-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Sun, 03 Jun 2001 02:12:34 +0000 From: Bodhi Man <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [CIA-DRUGS] drive up service To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] BCC to: Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [ Double-click this line for list subscription options ] Dutch town plans drug drive-throughs Shops sought to control influx from Germany By Suzanne Daley NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE May 28, 2001 VENLO, Netherlands -- Town officials are adamant that their plan should not be referred to as "McDope." They may be fighting a losing battle. Under a proposal expected to be approved by the end of this month, this modest town along the slow-moving Maas River wants to open two drive-through shops where "drug tourists" can buy small amounts of marijuana and hashish without getting out of their cars. Although coffee shops selling small amounts of such soft drugs exist all over the Netherlands, no one has done a drive-through. The idea has caused a sensation and flooded Venlo, a town of about 65,000 people on the southern part of the Netherlands' eastern border, with curious journalists. Venlo has five licensed coffee shops where customers can pick their favorite brands of marijuana and hashish from among heaping plastic Tupperware-type containers. Actually Venlo is not trying to increase its drug business. It is trying to get rid of it. Town officials say the problem is that about 5 million people live an hour or less away from Venlo, most of them across the border in Germany, where the sale of marijuana and hashish remains illegal. As people have grown more comfortable with the European Union's open borders, and virtually every physical sign of the border posts has disappeared, more and more Germans are coming to Venlo to buy drugs. As early as 8 a.m., the cars with German license plates begin rolling down Urbanus Street, disgorging customers who dash out to make quick purchases. Venlo could live with it if it all stopped there, officials said. But its seems drug customers beget drug dealers, and not everyone is satisfied with 5 grams of marijuana, the maximum sold in the licensed coffee shops. Venlo officials say there are now more than 65 illegal places to buy drugs in town. Bunches of young men lounge around parts of town, haranguing passers-by with offers of all kinds of drugs. "They approach the people quite aggressively," said Elke Haanraadts, the town planner in charge of the anti-drug project. "This is the problem. There is not a feeling of security." Haanraadts said the idea is to put the drive-throughs outside town -- closer to the German border, which is a half-mile away. "They would just be selling near the big road," she said. "And they might not even have a place to sit down." The hope is that the dealers also will get out of town. Will it work? Haanraadts is not sure. "It is a kind of experiment," she said. "We will see." A good deal of Dutch drug activity operates in a gray legal area. Drug selling, even of soft drugs, is not technically legal. It is "tolerated" to the point that the coffee shops are licensed. At the same time, everyone turns a blind eye to how the shops get their stock, an activity that, since it involves transactions of large amounts, is not legal or tolerated. All that can make it hard for a city to know what to do, Haanraadts said. The drive-throughs are one-third of Venlo's anti-drug plan. The city also has been buying sites used by drug dealers and finding new tenants. Police efforts also are being stepped up. It is hard to find a Venlo citizen opposed to the proposal. Most of them grumble that the Germans are hypocrites, unloading a problem on the Dutch because they refuse to legalize what is common practice among their own citizens. Putting the problem closer to the border is fine with them. "Because it is not allowed over there, we have the problem," said Harry Heesakker, the owner of a sporting goods store surrounded by the drug trade. Heesakker says the value of his property has been cut in half during the past three years. On either side of his store are empty shops, where the police have shut down drug operations. Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Please let us stay on topic and be civil. To unsubscribe please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs -Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org OM Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------- End of forwarded message ------- ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES http://www.anomalous-images.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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