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The Smeerboel festival in Utrecht was accused of “promoting” drug use on social media, AD reported on Tuesday. The festival organizers explained that the post was a joke and should not be seen as an encouragement for visitors to take drugs during the festival. However, experts and State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health) argued that these jokes risk normalizing drug use and should be stopped.

Photo: DutchNews.nl Suggestions that foreign tourists be banned from Amsterdam’s cannabis cafes, or coffee shops, have been greeted with alarm by some experts, who warn that the situation in the capital cannot be compared with other cities. ‘The plan is doomed to fail’ criminologist Ton Nabben told a meeting of city councillors on Tuesday. ‘It will be disastrous for feelings of public safety, particular in alleys and dark corners.’ In January, Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema published a plan to reduce nuisance and crime caused by the soft drugs industry, by enforcing a national la...