Dutch cannabis cafes to become private members' clubs

ABOUT 30 cannabis-vending coffee shops in the south of the Netherlands are to become private members' clubs at the start of next year to keep out foreign drug tourists.
"We will transform the coffee shops from open establishments, accessible by all to closed establishments of which clients need to be members," Maastricht's Mayor Gerd Leers said.In the latest move away from the traditionally liberal Dutch approach to such issues as soft drugs and prostitution, coffee shops in the province of Limburg said they would start issuing membership cards. The application procedure would take several days, in effect preventing short-term tourists from buying marijuana. The move is backed by the Government and is seen as a pilot project for possible expansion to other areas. Some four million foreigners travel to Limburg every year to buy cannabis, according to a municipal official. The measure, to be applied uniformly by all coffee shops in the province which borders Belgium and Germany, would seek to "discourage the majority of drug tourists," said Mr Leers.

Dutch marijuana fields cannot hide from canna chopper

The Netherlands (and their capital city of Amsterdamn) have garnished a well known reputation for their loose laws on the cannabis plant and marijuana, but most people don’t realize that the drug is NOT completely legal in the nation. According to some reports, only as much as 10% of the Marijuana grown in the nation is sold and grown legally.
In an effort to crack down on illegal marijuana growing, Dutch authorities developed the “Canna Chopper.” The unmanned helicopter craft is equipped with odor sensors that can “smell marijuana” and also uses video detection technology. In it’s first trial run in the field, it was successfull in discovering a marijuana farm that lead to the arrest of seven individuals.
While technology like this is unfortunate for the outdoor Marijuana growers of the world, it is unlikely that it will affect all of the many indoor grow operations and legal coffee shop outlets that we have all grown to know and love.

Revealed: Government helpline tells children 'cannabis is safer than alcohol'

Children calling the Government's drugs helpline are being told that cannabis is safer than alcohol and that ecstasy will not damage their health, an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has found.

Advisers manning the “Frank” helpline are informing callers they believed to be children as young as 13 that alcohol is a “much more powerful drug than cannabis” and that using the illegal drug recreationally is not harmful because it “doesn’t get you that high”.
Callers are also being told that taking ecstasy will not lead to long-term damage and that if they are in doubt, to “just take half a pill and if you are handling that OK, you can take the other half.”

They are even being told that they would be able to smoke a cannabis joint, on top of ecstasy, with no ill-effects.