Coffee-shop 'Easy going' in Maastricht closed its doors on Wednesday May 2nd after having its license suspended for one month due to the refusal of its owner, Marc Josemans, to deny entry to persons not residing in the Netherlands. About a dozen other coffee-shops in town closed in solidarity with Josemans’ civil disobedience. 

All coffee-shops are required to install electronic barriers (subway style) that can only be passed with the weed pass, uniquely reserved to those residing in the Netherlands and registered as cannabis users. All others have to remain outside, even if they might only want to use the bathroom.

On the morning of May 1st Marco Cappato, accompanied by several European citizens, presented himself at the entrance of Easy going and, after agreement with Josemans, deposited a complaint against the discriminative prohibition with the local police. Subsequently Josemans let them enter the coffee-shop. 

This act of civil disobedience, in accordance with the Radical Party’s tradition, strives towards an intervention of the European jurisdiction in order to correct the errors made by the individual European Nation States. 

More images of the civil disobedience action in Maastricht