- BBC News – Dutch coffee shops fear coalition crackdown
I'm always surprised by the widely-held perception that the Dutch are liberal. I would say that their culture is actually quite conservative (hardly any towns have Sunday shopping, for example). And whilst possession of a small quantity of cannabis is "tolerated" (note the word), trading is illegal. Many towns have either been shutting the brown coffee shops down or, like Maastricht, changed planning laws so that they must be sited on industrial estates on the edge of town. Personally, I'm all for shutting them down – it might make tourists look a little further in the Netherlands, beyond the soft drugs to the culture, cuisine and history.
Netherlands drugs news
separating the wanted from the unwanted