Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema says she’s ready to press ahead with plans to enforce a law that bans tourists and other non-residents from Amsterdam’s cannabis coffee shops, a law that’s already enforced in the rest of the country.
The move comes from two directions: a belief that the wide-open cannabis trade funnels money into a growing ‘hard drugs’ trade in part because while sales are permitted there is no legal source of supply for marijuana and hash, and from a desire to ‘clean up’ Amsterdam’s reputation as a place for sex, drugs and behavior that has driven many locals out of the city’s center.
A city survey says that the city only needs 66 of its 166 ‘coffee shops’ to take care of local trade and that the rest exist basically because three million visitors a year patronize them.
The move to ban visitors is not universally popular. Obvious opposition comes from coffee shop operators, but there is also opposition from some of the city’s political parties who believe that enforcing the rule will lead to more street dealing of drugs and will support the measure only if it comes with a campaign against street sales.
Halsema, whose role as mayor is similar to a City Manager in some U.S. cities, has emergency powers to enforce the ban without support from the city council, but it is likely that she will first try to work out approval.
Dutch government attempts to put an end to the illegal growing and trading in marijuana by organizing legalized and regulated production have been plagued with disagreements and delays, and now will not start until at least next year. One problem: None of the five largest Dutch cities has been willing to take part.
