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Dutch cities mull drug, alcohol ban Official seeks Euro 2000 measures to avoid 'fiasco'
Posted: Monday December 20, 1999 06:51 PM
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Mayors of Dutch cities staging games during next summer's European Championship are considering a drug and alcohol ban during the games. The Netherlands' chief public prosecutor, Joan de Wijkerslooth, warned over the weekend that without a total ban on the sale and consumption of drugs and alcohol, next summer's tournament threatened to descend into "uncontrollable violence." About 1.2 million fans from around Europe are expected at the quadrennial soccer tournament, held June 10-July 2 at eight cities in Belgium and the Netherlands. The qualifying teams include several with notoriously violent fans, including England, Germany, and the Netherlands. Wijkerslooth, whose department is responsible for maintaining law and order in the Netherlands, noted the relatively easy availability of illicit drugs in the country and the drinking and drug-taking habits of many European soccer fans. "We know now that the combination of alcohol, high-quality Dutch [marijuana] joints and Ecstasy pills will make for an absolute fiasco," Wijkerslooth told Rotterdam's NRC Handelsblad newspaper. Although marijuana and drugs such as Ecstasy are technically illegal in the Netherlands, law enforcement authorities generally tolerate their sale at so-called "coffee shop" dance clubs.
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