Blow for cannabis cafes as numbers continue to decline

Closures were partly due to the city council imposing stricter criteria
Dutch News (Netherlands)
Tuesday, July 4, 2017

The number of ‘coffeeshops’ in the Netherlands is continuing to fall but the closure rate has slowed, new official figures show. Last year there were 573 outlets licensed to sell cannabis, 18 fewer than two years earlier and 41 less than the number in 2012. The figures showed that Amsterdam accounts for 173 of all coffeeshops, or 30% of the total. Rotterdam had 40 outlets, The Hague 36 and Utrecht 10. Amsterdam had one coffeeshop for every 4,907 residents, a far higher concentration than any of the other 102 municipalities which license cannabis cafes. (See also: Big Dutch banks, brewers and housing corporations have cannabis cafe interests | Amsterdam’s ‘oldest’ cannabis cafe closes because of school rule)