Maastricht, Netherlands (AP) - A young man at a bus stop hisses at a passer-by: "What you looking for ... marijuana?" It's a scene of street peddling that the Netherlands hoped to stamp out in the 1970s when it launched a policy of tolerating "coffee shops" where people could buy and smoke pot freely.

But Maastricht's street dealers are back, local residents complain. And the reason is a crackdown on coffee-shops triggered by another problem: Pot tourists who crossed the border to visit the cafes and made a nuisance of themselves by snarling traffic, dumping litter and even urinating in the streets.

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MAASTRICHT, NETHERLANDS (AP) - A young man at a bus stop hisses at a passerby: "What you looking for ... marijuana?" It's a scene of street peddling that the Netherlands hoped to stamp out in the 1970s when it launched a policy of tolerating "coffee shops" where people could buy and smoke pot freely.

But Maastricht's street dealers are back, local residents complain. And the reason is a crackdown on coffeeshops triggered by another problem: Pot tourists who crossed the border to visit the cafes and made a nuisance of themselves by snarling traffic, dumping litter and even urinating in the streets.

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Dutch laws governing marijuana use are so liberal that even the US pop star Miley Cyrus failed to spark too much controversy when she lit a joint on stage in Amsterdam last year.

Now, 35 mayors are urging the government to take it a step further and let them grow cannabis too, as a global shift in favour of legalisation is leaving the once forward-thinking Netherlands lagging behind.

In a manifesto signed last week, the mayors of cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht argue that the current laws allowing the sale but banning the cultivation of marijuana mean the nation's cannabis cafes have to turn to illegal gangs for their supply, encouraging organised crime and wasting valuable police time dismantling unlawful plantations.

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Amsterdam Coffee Shop Amsterdam Coffee Shops near schools will have to close during school hours

Amsterdam's mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, recently announced that as of next January, cannabis cafes located within 250 meters of secondary schools must close their doors during school hours. And that has given new impetus to the ongoing - often vehement - national debate over the Netherlands' marijuana policy.

Despite repeated assertions about his intention to keep the city's coffee shops - cafes where small amounts of cannabis are sold - open to everyone, against national requirements to the contrary, the decision seems to indicate a new turn around a complicated issue that has set the national government against progressive mayors of major cities with Van der Laan at their head.

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Police in Amsterdam, where "soft" drugs can be purchased legally in more than 200 "coffee shops", have urged the city authorities to do more to prevent young foreign tourists jumping from hotel windows and being seriously injured or killed.

It's the first time the police have raised the issue with City Hall, and it follows a spate of incidents this summer in which tourists under the influence of various types of drugs have been jumping from windows and balconies at the rate of more than one a month.

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(AP) - A Dutch court has ordered the government to compensate owners of cannabis-selling cafes who say they are losing money because of measures to stamp out drug tourism.

But in a setback for owners of so-called coffee shops, The Hague district court ruling also said other moves to prevent foreigners from buying soft drugs in the Netherlands were legitimate.

It said turning coffee shops in the southern Netherlands into private member-only clubs last year deterred not only foreigners but also domestic customers, and ordered compensation for the cafe owners. The amount will be settled later.

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New York Times

Paris -- Amsterdam's 220 coffee shops, where marijuana and hashish are openly sold and consumed, will remain open next year in spite of a new Dutch law meant to reduce drug tourism, the city's mayor said in an interview published Thursday.

The mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that he had made the decision after considering the unintended consequences that would arise from a ban, including a revival of black market trade. He also noted that the current system allows for the government to monitor the quality of soft drugs and to limit access to the coffee shops, something that would be impossible if the trade were again to become clandestine.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands - With slogans like "Don't let your vote go up in smoke," owners of the free-wheeling cafes where bags of hashish are sold alongside cups of coffee are mounting a get-outthe-stoner-vote campaign ahead of next week's Dutch election.

The campaigners are calling on their sometimes apathetic dopesmoking clientele to get out and support political parties that oppose the recently introduced "weed pass" that is intended to rein in the cafes known as coffee shops and close them altogether to foreign tourists.

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A policy barring foreign tourists from buying marijuana took effect in three southern provinces on Tuesday, with attention focused on the city of Maastricht, which borders Belgium and is near Germany, where more than a million foreigners a year go to buy marijuana. Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but the sale of small quantities is tolerated. Under the new policy, coffee shops that sell marijuana are allowed to sell it to only 2,000 registered customers each, who must be legal residents. Most shops in Maastricht closed on Tuesday rather than comply with the plan. One cafe opened just long enough to provoke two legal conflicts in hopes of derailing the policy. The cafe turned away a group of foreigners, who then filed a discrimination complaint with the police. Then it started selling anyone without checking for passes. The policy is not scheduled to take effect in Amsterdam, home to about a third of the country's marijuana coffee shops, until next year.

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PARIS - The Dutch government's plan to prohibit the purchase of marijuana by nonresidents cleared an important hurdle on Friday, when a court in The Hague dismissed a lawsuit brought by shop owners challenging the plan on the grounds that it was discriminatory.

