The Dutch city of Maastricht tries to relocate some of its cannabis-selling
coffeeshops to the outskirts of the city because of drugrunners, but the move
angers the shops' prospective neighbours.

MAASTRICHT, NETHERLANDS (APRIL 14, 2008) REUTERS -

MARC JOSEMANS, CHAIRMAN OF THE MAASTRICHT COFFEESHOP
ASSOCIATION (VOCM) AND OWNER OF COFFEE SHOP, SAYING:
    ''Unfortunately, we have seen a disturbing phenomenon over the last
five years. Drugrunners -- those who sell drugs illegally on the street --
approaching our customers in between the car parks and coffee shops, offering
them soft drugs as well as hard drugs. It is a dangerous situation. They are
usually aggressive people who are not easy to deal with. To fight against them
we needed a new initiative: to move half of the coffee shops to the outskirts
of the city where people can park just at the entrance of the coffee shops to
prevent the drugrunners from intercepting our clients.''

 JOSE TOSSENS, TEACHER, SAYING:
    ''The solution should be a general ban on the sale of soft drugs, but
you need an international approach and some political courage to implement
this in the three countries -- Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.''

MARC JOSEMANS, CHAIRMAN OF THE MAASTRICHT COFFEESHOP
ASSOCIATION (VOCM) AND OWNER OF COFFEE SHOP, SAYING:
    ''The European citizen is becoming less and less tolerant, towards
foreigners, towards people with different opinions, a different sexual
orientation, those who like a joint or even those snorting coke in a
recreative way. But we can maintain the current system. If you control it
tightly, if you set up limits and the authorities manage the right level of
control, then our system can be maintained. But the threshold of tolerance is
lowering.''

LOTTE, 22, AND MYRTHE, 21, STUDENTS, SAYING:
LOTTE:    ''Well, I think it would be a good thing if they could be...
MYRTHE: ''...displaced... because it's pretty disturbing, all the tourists,
especially come for the drugs.''
LOTTE:    ''There are always people like asking 'can you tell me...
MYRTHE: ''... where the coffee shop is ?''

HELLY POLLAERT, 23, STUDENT, SAYING:
    ''I believe it just part of Maastricht and the people who go there, who
visit the coffee shops, they are relaxed people. They are not a problem to
Maastricht at all so it's fine for me.''