City that went to pot strikes back
The Smoky Boat is a big tourist attraction in Maastricht.
[…]The Smoky Boat shop has remarkably limited fare: no alcohol, just tea, coffee, orange juice, instant soup, toasted sandwiches and … cannabis. Since 1976, a limited number of licensed premises, known euphemistically as coffee shops, have been allowed to sell cannabis in The Netherlands.
This relaxation of the law has allowed the Dutch to smoke without fear of prosecution, but it has also created a monster in Maastricht.
The city’s proximity to the borders of France, Belgium and Germany has made it the centre of Europe’s cannabis tourism.
Each year, 1.5 million young day trippers flood to the Smoky Boat and the city’s 15 other coffee shops, making up an astonishing 75 per cent of their customers.
As far as the 16 shop owners are concerned, the $1.3 billion a year trade is a huge success. But for Maastricht, the drug tourists have brought nothing but trouble.
This month, the city will strike a blow at the very heart of Holland’s liberal attitude to drugs by banning the sale of cannabis to foreigners.
The people and police of Maastricht have watched as crime rates have risen in the city in line with the numbers of foreign visitors. Of the 21,000 people charged with crimes last year, 4500 were foreigners.
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