Random drugs checks close to the border

After trying unsuccessfully for an extended period of time to procure the smallest bit of green for personal use, I have started considering a weekend trip by car to Amsterdam.
I've heard that according to new laws, you can be stopped anywhere within a certain amount of km from the border and randomly checked. Does anyone know if this is true? Know of anyone this has happened to?
Thanks for your advice.

As far as I know the Zoll (customs) can and do stop traffic and perform checks. They look for drugs and people carrying large amounts of cash. This has been reported often enough on German TV.

But I thought there are no more Zollämte at the borders... or am I mistaken?
How about if I were an innocent looking female with a babyseat in the car... less suspicious, no?

I think that there is a 30-km-zone both sides of the border. And they know all the dodges.
Schleierfahndung, 30-km-zone, but only valid for the outside borders, not within the Schengen states themselves.

Can't be sure about here, but it certainly was the case in France. We used to call them the Douane-Mobile. It would often be near our house--about 3km from the Swiss border. Don't get too comportable...

Sin, the same way everyone else did, through the networks. But I've found that as people age, most stop smoking and settle for the occasional beer, and suddenly you're the only one who is still interested. So basically, my network has stopped.

You really are blue-eyed. The Zoll staff are not stupid. What makes you think that just because there are no customs checks at certain EU-internal borders that what we have written doesn't apply?

I believe that the Zoll can stop you ANYWHERE if they have reason to (they pick up polish cigarette smugglers well within Germany...)

HEM, I don't think I am naive, just uninformed. Have never made a journey of this nature so I never checked into it. Yes, I am ignorant of the current laws, that's why I'm taking my questions to TT.

Still, don't you think it's true that young males with dreds, for example, would be more likely to get pulled over than a 30-something clean-cut looking female?

I can vouch this definitely happens as I've been stopped twice by the German police on the autobahn in the last few years while driving back from the Netherlands. I was stopped a few kilometers over the border. The second time I was stopped the police were in an unmarked car and there was a police car in front and in back of my car to pull me over. All together there was a total of five German police officers in those unmarked cars who all got out when they stopped me. I was driving back to Germany by myself. My husband, who is a dutch citizen, has also told me they watch the coffee shops where the "medicine" is being sold and then send the description of the person and car back to the police. The last time I was stopped on the autobahn coming from the Netherlands the police had what appeared to be a list of cars to stop. I think I was targeted as I was staying in a border town for a few days and I saw two police on the dutch side of the border really checking my car out. The German police who stopped me on the autobahn I convinced them I was in the Netherlands to visit my mother-in-law. They did ask to see my ID, questioned me as to what I was doing in the Netherlands, and searched my car both times.

As personal experience, I did travel by car to Holland several times in the latest months and I have never been stopped by the police. For your purposes, you may consider to travel by train, which is relatively safer and "anonymous".

It´s neither ...

miwild, do you have an experience you would like to share about this? I agree this could be risky as the German police will come on the train at the border and they have sniffing dogs at the train stations in Germany or are those dogs just sniffing for bombs?

I think the safest way is to go to the Netherlands and indulge and come back without it.

My advice? Go to Amsterdam and enjoy what you can while you're there. When you come back, come back empty handed. You do not want to get caught transporting drugs across the border. Baaaaad idea. It's one thing to get caught in Germany with an amount considered "for personal use", but to get caught transporting the same amount across the border is a larger offence.

Different noses for different targets I believe.

What happens if you get caught in germany with 'personal use' amounts?

Routinekontrolle ... the gentlemen in charge are routinely shuttling across the NL - D border with (almost) every single train

Well, the people that I know that puff have told me that if they are "busted" with 3 joints or less (that's personal use as far as I can tell), they are sent on their merry way with not a warning or anything. But anything over that, they can be charged with "intent to distribute". Now, 3 joints really isn't a whole lot (unless you roll some cheech & chong style) so I can see where the police don't really have a huge problem with it. It's the dealers that they are after. Mind you, I live not too far from (what I've been told by several Germans, including my wife) what is the biggest pot selling area in Hessen (and no, that isn't Frankfurt). Or maybe it's the biggest by ratio of people or something like that. Whatever it is, they sell an assload of weed a few towns away from me.

Beamte des Hauptzollamts Krefeld entdeckten bei einer Routinekontrolle 600 Gramm Kokain im Wert von 30.000 Euro.

