Hi-tech plan to weed out underage cannabis users

BUYING cannabis in the Dutch city of Maastricht will soon mean having your fingerprints taken, your face scanned and your biometric data recorded.

All 15 coffee shops in the southern city are spending about €100,000 installing a security system that makes it harder for an underage cannabis smoker to enter than a terrorist to set foot in Europe, according to Marc Josemans, head of the local coffee shop union.

“We are ashamed for this attack on your privacy,” reads an explanatory leaflet about the system starting in September.