Europa Cup Draw - Rangers v Sporting Lisbon

[Stimpy 0]

Don't be banking on smoking session:

 

Students will no longer need to mug up on the Dutch word for spliff, doobie, yen pop, bong, roach, ganja and Camberwell carrot before venturing out on chilled-out cannabis weekends in the Netherlands.

 

The European Court of Justice today upheld a Dutch ruling that establishments selling weed in the Netherlands have the right to ban foreign tourists from entering.

 

The move will draw to a close the tradition of scruffy German, French or British 18-year-olds from visiting the Netherlands’ famous cannabis cafÃ?©s, ordering their chosen leaf from a menu, and spluttering through a rolled-up reefer.

 

Judges said that the southern Dutch city of Maastricht was within its rights when it introduced a pass system to exclude non-Dutch residents from its cannabis caf�©s in 2005.

The new conservative Government headed by Mark Rutte as Prime Minister is now planning to make the country’s 700 so-called coffee shops members-only clubs, aiming to shut out the thousands of tourists who travel across Europe to visit.

 

While marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, it has been sold openly for decades in designated caf�©s and police make no arrests for possession of small amounts.

The Netherlands is Europe’s only destination for drug tourists seeking to buy cannabis and take it openly and legally. But the shops have fallen victim to their own popularity, with authorities in Dutch towns bordering Germany and Belgium fed up with late-night rowdiness and petty crime blamed on the thousands of coffee shop customers.

 

Ivo Opstelten, the Justice Minister, has said that he wants to turn coffee shops back into small neighbourhood caf�©s where locals can smoke pot in peace and residents are not disturbed.

 

The Luxembourg-based court said in its written ruling that banning foreigners from coffee shops “constitutes a measure capable of substantially limiting drug tourism and, consequently, of reducing the problems it causes”.

 

Maastricht’s 14 cannabis cafÃ?©s attract some 10,000 visitors every day, or 3.9 million a year, and 70 per cent of them are not from the Netherlands, according to town data cited by the European Court of Justice. Only customers with a Dutch residency card were allowed in under the passs system it piloted in 2005.

 

Marc Josemans, owner of the Easy Going coffee shop in Maastricht, who brought the legal challenge, argued that such outlets were a successful way of regulating the drug market and preventing marijuana users coming into contact with street drugs like heroin.

 

“All these people who visit coffee shops, they want to use and buy cannabis in a safe haven where they are not being contacted with hard drugs or hassled for other things,” he said. “That place is called the coffee shop.”

 

The judges rejected Mr Josemans’s claim that the policy breached European Union laws on the free movement of goods and services. The court said that EU laws did not apply because selling marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherands and outlawed in all other EU countries.

 

“That restriction is justified by the objective of combating drug tourism and the accompanying public nuisance,” the court heard.

[Frankie 8,682]

I can speak German so I'll blag my way in...

[calscot 0]

We've got Sporting Lisbon

 

and then if we're through the winners of Lille v PSV

[calscot 0]

Seems like a path where we have a chance of progressing.

[alexscottislegend 2,412]

Seems like a path where we have a chance of progressing.

 

Exactly. And we do need to progress. No good having a glamour tie if we get cuffed. For me our Europe progress is actually more important than the SPL because we WILL win that.

[rbr 1,270]

Time to get the money out and strengthen , speculate to accumulate or am I being too optomistic

[CumbernauldGers 0]

Not a bad draw at all.

[Gazza_8 233]

Pretty average draw. Nothing more, nothing less!

[ian1964 10,780]

[Norris Cole 0]

Two eminently winnable ties.

 

PSV or Lille aren't as good as Sporting IMO.

 

Of course, much depends on how good the new pipes in the Main Stand are.