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Lothar121

EU Warns Netherlands Against Allowing Cannabis Growing
NIS News Bulletin | 06/20/06

European Commissioner Franco Frattini (Justice) has warned the Netherlands that legalisation of cannabis-growing is in conflict with EU rules. A Lower House majority wants to allow hemp growing under state supervision.

Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner is debating with the Lower House this week on plans to regulate cannabis cultivation. The conservatives (VVD), Labour (PvdA) and the centre-left (D66) want the government to start an experiment to permit controlled growing. In this way, the House wants to take cannabis cultivation out of criminal hands. Donner is against the proposal.

Legalisation according to Frattini infringes a decision of the EU countries in 2004, for which the Netherlands also voted. This banned the cultivation of cannabis plants, unless exclusively for personal use. This is not the case when it is grown for supply to the tolerated Dutch drugs bars, better known as coffee shops.

Frattini was in The Hague yesterday. He wants to try to remove the fears on the European Commission's plans to restrict the veto rights of the 25 EU countries in the area of justice and police cooperation. The Italian had talks with Donner, who is hesitant on Frattini's initiatives. He also spoke with the Lower House standing committees for justice and European affairs.

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Buzzby

I heard elsewhere that if one country in the EU legalized marijuana it would become legal everywhere in the EU. I wonder which is correct?

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weed.is.a.deed

oh jesus, i really really hope you heard that right. i really really do

reggie_the_dog

well, absinthe was illegal in France but legal in Spain back when the treaty of Maastrich was signed. This treaty says and product leagally sold/produced in one country is legal to produce and sell in all countries.

So if the Netherlands legalized (formally legalized) cultivation and sale it would technically be legal all over the EU but it remains to be seen if the other EU states would respect the law.

wondrous

I may be wrong, but I think EU countries are similar to US states, meaning that something can be legal in one country and not legal in another.

 

KWhite

No, you are right, wondrous.

As a matter of fact there is a lot of political wrangling going on over just how much authority the EU has over member states.

None of them want to give up any sovereignty, in any form.

Warnings by the EU usually make them "Do it anyway" just to show they can.

Let's hope.

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reggie_the_dog

the treaty says any product legally sold in one country is legal in all. That is how cannabis seed sellers exist in France, how mushrooms are sold in some stores in France and the UK, and how prostitution (legal in Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain) is really legal everywhere else. (though they still get busted in many member states, the prostitutes union says that one need only take their case to the European Commission and they will be found innocent.