The court agreed with the government that the prohibition was justified because of crime associated with people who travel to the Netherlands to buy marijuana and hashish, a resin derived from the cannabis plant. Although illegal in the Netherlands, soft drugs are tolerated. Licensed shops, called coffee shops, have been allowed to sell them since 1997, and Dutch citizens may grow up to five marijuana plants for personal use without fear of prosecution.

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Amsterdam -- A Dutch court Friday upheld a new law that will prevent foreigners from buying marijuana in coffee shops across the Netherlands, potentially ending decades of "pot tourism" for which this city and others became universally known.

A group of coffee shops had challenged the government plan, launched after southern cities in the Netherlands complained of increased levels of drug-related crime. The decision means that coffee shops in the south must stop selling marijuana to foreigners by May 1. They would be allowed to introduce a so-called "weed pass" for Dutch citizens, who would be legally permitted to keep buying cannabis. The plan would roll out to other Dutch cities, including the popular tourist center of Amsterdam, by next year.

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Last of three parts: A new book explores the world of cannabis growers, and their competition to choose the world's best weed

I didn't really expect the cannabis seed business to be so lucrative. Of course, now that I think about it, try telling that to Burpee or Monsanto. The trade in cannabis seeds isn't quite as big as those kings of agribusiness, yet it is still a multimillion-dollar-a-year endeavor. Make no mistake, Green House Seeds, DNA Genetics and the other big seed companies - Sensi Seeds, T.H.Seeds, Barney's Farm, Kiwiseeds and Dutch-Passion Seeds, to name a few - are all jostling for a share of a very robust market. While these companies develop their own strains, there are dozens of secondary seed brokers, like the Attitude, a "Cannabis Seed Superstore" operating out of England, the Vancouver Seed Bank in Canada and sweet Seeds in Spain, that act as retail outlets for seed companies.

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In a new book, Mark Haskell Smith explores our relationship with the cannabis plant

Franco walked into the coffee shop dressed head to toe in yellow and black motorcycle racing leathers. He had asked me to meet him for lunch at the Green House United Coffeeshop on Haarlemmerstraat. It's one of several coffeeshops owned by Green House and Green House Seeds, where Franco is a partner. I had been sitting under a vibrant gold-colored mural depicting what looked like the ancient Phoenician or Minoan alphabet and watching the ornamental carp swim back and forth in the massive fish tank installed under the glass floor.

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In a New Book, Mark Haskell Smith Travels to the Netherlands' Infamous 'Coffeeshops' To Find the Perfect Joint

Cannabis, artisanal or not, is technically illegal in the Netherlands. Not that you'd know it from walking down the street. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains Dutch drug laws and the rationale behind them on its website.

They make a distinction between hard drugs, "substances which involve an unacceptable health risk, such as ecstasy, cocaine and heroin," and cannabis. Possession of cannabis for personal use - up to 30 grams - is a minor offense that is rarely, if ever, enforced.

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AMSTERDAM - The scene at the 420 Cafe on a recent Friday was typical of what many travelers have come to associate with Amsterdam. Behind the bar, Janne Svensson, 34, a self-described "cannabis refugee" from Norway, weighed out small quantities of marijuana and hashish for her customers, many from foreign countries. They sat quietly, smoking and sipping coffee, as familiar strains of Jimi Hendrix drifted softly from the stereo and giant manta rays cavorted in a nature video on a big-screen television.

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A Dutch city has lost income worth UKP 26 million a year to its economy after banning French drug tourists from buying marijuana in legal cannabis cafes.

The reduction in turnover in the popular "coffee shops", where cannabis can legally be purchased and smoked, is equivalent to the loss of 345 full-time jobs.

As from October 1 this year the city's cannabis cafes have only been allowed to serve Dutch, Belgian and German customers in a bid to drive away millions of French drug tourists.

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The Dutch Government Said Friday It Would Move to Classify High-Potency Marijuana Alongside Hard Drugs Such As Cocaine and Ecstasy, the Latest Step in the Country's Ongoing Reversal of Its Famed Tolerance Policies.

The decision means most of the cannabis now sold in the Netherlands' weed cafes would have to be replaced by milder variants. But skeptics said the move would be difficult to enforce, and that it could simply lead many users to smoke more of the less potent weed.

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The Dutch government Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from coffee shops and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year.

The Netherlands has one of Europe's most liberal soft drug policies, but that is changing at the urging of a far-right party that is part of the coalition government that is in power.

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Dutch Citizens Also Face Restrictions in What's Billed As An Anti-Crime Program

The Dutch government Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from "coffee shops" and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year.

The Netherlands is well known for having one of Europe's most liberal soft drug policies that has made its cannabis shops a popular tourist attraction, particularly in Amsterdam.

Backed by the far-right party of anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders, the coalition government that came into power last year announced plans to curb drug tourism as part of a nationwide program to promote health and fight crime.

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The Dutch city of Utrecht wants cannabis smokers to grow their own marijuana in a co-operative, a move that would go against the Netherlands' drive to discourage soft drug use.

It also would be illegal, the government said.

The use of marijuana is legal in the Netherlands, but the mass cultivation of cannabis plants is illegal and controlled by criminal groups.

"If you have some users grow the cannabis, you remove it from the criminal and illegal scene," said Utrecht Alderman Victor Everhardt. By controlled cultivation, the quality also would be guaranteed and reduce health hazards, he said.

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