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Amsterdam can curb hours on cannabis cafes near schools

Amsterdam is seeking to outlaw coffee shops near playgrounds to stop marijuana sales in front of school-age children

A top Dutch court gave Amsterdam the green light Wednesday to cut opening hours for cannabis-selling "coffee shops" near schools, as the capital moves to snuff out youth drug abuse. "The Amsterdam (district) court has ruled that the mayor had the right to restrict the opening hours of coffee shops," said the State Council, the country's highest administrative court. "The decision is confirmed," the Hague-based tribunal said, stressing it "wanted to reduce the visibility of these establishments to students." As part of the measure, cannabis cafes and vendors within a 250-metre (820 feet) radius from schools will now only be allowed to open after 6 pm (1700 GMT) as opposed to 7 am before. The city is seeking to outlaw coffee shops near playgrounds to stop marijuana sales in front of school-aged children. A group of coffee shop owners, whose establishments are popular with visiting tourists, had dragged the council to court over the measures. Amsterdam's move comes as Dutch city councils are gearing up to join a mooted project to grow cannabis legally. The new Dutch coalition is expected to introduce a bill on a "standardised experiment to tolerate the cultivation of recreational cannabis plants" some time in 2018. The project aims to erase legal ambiguities within Dutch law which decriminalised the sale of small amounts of cannabis -- less than five grams -- in 1976 and allows each person to legally grow five plants for personal use. The wholesale growing and sale of marijuana remains banned however, forcing some 600 authorised owners of so-called "coffee shops" to buy from criminals to meet demand.