Coffee Shop © andrijbulba
Vagabondish is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Read our disclosure.
Yahoo News reports that smoking a joint in the Dutch city of Maastricht will soon be restricted to Dutch, Belgian and German citizens–though probably not for the reasons you would assume.
While authorities are attempting to cut back on drug tourism in the Netherlands, the city of Maastricht cites traffic woes as the main motivator for the ban. According to a local investigation Belgians and Germans are far more likely to take public transport across the border while visitors from France, Spain, Italy and Luxembourg arrive by cars which are blamed for irritating traffic jams and increasing “nocturnal disturbances”.
The new ban seems to be solving the problem in a roundabout way. Is it the French, Spanish, Italian and Luxembourgian cars that Maastricht has a problem with? Or are these nationalities just harshing everyone else’s mellow?