A Dutch court has ruled that the owners of the cafés in the Netherlands selling marijuana must be partially compensated for losses after the introduction of a new marijuana law last year.
The so-called "cannabis card" law was introduced on May 1 last
year in three southern provinces. It’s aimed at
transforming coffee shops into private clubs, requiring them to
only sell cannabis to registered members who are Dutch residents
and to stop sales to foreigners. The law has also addressed the
downsides of drug tourism - traffic jams, street dealing and
rowdy late-night partying.
"Part of the cannabis card law has disproportionately infringed
the interests of coffee shop clients, leading to financial losses
during several months," The Hague District Court reportedly ruled
on Wednesday.
"Clients have been scared away," the court said referring to
Dutch smokers who would have been put off from visiting coffee
shops because they were required to provide their identities.
The court said, the state will have to compensate a number of
coffee shops in the provinces of Limburg, North Brabant and
Zeeland. However it upheld the ban on sales to foreigners, saying
it should reduce problems of cross-border drug tourism in the
southern part of the country.
The Dutch association of retail cannabis traders and a number of
coffee shops took the government to court in September last year
to ask judges to declare the ban on cannabis sales to foreigners
illegal, association spokesman Michael Veling told AFP.
“Compensation is a good thing, but (in this case) it’s rather
limited because traders won’t be repaid for drinks they haven’t
sold and that kind of thing,” Veling added.
A new, more left wing government shelved the cannabis card law in
November, but said individual city authorities could still decide
whether to apply the law affecting some 650 establishments across
the country, according to their economic or social priorities.
Amsterdam, whose coffee shops are a major tourist attraction,
said it would continue to allow tourists to buy cannabis in the
cafés, the Guardian reports.
Although cannabis is technically illegal, the Netherlands
decriminalized possession of less than five grams of the
substance in 1976.