Amsterdam judge bans tourists from entering cafes that sell weed...

[Byeckerslike]

what do you think?
Newsbeat have posted about this and it came up on my fb feed so i dont know masses about it, but a judge has said tourists will be prosecuted for smoking weed.
Now i reckon if we banned tourists from doing something that was illegal in their own country there would be uproar... Aside from the fact tourism in amsterdam will suffer.
Im not a weed smoker, it just seems to me that banning people because they are tourists is a bit much.

Probably doing it as those who live there might pop in and smoke one joint. Tourists will smoke for 12 hours then go out and make a nuisance of themselves. Will lose a lot of tourism though.

Don't know about this but just want to say boooooo hiss to the judge. I've been yearning to go back to the dam but no point now

Yes angry i suppose you are right, but isnt that the case with alcohol, anywhere in the world? I also dare say there are many tourists who only go in and smoke one.
I suppose my issue is more the banning of certain people doing certain things.

I thought the judge hadn't banned anyone but rather said it was legal for the Dutch equivalent of Local Authorities to make them residents only?

Surely that is illegal to discriminate against people for their nationality under EU law?

As bobbledunk says it must be illegal to discriminate like that.

Surely it'll affect their tourism industry too. The tourists in question may get stoned off their tits, but if friends of mine are anything to go by, they spend a lot of money while they're over there.

The law is the EU citizens have to be treated the same as national citizens. If they say only dutch citizens, that would be unlawful. If the local council says only people who live in this borough (residents only) that wouldn't, because the restriction also applies to dutch citizens who are non-residents.

As I've understood it, they want to make the coffee shops 'members only' which will mean that tourists will be excluded by not being members. However, they are still discussing it and, as this is the Netherlands, it could be years before anything actually happens......

I got the impression that the main reason was people from Germany and Belgium getting hold of large amounts to sell back home, I believe the areas around Maastrict were mentioned. I was in Amsterdam last summer and having seen the behaviour of some tourists, I don't blame the natives for being pissed off. BTW I have totally changed my mind about the safety of cannabis after a close relative (who is Dutch) developed schizophrenia.

i expect they will still allow tourists to hook up with their overly advertised prostitutes though