#Netherlands lockdown coffee shops series

#Netherlands lockdown coffee shops series

In a letter to the city council on January 8, Halsema outlined a series of policy changes regarding the city’s Cannabis industry. Sadly though, it looks like that’s about to change.Įarlier this year, Amsterdam’s first female mayor Femke Halsema, proposed, among other things, enforcing the wietpas ban in the capital for the first time. To address these “quality of life” concerns, the Dutch government began taking steps to reduce tourism: banning new hotels and tourist-targeted businesses (such as Red Light tours and souvenir shops), restricting Airbnb rentals and increasing their “tourist tax.” In 2012, they introduced the “wietpas” (weed pass) policy, which banned non-residents from visiting coffeeshops however, until now, the policy has been enforced primarily in border municipalities (where many rowdy tourists enter from neighboring countries like Germany, France, Britain and Belgium) rather than in Amsterdam, where weed tourism comprises a significant portion of the city’s economy. Residents have long decried the throngs of ill-behaved tourists who reportedly piss, puke, litter, shout and fight in their streets, and seeing the city tourist-free during the COVID lockdown has only spotlighted these “overtourism” complaints.

Just before the pandemic, tourism to Amsterdam was at an all-time high – averaging nearly 2 million visitors per month – half of whom were there, at least in part, to visit some of the city’s 166 Cannabis coffeeshops and/or infamous Red Light District. But over the past decade, that tolerance has eroded due to the right-leaning Christian national government and complaints from the citizenry. Long before legalization seemed possible here in America, Amsterdam’s coffeeshops were the only place where one could buy and consume marijuana openly without fear of criminal repercussion – thanks to the Netherlands’ policy of “soft drug” tolerance (gedoogbeleid). For the past half-century, Amsterdam has been considered the Cannabis capital of Europe, if not the world.