600 grams of Cocaine is a bit different than a "dime bag" of weed (whatever a dime bag costs these days). That's over a pound of coke! NOT for personal use

Let's not forget these cünting German police who will test to see if you have been smoking and are considered to be impaired. Like a chap I know who is now €1800 lighter in the pocket and without his driving licence after a quiet night in with a doobie and a movie with his girlfriend. He got tested by Ostbahnhof the next morning and ping!

Depends on where you are and who you're busted by. In Berlin, you'll get away with a lot more than you would in Munich/Bavaria as the fuzz here literally have nothing better to do.

How about growing your own ?

Here's some info.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asD01GI_cL4&NR=1

Was he driving under the influence? Or taking the train? I would assume driving because he lost his license, but why go to the Ostbahnhof if he was driving? I'm confused

Is taking the train under the influence of Mary Jane a crime ?

Sorry, badly written. He was driving his car around the Ostbahnhof area on a saturday morning and was randomly pulled over and tested.

No offence, but it's his own damn fault then. I have no problem with people that drink or puff on a joint. But driving under the influence is a bad thing. Puts the lives of others at risk.

My driving skills are bad enough without the influence of Mary Jane !

This is what would scare me the most if I smoked pot is being randomly checked by the drug lords police and getting my license confiscated. Now I don't indulge in anything that will alter my sense of reality. But back in my hippy days I had a much different story.

Listen... I'm all for taking a puff now and then. But if you're not a German, then why on earth would you want to take the risk of being caught smuggling drugs into Germany? I mean, think about the consequences first. You'd probably get jetisoned from the country fairly quickly and probably never have the opportunity to come back. If you're employer gets wind, your almost sure to be fired. Why not just take a friday or monday off and go to the 'dam and have fun without risking your livelyhood? Seriously man. Is getting high that high up on your priority list? If so then maybe it's time to rethink. What about local contacts?

Regards,

Robert

None taken. Wasn't me. But do you not think that is a bit extreme? Have a spliff at home in the evening, get busted for driving under the influence the next day? And let's not even start on the stoned vs sober vs drunk drivers thing...because the results have been in many studies embarrassing for sober & drunk drivers

I understand it was the next day. Dope stays in your system for quite some time (ironically the only drug that drug tests really catch reliably is the safest one).

Sorry about what happened to your bf man , does he know you're posting stuff calling yourself his gf???

A friend of ours got his license taken off him for smoking weed, even though he wasn't driving at the time. It used to be a common punishment. In his case, he's at a house party in Munich, and somebody opens the door to the police, who come in, find a bong and fingerprint it. The guy's fingerprints were on it, so he lost his licence, simply because they assumed he would be likely to drive under the influence (the time span being much longer than for drinking). As far as I know, they're not allowed to take your licence anymore though (the incident happened about 6 years ago).

Dunno, Kza isn't online much these days. Infact I'm beginning to think he doesn't love me like he used to.

They took prints on his bong? You guys weren't joking when you said the munich pigs didnt have much to do, were you?

Apart from my above post, that's the gayest thing I've heard all year.

I think you've helped put it in the right perspective. Before you make a decision to transport drugs over the border into Germany you really have to think about your priorities and then make a determination. You have to determine if the temporary experience of getting high off marijuana is actually worth the risk of getting caught which could have a long lasting impact on your life and possibly your livelihood is really worth the hassle if you are caught.

Someone on this board posted that he got pulled over by the pigs because he was riding a womans bike...bloke on a womans bike = stolen in conservative Bavaria. No, they really have nothing better to do.

Depending on where else you know in the world and what you are into, drugs are significantly less available in Munich than elsewhere.
And where they are, the prce is supposedly higher.
The notion of indulging when you go elsewhere but leaving it in munich might be worth doing.

I think you would be EXTREMELY foolish to bring cannabis from NL to Germany.
As mentioned above, the German police and customs can and do stop vehicles and Bavaria is particuarly "eager".

Last time I went to AMS for work I flew back into MUC.
2 metres beyond the Germany sign were 2 blokes bitching about "Inspector so and so" and I caught their conservation and recognised them as cops or zoll which pissed them off.
Inside the baggae reclaim were some other blokes in leisure clothes and i thought, they weren't on the flight.
Then one started wondering round and I saw he already had his ID badge out to stop people.
The plane was full of just Japanese tourists and business people so a wee bit of overkill.
They were just paranoid cos it came from AMS.

Considered mailing yourself an interesting letter from .nl?