Pro-pot protesters light up against Dutch cannabis plans
NETHERLANDS: Several hundred pro-cannabis demonstrators lit up
joints in central Amsterdam on Friday in the most public display yet
against the Dutch government's plan to stop the drug's sale to
foreigners.
Pot-friendly protesters "flash-mobbed" in front of the capital's
Muziektheater -- a venue announced only an hour before on social media
sites -- where they played loud reggae music and unfolded banners before
lighting up.
"We are here to protest against the cannabis card, we are legal
consumers," rally organiser Peter Lunk told AFP, referring to the Dutch
government's plan to introduce a so-called "cannabis card" for Dutch
residents only.
Lunk estimated some 500 smokers gathered for Friday's "smoke-in,"
many of them wearing T-shirts imprinted with a marijuana leaf and
carrying placards saying: "Weed pass -- no thanks" and "Weed pass, kiss
my arse." New cannabis-for-locals-only laws are to take effect on May 1
in three southern Dutch provinces -- North Brabant, Limburg and Zeeland
on the Belgian and German borders -- and in the rest of The Netherlands
in 2013.
The centre-right government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte has since
September 2010 been weighing a "cannabis card," reserved for residents
only and obligatory when visiting one of the country's 670 licensed
coffee shops. Dutch coffeeshops will now become closed clubs which will
be allowed up to 2,000 members from among residents, including
foreigners living in The Netherlands and aged over 18.
AFP |