Hello there Me and three of my friends are going on a trip to Europe (Paris, Colmar, Brussels, Amsterdam, The Hague) in a couple of days. Now I know you have to be 18 to buy drugs in the Netherlands. I'm 18, one of my friend is also 18, the other 20. Unfortunately, the fourth member of our group is 17. She looks like 20 though. The thing is, she doesn't smoke pot. Now my question is, is it illegal for an underage person to be in a coffeeshop without buying any drugs? My guess is that it is illegal, but i'm just checking.
Hello RJ, You are correct in that it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to be in a coffeeshop. The coffeeshop can get into trouble sure, but more so if selling to, or allowing an underage person to smoke MJ. My advice to you would be to be cool, ask the lady to take a seat somewhere not too obvious and you guys do all the buying and puffing. If asked for ID, please do not create problems for the shop owner - be courteous and find somewhere else to smoke. There are a few places with terraces which could be better. If you run into real problems you can always buy some smoke and head off to Vondel Park and have a chill in there. Good luck dudes.......I'm sure you'll have a blast.
It went cool. Usually we just bought our stuff and go somewhere else. Most places didnt ID checked us (Amnesia and Rokerij did)...Pink Floyd, Grey Area and a couple others which I don't recall the names never seems even care about it. Great pot, but we didn't get to visit the city of The Hague...next time perhaps.
Just dont send her to buy any weed. If you all turn up in a coffeeshop sit down and order a drink each. Then the oldest one go and score the weed. Dont look paranoid and dont act stupid and you should be fine.
London Mod - BAD, BAD ADVICE!! All it takes to close a coffeeshop (repeat offense loses coffeeshop license for ever ) is for anyone under 18 to be anywhere on the coffeeshop premises. Smart idea is for those over 18 to go into a coffeeshop and buy the weed/hash to go and smoke it anywhere that allows you to toke up besides a coffeeeshop.
IML I hear what you are saying. Buy what you want and go back to the hotel for a smoke is a much better idea indeed. Forgive my stupidness. I do know some coffeeshops that are a bit slack on the ID thing. I have however seen guys who look in thier 30's be thrown out as the owner wanted to see ID and they never had any.
I'm with amagicallife totally.. on my birthday I went to my favourite coffeeshop with two female friends and one of them didn't have a passport of driverslicence on her (nothing else is accepted there, even though she had her university card with age + picture, public transport card with age + picture etc).. we were stopped at the door and she wasn't allowed to get in (needless to say we all went somewhere else).. I asked them why they are being SO harsh and she said that they have to ID everyone under the age of 25 and have to be very strict because of the law. Well.. it sucked big time but there is nothing really you can do but respect it. I could've made a scene out of it, we could've tried sneaking in.. but what for? I've said it many many times on this board: the laws here are very liberal when it comes to cannabis.. don't try to push it, have some respect.
