Tourists hoping to light a joint in one of Amsterdam’s famous coffee shops after the coronavirus pandemic has passed are likely to be disappointed. Soon, all coffee shops in the Dutch capital will no longer be able to sell marijuana to foreign customers.
The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, on Friday proposed a plan that is expected to be approved by the city that will allow marijuana products to be sold only to Dutch and Dutch residents. Halsema wants to stop the flow of young tourists who visit Amsterdam just to smoke marijuana and undermine the criminal organizations that control drug trafficking.
Policies in Amsterdam, known for its liberal attitude towards drugs and its red light district, have over the years become more restrictive as the government tries to regulate the increasing number of budget-conscious tourists who come to the city .
Amsterdam, like Barcelona and Venice, is having an increasingly difficult relationship with many of these visitors amid complaints that, among other things, they are flooding historic neighborhoods and that short-term accommodation aimed at them is causing a shortage of housing for local residents.
A total of 46 million people visited the Netherlands in 2019, with the majority coming to Amsterdam.
Many of these tourists, usually young and on a small budget, come to Amsterdam mainly to visit one of the 166 coffee shops spread across Amsterdam, where the sale of marijuana products is tolerated. An entire industry has developed around these visitors, offering them everything from T-shirts saying things like “I went to Amsterdam, but I don’t remember anything”, to stores that sell pancakes with Nutella explicitly aimed at drugged tourists.
A survey commissioned by the city shows that 57% of foreigners who visit the center of Amsterdam say that visiting a café is a “very important reason” for their visit.
However, one of the paradoxes of Dutch marijuana laws makes it illegal, in addition to personal consumption, to produce, store and distribute the drug. This means that the only source of large quantities of marijuana for resale in the Netherlands is criminal companies.
A widespread illegal marijuana trade helped lay the groundwork for a burgeoning underground drug economy, where organized drug gangs are also fighting for the cocaine or amphetamine markets and murdering rivals on the streets of Amsterdam.
“Amsterdam remains an open, tolerant and hospitable city, but we want to end the damaging effects of criminal organizations,” said Halsema.
According to Halsema’s plan, the number of coffee shops will be reduced to 66 in Amsterdam, but they will be able to legally buy and store more stock in return.
Cafe owner Andre van Houten said his industry was being blamed for the behavior of British tourist groups, usually male, flying low-cost airlines, becoming intoxicated in the red light district and preventing residents sleeping in the city center.
“What’s the matter here, drugs or alcohol?” He asked while working at his cafeteria, Chapiteau. At the moment, he is offering only marijuana and joints for travel, as the Netherlands has been blocked since December 14 in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“We are always to blame for everything that goes wrong in this city,” he said. “Also, how can I check where someone is from? They might as well put a policeman at our entrance. “
Several cities in the southern part of the Netherlands have been experimenting with rules that restrict sales in cafeterias to Dutch residents and citizens since 2005. A local law is in place designed to curb tourists arriving from Belgium, France and Germany.
Amsterdam is currently home to 30% of all coffee shops in the Netherlands. On weekends, even during the pandemic, young people from neighboring countries drive to the city to buy marijuana.
“Em. Halsema is very brave to face this problem,” said Els Iping, a former Amsterdam city councilman and activist for a better balance between city dwellers and tourists. “Amsterdam will no longer be the world’s cafeteria – that it’s fantastic.”
Ard van Duijvenbode contributed to this Amsterdam article.