DUTCH LOOK AT LIMITING FOREIGN DRUG TOURISM

The Dutch cabinet wants to discourage foreigners from coming to the
Netherlands to buy drugs by limiting the amounts permitted to be sold
and by only allowing debit card payment, the government said on Friday.

The Netherlands has one of Europe's most liberal soft drug policies
with legal use of marijuana but some cities at the border near Belgium
want to close down marijuana-selling coffee shops because they are
drawing too many foreign visitors.

"Several pilots should lead to smaller, locally-focussed coffee shops.
In a pilot in Limburg the bar to buy cannabis will be raised," the
government said in a statement.

The province of Limburg lies in the south of the Netherlands,
bordering Belgium and Germany and is close to France and Luxembourg.

"The maximum quantity of cannabis per customer will be lowered from
five grams to three grams and clients can only pay by bank card," the
government said about the Limburg pilot.

Coffee shops would not be forced to ban foreign customers but the new
policy plan would move to make it harder for foreigners to buy
cannabis, Dutch press agency ANP reported Dutch Justice Minister Ernst
Hirsch Ballin as saying.