Dutch city bans foreign drug tourists

Foreign tourists have been banned from cannabis-selling coffee shops in the Dutch border city of Maastricht, official said. City authorities say drug tourists threaten public order and cause traffic problems, the BBC reported. The ban, which goes into effect Saturday, does not apply to visitors from Belgium or Germany, who make up the majority of foreign clients. Coffee shop owners say the ban will hurt the local economy and customers who are banned will turn to illegal street drug dealers. "All these clients who are banned from the Dutch coffee shops ... have to return to the illegal circuit in their own country, therefore it will become a bigger problem and cause more criminality in those countries," said Marc Josemans, chairman of the Association of Official Coffee Shops Maastricht. There are about 700 cannabis-selling coffee shops throughout the Netherlands. The growing and selling of soft drugs through them has been decriminalized but not legalized.