Finally doing what they have been told?

As long ago as 1995, Jacques Chirac informed the then Dutch government that their application of the laws on soft drugs was unacceptable (permitted they were not - simply decriminalised!).

According to Chirac sizable numbers of young French people would go up to the Netherlands, purchase marijuana, and bring it back to France.

Even evidence to the contrary (that only 2% of all the marijuana sold in France was brought in from the Netherlands) did not stop Chirac's campaign.

He also received more than a little support from his counterparts in Belgium and Germany, who were faced with a slightly different problem. If you lived in Northern Belgium or North-West Germany, it was easy enough to travel across the Dutch border and go to a coffee shop to smoke marijuana there. See how close the Dutch town of Maastricht is to the German and Belgian borders.

The Dutch faced this dilemna with equanimity, gradually limiting the amount that "foreigners" could purchase, without infringing upon what had become an interesting source of tourist revenue.

Until now.

After 17 years, and with its government facing far more important issues such as their inability to pass a budget, a rule has been sneaked through banning the sale of cannabis to foreigners in the Netherlands.

Intriguingly this does not affect Dutch nationals. Even more intriguingly a large number of Dutch citizens are up in arms about a ban that does not affect them directly! Can you imagine people in the UK being that upset about something happening there that only affected foreigners? No? Neither can I!

As someone who has smoked cannabis once (in 1972 or 1973) and had the same problem that Bill Clinton had (not knowing how to inhale, being a routine non-smoker of tobacco products), this would never have affected me, even when I lived in Amsterdam.

And as for Germany, rumour has it that obtaining marijuana in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin (to name but three cities) is not all that difficult, so why so why should the afficianadoes trek up to the Netherlands anyway? Not sure how much truth there is in that rumour incidentally - the police round Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and the charity services in the area have to deal with people who are into substances that are a lot more potent and damaging - sadly!

You are prone to wonder though - why now? Why did the Dutch finally give way on this issue? It seems an extraordinary bit of timing. If they were not prepared to do so at the time that they were in the public limelight, then why this (seemingly unsuccessful) bit of subterfuge now? Currying favour with the French? Well as both countries have government changes occurring that would only make it all the more curious.

I must admit, for once, to being totally baffled.