Mayor: no more weed for tourists in Amsterdam
Mayor Femke Halsema wants foreign visitors out of Amsterdam’s coffeeshops. In exchange, owners will be allowed to hold larger stocks
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
The mayor is taking steps to change Amsterdam's image as the international cannabis capital. Coffeeshops attracted an estimated 1.5 million tourist visits a month before the pandemic, and the new policy is intended to draw a line in the sand. With the support of police and judicial authorities, Halsema plans to regulate the so-called “back door”, meaning the coffeeshops’ suppliers, and cut the number of people coming in through the front door by imposing a residence requirement. “We’re absolutely not working towards a cannabis-free Amsterdam,” Halsema says. “But there’s also huge demand to get tourism under control. Our freedom shouldn’t be a licence for big groups of youngsters to throw up in the canals because they’ve smoked and drunk too much.”
