NETHERLANDS TO END POT SALES FOR TOURISTS

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.

"In order to tackle the nuisance and criminality associated with
coffee shops and drug trafficking, the open-door policy of coffee
shops will end," the Dutch health and justice ministers wrote in a
letter to the country's parliament Friday.

Under the new rules, only Dutch residents will be able to sign up as
members of cannabis shops.

Dutch customers will have to sign up for at least a year's membership
and each shop would be expected to have only up to 1,500 members, a
justice ministry spokesman said.

The policy will roll out in the southern provinces of Limburg, Noord
Brabant and Zeeland by the end of the year and the rest of the country
next year, the spokesman said.

Amsterdam, home to about 220 coffee shops, is already in the process
of closing some in its red light district.

Some officials have resisted the measures, saying they will push the
soft drug trade underground.

Some Dutch border towns including Maastricht and Terneuzen have
already restricted the sale of marijuana to foreigners.