Foreign tourists might be banned from Amsterdam's famous cannabis coffee shops

Foreigners might be banned from entering Amsterdam's cannabis cafés under a proposed new law.

The ban - which has been proposed by Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema - may come into place next year. The mayor wants to implement it in a crackdown on organised crime and drugs tourism and has the backing of police and prosecutors.

Research by the Dutch government says 58 per cent of foreigners go to Amsterdam to freely smoke marijuana, with 166 coffee shops legally selling weed.

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Haselma said: “Amsterdam is an international city and we wish to attract tourists – but for its richness, its beauty and its cultural institutions."

Although such a law would ban foreign tourists from stepping foot inside the coffee shops, locals would still be allowed in.

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Joachim Helms of coffee shop owners' association BCD expressed his concerns over the proposed ban.

He told Dutch ANP: “Cannabis is a popular product that people enjoy worldwide. People want to smoke their joint. If that can’t happen in a coffee shop, then they will buy it on the street.”

[Via: the Guardian]

[Photo: Laura Verheijke]

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Commercial Content Editor, follow him on Twitter

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