• Travel and Vacations

  Amsterdam mayor pushes for ban on marijuana-loving tourists visiting coffee shop

  Posted by Nigel on 9 January 2021 at 3:23 am

  Tourists could soon be barred from Amsterdam’s famous cannabis-dealing coffee shops as Mayor Femke Halsema, continues her battle to rid the city of its image as a drug and prostitution haven.

  The patronage of coffee shops would be limited to Dutch residents only, according to the plan submitted by Halsema to Amsterdam’s city council on Friday.

  “The residence condition is far-reaching, but I see no alternative,” the mayor told Bloomberg in an email. The move is aimed at tackling organized crime and hard drugs attracted by the marijuana trade, she pointed out.

  “The cannabis market is too big and overheated. I want to shrink the cannabis market and make it manageable,” Halsema said.

  The ban on foreigners is going to be a heavy blow for the industry, with the city head acknowledging that “coffee shops, especially in the center, largely run on tourists.”

  There are currently some 166 coffee shops in Amsterdam, with a government survey finding that just 68 would suffice for satisfying the local demand in marijuana.

  They tried this year’s ago and when tourism dropped they soon reversed the ban.

  

  Nigel replied 3 years, 11 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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