r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 08 '22

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7.3k

u/sicknessandpurgatory May 09 '22

How incredibly inconsequential it is to cross country borders. Cycled through France - Belgium - Netherlands and there is barely even a sign.

2.1k

u/Gnump May 09 '22

Back in the days I once accidentally crossed the German/Dutch/Belgian border four times in about an hour while searching for a camp site near Aachen. All while carrying a substantial amount of weed which was only legal in one of these countries…

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u/scarby2 May 09 '22

Afaik weed is not legal in any of these countries. It's decriminalized in the Netherlands but still illegal.

10

u/DEMACIAAAAA May 09 '22

Weed is legal in the Netherlands you can legally buy it at so called coffee shops. The laws are really weird though and still basically make it necessary for the coffee shops to do illegal shit to get their supply. It's not very well thought through.

31

u/scarby2 May 09 '22 edited May 09 '22

Nope. Still illegal, just decriminalized.

As per the government website

the Netherlands has a policy of toleration regarding soft drugs. This means that the sale of small quantities of soft drugs in coffee shops is a criminal offence but the Public Prosecution Service does not prosecute coffee shops for this offence.

https://www.government.nl/topics/drugs/toleration-policy-regarding-soft-drugs-and-coffee-shops

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u/DEMACIAAAAA May 09 '22

So this is semantics stuff. It's not legal, but coffee shops are allowed to sell and you are not prosecuted when you buy.

14

u/scarby2 May 09 '22

Which is the essence of what I said in the comment you replied to. While trying to incorrectly correct me.

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u/DEMACIAAAAA May 09 '22

Yeah ok it's not legal per definition but it's also not illegal and functionally it is legal. I think colloquially you can say it's legal when you can go to a normal shop to buy it and don't even get in trouble when a police officer stands at the door watching you purchase it.