tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142743152971096915.post6210028398515601444..comments2023-10-05T04:44:25.174-05:00Comments on Addiction Inbox: Dutch Voters Leave Fate of “Weed Pass” HangingDirk Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07429793255785560043noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142743152971096915.post-158887942406721082012-12-13T02:14:49.897-06:002012-12-13T02:14:49.897-06:00You are an idiot Johnson . You have no clue as to ...You are an idiot Johnson . You have no clue as to what your talking about.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142743152971096915.post-43763985455352027702012-10-17T11:24:32.613-05:002012-10-17T11:24:32.613-05:00You guys are not following up. Since the election,...You guys are not following up. Since the election, all the large cities' mayors, as well as mayors from Groningen in the extreme north, to cities all along the German Border, and even in the extreme southern towns like Maastricht and Terneuzen, where the "problems" are ostensibly the worst (went to Grad school in Maastricht, afterward working in Amsterdam for a decade...school was in Maastricht's coffeeshop district, and I speak read and write Dutch extremely well. I was there in Amsterdam as recently as July) have started screaming fire and murder, to use a Dutch phrase, as these mayors have to now admit that the dealing of cannabis, as predicted, moved quickly to the streets.<br /><br />Mayors have great authority and political clout in the Netherlands. <br /><br />The wietpas is falling apart, and only 2 ministers in the current but fallen, caretaker government believe in it's veracity, validity, and workability.<br /><br />Layoffs, which the Dutch public take very seriously, have already occurred, and the Mayor of Maastricht has expressly and recently argued that the "drugs tourist," in Amsterdam is not the problem they are trying to deal with in Maastricht, (which is actually problematic parking and traffic, according to any of a dozen articles in the International Herald Tribune published in the past 15 years. But on every Wednesday and Friday thousands of people come from all over the region to the market square in Maastricht to buy clothes, food and other stuff that isn't available or is more expensive in Aachen, Germany, or Liege, Belgium, which, together with Maastricht, form a large, and extremely popular metropolitan area. <br /><br />Traffic complaints here? Parking complaints? No. Why?<br /><br />The problem, as the former Mayor of Maastricht, Geert Leers, of the Cristian Democrats, the party that brought us the coffeeshops in the 1970s, is the DEMAND for CANNABIS in FRANCE, BELGIUM, and GERMANY.<br /><br />The problem is not Dutch coffeeshops, unless you define the ability to obtain cannabis without sanction or discrimination to be a problem. <br /><br />Dutch people will still be able, via a wietpas, to obtain cannabis, so this is not a shut down of the policy.... sorry. <br /><br />It is only a sort of appeasement of Belgium, which hasn't even been able to form a government for a very long time (>12 months) France, which cannot even bring itself to have a discussion about whether there should even -be- a parliamentary discussion about the legal status in France of cannabis (despite France's flooding of the world with wine and (anti-cannabis) whine, without near fisticuffs between French Members of Parliament occurring, and Germany, although Germany quit whining about Dutch cannabis cafes in the late 1990s, after a major court decision calling Federal cannabis prohibition arbitrary sent the lawmaking about cannabis to the German states. Germany is now considering legalizing cannabis as suggested by Prime Minister Merkel.Eric Johnsonnoreply@blogger.com