Confusion in Dutch Long Term Cannabis Policy
July 8, 2013Just when it appeared tourists would always be allowed in Amsterdam's cannabis coffeeshops, Holland's Justice Minister made a statement recently that has added confusion to the direction of future cannabis policy.
After a new government was formed late last year in Holland, a law that was to go in effect at the start of this year was amended.
The law, created by the previous and more conservative government, was designed to ban tourists nationwide from cannabis coffeeshops.
But a change to the law by the new government apparently allowed for local municipalities to ultimately decide on their own whether tourists would be banned or not in their local coffeeshops.
Now however it is unclear what the change really means after comments by the Dutch Justice Minister.
The Justice Minister commented last week that there are "not yet" plans to impose a deadline on all Dutch cities to begin banning tourists, suggesting that a ban will not take place in the short term, but will eventually take place in the long run.
