Dutch Court Convicts Shop Owners for Selling Pot to Non-Residents

Even where the drug war is loosened, the battle continues

A Dutch court on Wednesday fined six coffee shop owners and workers for selling cannabis to non-residents, in a victory for Dutch authorities' fight against drug tourism.

Prosecutors had sought up to one-month suspended jail terms for the owners and staff of cannabis cafes in Maastricht for selling pot to foreign non-residents in defiance of a controversial law.

"The court rules that a residence criterion is not against the law," the court in drug tourism hub Maastricht in the south of the country said in a statement.