Cannabis at the Dutch embassy in America.?

Question

Wouldn't it be legal to smoke weed a the Dutch embassy in the U.S.? I believe that the forein countries actually own the land that the embassy is on and follow the homeland laws.

Answer 1

It is illegal to smoke Cannabis in the Netherlands. They have a system where a store is raided, fined and then goes back to business as usual. The fine is considered a tax by most and is based on how much pot you sold. So the big pot parties you are dreaming of most likely don't exist at the Dutch Embassy.

Answer 2

Owning the land an embassy sits on may be a financial benefit to the foreign government, but is not necessary to be an "embassy."

The country in which an embassy sits has laws to which the embassy normally confirms. That's "normally" as in "don't make diplomatic waves."

Both the embassy and the accrediting country have motives for allowing some flexibility- the greater good of both. But this mutually responsible approach compels each to be discrete and not abuse the diplomatic privilege. For example, in Saudi Arabia, where liquor is prohibited, the Saudis don't make an issue of diplomatic alcohol in the embassy and the Americans don't flaunt the privilege or abuse the situation. Similarly, if, as you suggest, it *might* be possible for a Dutch diplomat to have some cannabis, it would also be very imprudent and undiplomatic for the Dutch to flaunt or abuse this situation. I suspect you and I would never know it exists.=

Answer 3

It is actually illegal to smoke weed in the Netherlands. In reality, it is rarely prosecuted. The Dutch government has a policy of tolerance (or allowance policy) with regard to soft drugs: an official set of guidelines telling public prosecutors under which circumstances offenders should not be prosecuted.

It is the case that embassies enjoy Extraterritoriality and are exempt from the jurisdiction of local law. Thus US police could not intervene if anyone did smoke cannibas in the Dutch Embassy. The Dutch Embassy could ask the US police to intervene however, and given it is illegal, they probably would. It is similar to the Western Embassies in Saudi Arabia which serve alcohol.