Court rules in favour of proposal to ban coffee shops for tourists скачать в хорошем качестве

Court rules in favour of proposal to ban coffee shops for tourists

(27 Apr 2012) 1. Wide of Amsterdam street with coffee shops 2. Various of coffee shop signs 3. Various of men smoking and making cannabis-joints inside a coffee shop 4. Man lighting up a joint in a coffee shop 5. Another man smoking a joint in the coffee shop 6. Various interiors of coffee shop 7. Close-up of Michael Veling, owner of 420 Cafe 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Veling, owner of the 420 Cafe: "We are very disappointed. We had expected the judge to at least to consider the discriminatory measures that are implemented by this so called weed pass, this ban on foreigners in Dutch coffee shops." 9. Various of cannabis being measured and sold in the coffee shop 10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paul, tourist from Canada, no last name given: "Basically, I come here to relax between contracts. I just stop in this place and get a few days, relax, smoke a bit of weed, read and sleep. So this is my resting place." 11. Wide of the coffee shop interior 12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tommy, tourist from Northern Ireland, no Las name given: "We really enjoy them (coffee shops). Me and my friends we come here as often as we can for smoking some weed - cannabis. It''s nice and relaxing and people treat us well and we really enjoy it." 13. View of street through of the coffee shop 14. Various of pedestrians in Amsterdam streets STORYLINE: A Dutch judge on Friday upheld the government''s plan to introduce a "weed pass" to prevent foreigners from buying marijuana in coffee shops in the Netherlands. Amsterdam, whose scores of coffee shops are a major tourism highlight, opposes the plan, and mayor Eberhard van der Laan says he wants to hammer out a compromise. A lawyer for coffee shop owners said he would file an urgent appeal against the ruling by a judge at The Hague District court that clears the way for the introduction of the pass in southern provinces on May first. The pass will roll out in the rest of the country, including Amsterdam, next year. It will turn coffee shops into private clubs with membership open only to Dutch residents and limited to 2,000 per shop. The most recent figures from the government''s statistics bureau says the country has more than 650 coffee shops, 214 of them in Amsterdam. The number has been steadily declining as municipalities have imposed tougher regulations, such as shuttering ones close to schools. But the new membership rules are the most significant rollback in years to the traditional Dutch tolerance of marijuana use. The move has been criticised by many coffee shop owners. Michael Veling, owner of 420 caf� said,"We are very disappointed. We had expected the judge to at least to consider the discriminatory measures that are implemented by this so called weed pass, this ban on foreigners in Dutch coffee shops." The government argues that the move is justified as a way of cracking down on so-called "drug tourists," effectively couriers who drive over the border from neighbouring Belgium and Germany to buy large amounts of marijuana and take it home to resell. The tourists cause traffic and public order problems in towns and cities along the Dutch border. However, such problems are virtually nonexistent in Amsterdam where the small, smoke-filled coffee shops are visited by thousands of tourists each year, mostly youngsters who consider smoking a joint to be part of the essential Amsterdam experience alongside visiting cultural highlights like the Van Gogh museum and the canals. Some people come to the country mainly for coffee shops. Paul, a 31-year-old tourist from Canada said that he comes to Amsterdam to relax in between contracts. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...