug policy, which tolerates the sale of marijuana through the coffee shops, but in which some now wish to incorporate a limiting of 'drug tourism,' against the European Union's laws governing free trade on the continent. The EU guarantees a free, unified market of goods and services among its members. The question now before the court is whether that should apply to Holland's tolerated-but-not-officially-legal coffee shop industry."
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