Dutch coffee shop fined 10m euros for breaking drug law

Dutch coffee shop fined 10m euros for breaking drug law

news.bbc.co.uk

A Dutch court has fined the owner of the Netherlands' biggest cannabis-selling coffee shop 10m euros (£9m, $13.3m) for breaking drugs laws.

Owner Meddie Willemsen, who was tried along with 15 staff of the Checkpoint coffee shop in Terneuzen, was also sentenced to a 16-week prison term.

He was convicted for keeping more than the maximum tolerated amount of 500g (18oz) of drugs at the cafe.

Checkpoint served up to 3,000 people a day before being closed last year.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Even "tolerant" countries are cracking down on illegal cannabis production.

The misconception of the Dutch policy on marijuana production and consumption is surely going to confuse many people on this one.

As the article states, the policy is "tolerance" and decriminalization yet people are going to jail, meaning that the offense is a serious one.

Any thoughts?

Keeping the peace,

Magnum

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Guess I'll be skratching that one off the Countries to Visit list.

Thanks for the Heads Up.

[edit on 3/25/2010 by anon72]

[edit on 3/25/2010 by anon72]

Maximum tolerated amount? First Ive ever heard of such a thing. Is that at one time only? Like can I have 18oz at the shop and 18oz in my car and replenish the 18oz from my shop throughout the day?

The whole notion of a maximum tolerated amount of a consumable product is ridiculous.

18oz doesnt even seem like very much depending on how many customers you get. At 3,000 customers a day that's .006oz per person. Why bother to smoke if that's all you'd get? Get higher holding your breath.

They have real crime in the Netherlands. To waste police resorces on punishing legitimate busisnessmen is silly. The citizens will not stand for this kind of waste. These are people with an advanced social conscience. They know what is important to the welfare of all. There will always be politicians with a hatred for cannabis and they will continue to waste taxdollars fighting it.

That's so retarded... HOW THE HELL can you serve customers with only 500g of marijuana? What the hell?

It's like putting a limit on coffee in a coffee shop... The coffee shop must have a maximum of 2lb of coffee inside the building otherwise you go to jail...

What the hell... RIDICULOUS.

I think the idea behind limiting the amounts is mostly about distinguishing between being a legitimate business and a being a criminal distributor...

Sort of like how in Canada we "tolerate" amounts for personal consumption (depending on the circumstance)

Magnum

[Edit to add] Maybe the amounts should be revised... 2 posters mentioned, rightfully so, that the amounts are minimal when there is a large clientele base...

[edit on 10/3/25 by Magnum007]

There are several factors you have to take in account:

First, the retardation known as bureaucracy. Coffeeshops are allowed to sell hemp but technically, they are not allowed to buy it. This basically means that the government can crack down on the coffeeshops anytime they wish(if the owner does not comply for example...this makes it very easy for the government to put ridiculous tax rates on hemp).

Second, this particular coffeeshop is located near the border with Belgium. Which results in drug tourism; it's not rare that people from France or Belgium or Germany hop into their vehicles and drive over the border to get their weed.

Drug tourism attracts the street dealers as well, that, along with the retardation of certain tourists results in a grim atmosphere for the town the coffeeshop is located in.

>Enter politicians that blow everything out of proportion for votes<

Example;

'Recently' magic mushrooms were banned in The Netherlands due to incidents involving the deaths of drug tourists.

So to avoid the drug tourism problem that tourists cause, the government moves to ban the drugs all together.

I have visited that particular shop many many many times. It seems odd that this is going on. I do feel that there is something else at hand.

Stupid, stupid, stupid drug laws.
Legalize, and completely decriminalize marijuana.
There are people behind the scenes responsible for thousands of deaths as a result of 9/11. Why we are we worrying about some guy in the Netherlands having a little over the legalized amount in his coffee shop?

Stupid people. Stupid laws. Legalize it. It's a no-brainer.

Most of us are grown up enough to use our free will responsibly. Throwing people in jail isn't going to solve anything.

I'm not sure if any of you bothered reading the rest of the article before jumping the gun. 200kg of marijuana that the cops found in the shop is probably enough to get all of Holland high. Supplying a coffee shop with a small amount and trafficking hundreds of kilos are two different things and I don't see the big problem with the court ruling.

[edit on 25-3-2010 by endlessknowledge]

reply to post by endlessknowledge


Agreed! - It's good enough for the Dutch authorities to tolerate the smoking of weed, they are an example to the rest of the world as it stands right now...

I've never been but certain amounts are tolerated in certain business premisses and in your home I think - no smoking in public and just be sensible about it.

200kg is a little excessive, even for a big coffee shop!... I guess that's why you see all the cozy smaller establishments. I really need to get my self over there one day, and probably grow old in a little flat right over a coffee shop with a pizza parlour across the street.

If most people actually knew the positive benefits of hemp: Say, ALL the CHEAP, Economically and environmentally friendly fuel (hemp ethanol) your Prius could ever guzzle, an excellent food source (seeds), incredible fabric source, as well as plastics, house building material, insulation...the list goes on and on...but Big Oil doesn't want this info mainstreamed...I believe hemp is the best source to free us from oil wars and the tightening noose the petrochemical and pharmaceutical companies have our necks in...

reply to post by ROGUESPEAR3


Your post is off topic! - Just because the subject of hemp is brought up don't derail the thread... This thread is about a coffee shop in Holland getting a massive fine.

It is my understanding that the Dutch have been reversing their previously liberal stance on cannabis. Over the past couple of years they have moved to reduce the number of coffee shops allowed and I believe they also have regulated where they can set up.

I'm not even sure why hemp was brought up, this story had nothing to do with hemp to begin with. Hemp is not the same thing as what they are selling in those shops, hemp has an extremely low THC content...quit confusing the two.

Now, back on topic, the law is sort of odd. It seems to have an effect of limiting the size of the establishment, maybe that is intentional. With 18oz there are only so many people that you can serve and as said above, it is definitely not 3,000. I guess they should have turned lots of those people away.

reply to post by ROGUESPEAR3


it's good to see people actually reading the links occasionally

caught with 200 kilos a couple of times, right on the belgian border in a town that put up road signs directing people to the coffee shop and built a car park to accommodate the number of people arriving.

you could almost call ten million a tax on the unreported exports across the belgian border.

Kind of ironic.
They have a simple drug law over there but people break it and then people cry about it. Here in ATS we have simple board rules in the alternative substances board and people break them all the time and people continue to break them and people cry about it.
Well here is some things to keep in mind.

First i do not see in this story any mention of the coffee shop selling pot as part of the business. So we do not know if this is a coffee shop that sells pot on the menu or if this is a coffee shop that sells pot out of the back door. They were charged with

He and his staff were convicted of breaking drugs laws, exporting drugs and membership of a criminal organisation.

On a couple of occasions, police found 200kg (440lb) of cannabis when they raided the coffee house.

On a couple of occasions, so im under the impression that this has happened more that once. So again it is kind of like here, no matter how many times a mod closes a thread because threads here are not supposed to be about personal use,legalization or medical/spiritual benifits people continue to break the rules and get their threads closed. Im starting to thing that pot may effect peoples comprehension of rules and laws.