As surprising as it sounds, Amsterdam's cannabis tourism has been famous for decades even though cultivation is banned in The Netherlands. Coffee shops are forced to illegally buy a product that they then sell legally without any problems.
Now the government is seeking to eliminate the illicit cannabis market through a regulated marijuana production program, due to start in 2023, to supply all coffee shops in ten local municipalities.
However, coffee shop owners are resisting the measure.
In addition, Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema wants to move forward with plans to close the city’s cannabis cafes, or coffee shops, to tourists, arguing the move is the only option to control the local soft drugs market, reported dutchnews.nl.
Halsema told city councilors on Monday afternoon that there is a worrying interdependence between the soft and hard drug trade and that "money from the lucrative cannabis trade easily finds its way into hard drugs."
The mayor launched a new campaign against street dealing, including warning signs, camera surveillance and the use of hosts to warn tourists about the risks in the city.
The move to keep tourists out of coffee shops is not supported by two of the biggest parties on the city council, D66, and GroenLinks.
Photo By Massimo Catarinella, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.
