26 March 2010
A Dutch court fined the owner of Netherlands' biggest cannabis-vending
coffee shop 10 million euros on March 25 for overstepping the
government's official policy of tolerance on soft drug trade.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Even in this freewheeling land of tolerated soft drugs, the Checkpoint marijuana bar went too far. A Dutch judge fined it €10 million ($13.34 million) on Thursday for overstepping the rarely enforced limit on how much weed can be held in stock, in what as seen as a test case in a growing effort to rein in drug tourism.
At the height of its popularity, the euphemistically called "coffee shop" in the southern town of Terneuzen close to the Belgian border sold drugs to 3,000 people a day — many of them crossing specifically to buy marijuana and hashish.
In a sign of its acceptance by local authorities, the town even put up road signs pointing the way to the Checkpoint and built a parking lot nearby to reduce the traffic congestion in town.
The building on the banks of the Westerschelde River also housed a regular cafe and restaurant.
The Checkpoint, which has now closed, became a symbol for how the long-standing Dutch tolerance of small-scale sales of marijuana at neighborhood cafes spawned a multimillion euro (dollar) industry.
Soft drugs are tolerated
Dutch
regulations allow coffee shops to hold just 500 grams (18 ounces) of
cannabis on the premises. But when police raided the Checkpoint on two
occasions they found 200 kilograms (440 pounds).
Those amounts of drugs turned the coffee shop into a criminal organization, judges ruled.
Soft drugs are technically illegal but tolerated, in a long-standing policy that allows authorities to carefully regulate the supply. It also allows law enforcers to keep them separate from hard drugs — whose sale on any scale remains a punishable offense.
Terneuzen's mayor, Jan Lonink, said the verdict "underscores the importance of tightening the tolerance policy and administering it better."
Terneuzen is not the only municipality grappling with such drug superstores, raising the ire of local residents who complain of problems caused by drug buyers.
Neighboring countries also object that the coffee shops undermine their own efforts to halt the drug trade.
Prosecutors in cities along the Dutch borders with Belgium, France and Germany are experiencing similar problems and were expected to carefully study Thursday's verdict to see if it provides a blueprint for cracking down on their own coffee shops.