![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/01/29/vanaf-1-juli-kunnen-bewoners-en-toeristen-op-schiermonnikoog-geen-sigaretten-meer-krijgen-in-de-winkel-a4188417
It’s in Dutch, and may be behind a paywall.
Basically, the Dutch government has been working for several years now to make it harder to acquire cigarettes. They have the usual regulations (you have to be at least 16 to buy, lots of restrictions on where you can smoke, etc.).
“ Vanaf komende zomer zullen sigaretten daarom alleen nog beschikbaar zijn in gemaks- en tabakszaken: bijvoorbeeld tankstationwinkels, de Albert Heijn To Go of de Primera. Het vrijwel autovrije Schiermonnikoog kent Primera noch tankstationwinkeltje.”
Starting this coming summer, you’ll only be able to buy cigarettes in certain categories of shops: Primera, AH To Go and gas station shops. But Schiermonnikoog is a national park / island / community that has no cars, so it has no gas stations. It is tiny, so it doesn’t even have a Primera or an AH To Go. What it has is a little market named after the person who runs it. So far, the best argument he’s been able to come up with not to implement is that somebody will basically bring a suitcase full of cigarettes to the island, set up shop selling them, and not check IDs to make sure people are at least 16. It’s not much of an argument, really. For one thing, Dutch criminals probably also have kids and don’t want them smoking that young, either. I actually kind of suspect that it’s a lot more likely that any locals who persist in smoking will overpay to buy cigarettes that arrive with the tourists, but that’s neither really here or there.
This is the sentence I am explaining all this for, the punch line to one of the best policy shaggy dog stories of all time:
“Volgens Brunekreef zijn bewoners bezig met onderzoeken of er toch een legaal verkooppunt mogelijk is, maar een winstgevend bedrijfsplan blijkt lastig te bedenken.”
Residents and entrepreneurs have been trying to figure out how to create a legal point of sale for cigarettes on the island, but they’re having trouble figuring out how to make it profitable.
You know you got the regulation right, when the addictive, cheap thing is no longer profitable.
Anyway. The priorities of the Frisians are largely correct. The mayor is talking to the people trying to set up a point of sale, to make sure that no one sells to the kiddies.
Apparently a lot of tourists go to Schiermonnikoog every year, and there is an electric bus to move them around the island?
It’s in Dutch, and may be behind a paywall.
Basically, the Dutch government has been working for several years now to make it harder to acquire cigarettes. They have the usual regulations (you have to be at least 16 to buy, lots of restrictions on where you can smoke, etc.).
“ Vanaf komende zomer zullen sigaretten daarom alleen nog beschikbaar zijn in gemaks- en tabakszaken: bijvoorbeeld tankstationwinkels, de Albert Heijn To Go of de Primera. Het vrijwel autovrije Schiermonnikoog kent Primera noch tankstationwinkeltje.”
Starting this coming summer, you’ll only be able to buy cigarettes in certain categories of shops: Primera, AH To Go and gas station shops. But Schiermonnikoog is a national park / island / community that has no cars, so it has no gas stations. It is tiny, so it doesn’t even have a Primera or an AH To Go. What it has is a little market named after the person who runs it. So far, the best argument he’s been able to come up with not to implement is that somebody will basically bring a suitcase full of cigarettes to the island, set up shop selling them, and not check IDs to make sure people are at least 16. It’s not much of an argument, really. For one thing, Dutch criminals probably also have kids and don’t want them smoking that young, either. I actually kind of suspect that it’s a lot more likely that any locals who persist in smoking will overpay to buy cigarettes that arrive with the tourists, but that’s neither really here or there.
This is the sentence I am explaining all this for, the punch line to one of the best policy shaggy dog stories of all time:
“Volgens Brunekreef zijn bewoners bezig met onderzoeken of er toch een legaal verkooppunt mogelijk is, maar een winstgevend bedrijfsplan blijkt lastig te bedenken.”
Residents and entrepreneurs have been trying to figure out how to create a legal point of sale for cigarettes on the island, but they’re having trouble figuring out how to make it profitable.
You know you got the regulation right, when the addictive, cheap thing is no longer profitable.
Anyway. The priorities of the Frisians are largely correct. The mayor is talking to the people trying to set up a point of sale, to make sure that no one sells to the kiddies.
Apparently a lot of tourists go to Schiermonnikoog every year, and there is an electric bus to move them around the island?