Amsterdam - Two towns near the border with Belgium were given permission Tuesday to outlaw coffee shops from selling marijuana, a common practice in the Netherlands.

A court in Breda dismissed on technical grounds an appeal by coffee shop owners against the ban, which was announced in March by municipal authorities in Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal.

"Starting Wednesday we will check meticulously whether the coffee shops have stopped the sale of soft drugs and become regular cafeterias," Bergen op Zoom spokesman Erwin Stander told the German Press Agency dpa.

Eight cafes are affected by the ban. Owners who fail to comply face having their premises closed for five years, the spokesman said.

Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal recently stepped up measures to curb drug-related crime. The two towns say an estimated 25,000 drug tourists from Belgium cross the b order every week to buy soft drugs like marijuana.

"Until now, the sale of drugs was illegal yet in practice tolerated by the authorities," Stander said.

"But this only attracted crime. In addition, coffee shop owners made great sums of money that they subsequently used to purchase buildings in the city. We repeatedly discovered new cannabis hot houses in those buildings."

The sale of small amounts of soft drugs is generally tolerated in the Netherlands, and its consumption is legal. But it is illegal to grow cannabis, from which marijuana is derived. (dpa)