Search Results: drug tourism (35)


As Indonesia’s most popular vacation destination, the island of Bali expects to welcome as many as 10 million tourists this year. Being surrounded by crystal clear waters, white sand beaches, and cheap Nepalese hash may sound like paradise…oh, ok, it is paradise.
But if you plan to be among those planning a trip to Bali in 2014, you should beware that the National Narcotics Agency Bali (BNN) – sort of Indonesia’s version of the DEA – has vowed to crack down on narcotics tourism in what they say has already been a busy year of drug busts.

When legal cannabis sales begin in Washington state next year, dispensary owners are hoping for a little business from north of the border.
Take Mike Momany, president and founder of the Washington State Cannabis Tourism Association, who plans to open a pot pedi-cab business as well as host a “Can-Am Cannabis Celebration” in a border town, a pot party where Yankees and Canucks can light up together.

Hispanically Speaking News
Uruguay President Jose Mujica: “We feel that putting it aboveboard, regulating it, can be a lesser evil than what is happening today”

Aw, man! If Uruguay’s parliament approves a historic plan to legalize marijuana, drug tourism will not be allowed in the South American nation, President Jose Mujica said on Wednesday.

The plan, under which Uruguay would sell marijuana to its citizens, will require people to prove they are Uruguayan before scoring any weed, Mujica told Agence France Presse (AFP). The legalization bill — the first complete legalization in the world, as opposed to decriminalization of “tolerance” as practiced in places like the Netherlands and Portugal — “is to resolve a problem that we ourselves have,” President Mujica said.

Photo: Trends Updates
The entire state of Chiahuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located, is out of control. Juarez itself is a virtual ghost town with no tourism, almost completely under the control of violent drug cartels.

​A Mexican newspaper in the midst of the country’s Drug War has asked cartels for guidance on whether, and how, it should publish stories on the conflict.

El Diario de Juarez has become known for its excellent reporting from the blood-soaked streets of border town Ciudad Juarez, a haven for the violent drug-smuggling cartels, reports the BBC.
But the murder of their 21-year-old photographer last week prompted the newspaper to run a front-page editorial asking: “What do you want from us?”

Photo: Brian Kersey/UPI
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox: “We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs”

​Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is joining the chorus of those urging his successor, President Felipe Calderon, to legalize drugs in Mexico, saying that could could help break the economic power of the country’s illegal drug cartels.

The comments, posted Sunday on Fox’s blog, came less than a week after Calderon agreed to open the door to discussions about the legalization of drugs. Calderon, however, stressed that he remained opposed to the idea, reports E. Eduardo Castillo of The Associated Press.
“We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs,” said Fox, who served as president from 2000 to 2006 and is a member of President Calderon’s conservative National Action Party. “Radical prohibition strategies have never worked.”
“Legalizing in this sense does not mean drugs are good and don’t harm those who consume then,” he wrote. “Rather we should look at it as a strategy to strike at and break the economic structure that allows gangs to generate huge profits in their trade, which feeds corruption and increases their areas of power.”

Photo: Briarpatch
It’s not going to be Easy Going for you if you want to buy hash at this coffee shop — unless you’re Dutch.

​The Netherlands can ban over-the counter sales of marijuana in Dutch “coffee shops” to nonresidents to end drug tourism from other countries, a senior advisor to the European Union high court said Thursday, reports The Associated Press.

The advisor, Yves Bot, senselessly claimed a Dutch city’s ban on foreign customers in the shops is a “lawful and necessary measure” to cut crime and keep the peace, reports Stephanie Bodoni at Bloomberg.
“As drug tourism represents a genuine and sufficiently serious threat to public order in Maastricht, the exclusion of non-residents from coffee shops” is a “necessary” way of protecting residents, Bot said.

Toke of the Town/William Breathes.

Legalized cannabis would create more than $450 million in annual revenue for the Israeli government, a study this week by an Israeli financial research group shows. The figures are based on estimated black market sales of cannabis more than $707 million.
The only problem is that legalization doesn’t seem to have much support. Yet.

Kush And Orange Juice
Yeah, it’s nice being able to buy connoisseur-grade cannabis and smoke it on the premises in Dutch coffee shops. But the conservative government is trying to ban foreigners from the shops with the unpopular Weed Pass.

Cities Allowed To Decide For Themselves On Enforcement

The Dutch “Weed Pass,” which in effect would have banned foreigners from the famed “coffee shops” which sell cannabis in the Netherlands, took a big hit Tuesday as the Ministry of Security and Justice announced that cities may decide what action — if any — they take against shops which defy the ban.
“Municipalities may decide themselves what sort of action they take against coffeeshops which choose not to comply with the weedpass,” the Ministry announced.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide

​Foreign visitors will be banned from the “coffee shops” which sell cannabis in southern Netherlands starting January 1, supposedly to combat “anti-social behavior” among tourists. (So when do the tourists get banned from bars?) The ban won’t hit Amsterdam, however, until a year later, in 2013.

The Dutch Justice Ministry announced the ban was going forward after a consultation period, despite opposition from some MPs who called the move “tourism suicide, reports Travelmail Reporter at the Daily Mail.
Licensed coffee shops will be considered private clubs under the new rules. Their maximum of 2,000 members will be limited to Dutch residents 18 and older who carry a so-called “dope card.”

Photo: The World In Photos
What do you do if you have a thriving cannabis tourism industry pumping lots of money into the economy? Shut it down, if you’re the Dutch.

​The Netherlands is poised to shut down its thriving cannabis tourism industry which has been an economic boon to the country for 34 years. European Union judges have ruled that Dutch authorities are not violating European single market laws by barring foreigners from buying the cannabis and hashish that are sold in the country’s famous marijuana “coffee shops.”

The restrictions, aimed at discouraging “drug tourism” from Belgium, Germany, and other places, have so far been implemented only in border towns but will soon be extended across the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, popular with British pot tourists, reports Bruno Waterfield at The Telegraph.
The EU ruling was requested by the Dutch supreme court, the Council oif State, after Marc Josemans, who owns Easy Going Coffee Shop in Maastricht, sued after being forced to close for breaking the “no foreigners” rule.
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