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Dutch city to begin fingerprinting customers for marijuana sales

05-30-07|int'l herald tribune

Coffee shops licensed to sell marijuana in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht will begin fingerprinting customers and scanning their IDs this summer to help prove they are following rules governing such sales.

In particular, the measures are expected to help stores show they are not selling to underage customers and that they have not sold more than the maximum permitted to a customer per day.

"This is not something that we are doing willingly, but with pain in our hearts," Marc Josemans, chairman of the Union of Maastricht's Coffee Shops, said Wednesday. He said shops in Rotterdam and several Dutch border cities were considering following suit.

"We're very afraid we're going to lose customers over this, and to be honest we're even a little ashamed we're doing it, but the city of Maastricht has such harsh punishments that we don't feel we have any choice," Josemans said.

Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but cities may license shops to sell no more than five grams per customer per day. The shops may not sell to anyone under 18, nor permit drugs other than marijuana or hashish on the premises.

Since the Maastricht mayor, Gerd Leers, took office in 2002, police have strictly enforced the rules, and shops found in violation are automatically closed for a minimum of three months for a single infraction, six months for a second offense, and permanently for a third.

As a result, 11 of Maastricht's 26 licensed shops have been closed, leaving just 15 open.

Under the new plan, fingerprints would be coupled with a digital photograph and a scan of customers' ID cards - removing all personal information except birth date - and stored on a computer system at the shop.

Josemans, who is also owner of the "Easy Going" coffee shop, said the electronic system would be tested at his store Aug. 1 and used by all licensed stores by September.

Because of Maastricht's location near the border with Belgium and Germany and not far from France, the city of 120,000 residents gets 4.5 million "drugs tourists" a year who come just to buy drugs and drive home.

A city spokesman, Math Wijnands, said the drug trade brought a host of problems, notably petty criminals who seek to sell marijuana or other drugs near the licensed coffee shops.

"They know that they have a target group here, but they go about their business in an aggressive manner," Wijnands said. "That causes problems in the city center."

The city is negotiating to move more than half of the remaining shops to the outskirts of town - angering neighboring countries like Belgium who object to having what amount to marijuana drive-through stores on their doorsteps.

Wijnands said the city was aware of the plan by the shops to store customer data, and approved.

"If they're going to take ID checks into their own hands and obey the rules as much as possible, then that's only to be applauded," he said.

Josemans said the system had been vetted with the Netherlands' digital privacy watchdog, known by its Dutch acronym CBP, and did not violate any laws. A CBP spokeswoman could not immediately confirm that.

 

reggie_the_dog

for years they have been talking about not selling to foreginers, etc. Now they want to take fingerprints bla bla bla. Just more hot air, its only "voulantary" so most shops will likely not do this but just make damn sure they look at the age of folks on their ID cards when they are in the shop. Even if I were Dutch I wouldn't let them fingerprint me to get cannabis, I would just go to a dealer or grow my own.

I doubt they will ever implement this.

I am a citizen of the European Union, they cannot take my fingerprints to buy certain items and not others, it infringes on my privacy. (PS you have to give fingerprints to get a gun licence here in France, but not at the gun store.)

I doubt this law will still be in vigour after its first pass past the European Commision. The key is to get a coffeeshop owner to demonstrate that their was a binding but fiduciary (implied) text in the law that shops would be closed if they did not fingerprint, then the invasion of privacy will no longer be cosidered voulantary, but required and the law can be done away with.

sterbo

Yet another example of why legalization is of such key importance.
Even with 'relaxed' laws in some locations the fact that marihuana remains illegal in most countries does nothing more than exacerbate the problem.

What's truly unfortunate is that because of this duality all too often the general public is left with the perception that, 'See, such and such City or State has given marihuana users what they want and there's still a big problem'.
The fact is that the only problem is that marihuana is not legal across the board.

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Buzzby

This is the real problem for the government and for the merchants: 4.5 million visitors using city services and contributing almost nothing to the city's economy.

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reggie_the_dog

When I went to Maastrich the last time I not only stopped in 3 coffeeshops and spend about 30 euros in each buying 5 grams of cannabis, I also dropped 45 euros on seeds, paid 4 euros to park my car and spent 20 euros eating in a restaurant.

The time before that I stayed for 3 days, got a hotel for 3 days, rented bicycles, went kayaking, smoked about 50 euros a day of grass, at at restaurants 3 times a day etc. I think I contributed to the economy of Maastrich each time I went.

Its not like paying to park in a parking garage is using city services without giving the city anything, they make a profit off of my parking.

 

Buzzby

You were not a "drug tourist" who came across the border, bought some weed, and then went home again.

reggie_the_dog

The first time I talked about, yes I was a drug tourist. I came, bought, and continued to Amsterdam. It's true I did stop for lunch.

At any rate even people that come in, buy, and leave, will have to pay for parking. The way Maastrich is set up its pretty much all pay parking in the center of town.

castklearr

The Dutch should have pushed for legalization a long time ago perhaps when the mood was for Freedom to be and do anything....before they became a welfare country for third world countries.....

Back in 1998 I went to Thailand bought 2 pounds of commercial "kick ass" chocolate bud were I stashed it while I flew to Peshawar Pakistan and bought a half kilo of hash oil and a kilo of hash. I returned to Thailand and picked up the weed and flew right into Amsterdam thinking I could sell for triple and return to Thailand hang out then do the same thing 6 months later.

In Amsterdam I learned that all the coffee shops are Arab connected and they had only one source for hashish, the hashish oil was totally illegal and they ordered me out of the shop....come back without the oil. The Thai weed was superior in high to most Amsterdam local weeds but people bought weed more for looks than high.....and they got some pretty great shit there....and they were tired of Thai weed....they were now weaned on green bud.

I was devastated that I had all this product....no where to sell it. Well its just like America really in that besides the coffee shops/cannabis clubs there is a whole underground market that the locals use and only go to the coffee shops when its dry underground. I was in a bar smoking that Thai weed and I ended up meeting some thug bikers that were nice compared to the border thugs in America.....we partied and they bought everything at a discount.....not looking to further business in Amsterdam and the increase danger in Pakistan I flew back to Thailand and bought some Thai trinkets and returned to America dashing the dream of working a few days a year in a foreign paradise traveling around buying incredible smoke.

Amsterdam turns out to be a more complicated issue than taking fingerprints to make sure your getting your medicine at a public place legally.....I assume it goes deeper.....that maybe the Arab hash dealers that control the coffee shops and the government is afraid of losing control of this illegal substance that has allowed the profiled Arab terrorists, world fronts in lots of Western European economies. In America its Pizza places......

In the past in Amsterdam it was a tax the citizen 45%+ to pay for the foreigner....now I think its squeeze them out and quit giving the resources to people that won't assimilate in the culture. Amsterdam certainly has a lot of people on welfare and I think they are tightening the screws to get rid of the future welfare terrorists.

It looks like the door of opportunity is closing on Holland.

Lothar121

From what I understand, the marijuana in the Netherlands is not taxed since it is technically still illegal. This needs to changed.

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