Amsterdam’s peculiar relationship with marijuana, marijuana laws and tourism is up for a new debate and a possible ban on non-residents buying weed from Amsterdam’s famous ‘coffee shops.’
Ironically, sales to foreigners have actually been illegal since 2013, but as with a number of other national laws, Amsterdam has simply chosen up to now not to enforce it. That includes the law that makes the coffee shops’ supply chain illegal as well. There is no legal source for them to buy from, so they are left to ‘buy at the back door.’
When the national ban on sales to foreigners was passed in 2013, then-Mayor Eberehard van der Laan argued that enforcing it would simply move drug-dealing into the street, creating more nuisance. But in the years since, opinion in the city has turned, and many residents are angry about the kind of raucous tourism they feel has turned their city center into a playground for others rather than a part of their city.
Current Mayor Femke Halsema is believed open to the resolutions about to be considered by the city council that would result in enforcing the 2013 law. She has already taken a number of actions to try to change the kind of tourist the city attracts, and focused on partying tourists at the city’s center.
The moves have support from a number of business groups and restaurant owners who feel that the rowdier crowds don’t help build a trade that supports most local businesses. A bar owner who is chair of a Stop Drug Tourism campaign told Dutch reporters ‘The real thing is to change the perception of people who come to Amsterdam that it’s a city where they can use drugs and f*** prostitutes,’ he said. ‘We want people who are interested in the city and culture, museums, food – not only people with money. We don’t have the feeling that the people who come for drugs even enjoy the city: they are stoned all the time.’
