Coffee shops in Amsterdam.
Photographer: Ramon Van Flyemen / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Ramon Van Flyemen / AFP / Getty Images
In an effort to clean up its image, Amsterdam aims to limit a major tourist attraction: its coffee shops.
Only Dutch residents may have access to the outlets for the sale of cannabis in accordance with the proposal of Mayor Femke Halsema. The plan, backed by local police and prosecutors, aims to tackle the flow of hard drugs and organized crime linked to the marijuana trade.
“The cannabis market is too big and overheated,” Halsema said in an email. “I want to reduce the marijuana market and make it manageable. The condition of stay is far-reaching, but I see no alternative. ”
Halsema presented the plan to the Amsterdam council on Friday and started a political debate, including discussions on a transitional agreement with shop owners. She expects the policy to take effect in the earliest year.
The initiative is the latest step from Amsterdam to actively reduce the flow of visitors and improve the quality of life for residents. Crowds have flocked to the city since cheaper flights made the historic center a popular weekend destination.
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Before coronavirus was trapped, the famous red-light district, marijuana shops and picturesque canals attracted more than 1 million visitors a month – more than its permanent population.
“Coffee shops, especially in the center, are mainly used by tourists,” Halsema said. “The increase in tourism has only increased demand” and in the process attracted severe drug crime.
While the halt to tourism due to the pandemic is affecting the city’s budget, the first female mayor of Amsterdam is determined to reform the sector as soon as the crisis eases. Excluding the free marijuana trade could eliminate a large number of exposers.
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A visit to a coffee shop was a “very important” reason for 57% of foreign visitors to the area that includes the red-light district, according to research conducted by the city’s government.
Amsterdam houses 166 coffee shops, and most are not needed when the plan is in force. According to the government study, local demand for cannabis will support only 68.
Similar restrictions have already been applied in Maastricht and Den Bosch, which respond to coffee shops overloaded by visitors from Germany, France and Belgium. The efforts are supported by a Dutch law from 2013 aimed at benefiting the local marijuana market and reducing drug tourism.
Halsema says she expects support from the business community, with many entrepreneurs in the city center who are no longer in favor of Amsterdam’s reputation for unrestricted access to sex and drugs.
“We can be an open, hospitable and tolerant city, but also a city that makes life difficult for criminals and slows down mass tourism,” she said.