Amsterdam mayor to push ban on coffeeshops selling weed to tourists

Mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam plans to go through with a ban on coffeeshops selling weed to tourists in the city, she said in a letter to the city council. According to her, the enforcement of the residents-only criterion is "necessary" for the municipality to get a grip on the coffeeshop market and "inseparable" from any relaxation of the cannabis policy, such as regulated cultivation or expanded trade stocks, Het Parool reports.

Over three million foreign tourists visit coffeeshops in Amsterdam every year. They have made the capital's cannabis market uncontrollably large and a portal to serious crime, Halsema said. "There is a worrying interdependence between the soft and hard drug trade: money from the lucrative cannabis trade easily finds its way into hard drugs," the mayor wrote.

Along with her letter to the city council on Monday, Halsema published scientific research into the residents-only criterion, in which coffeeshops can only sell cannabis to people registered in the Netherlands.

Researchers from Bureau Breuer & Intraval warned that the criterion would have serious financial consequences for Amsterdam coffeeshops, especially in the city center where rents are high. Earlier research shows that about 66 coffeeshops will be enough to meet the local demand. Amsterdam currently has 166 coffeeshops. The researchers, therefore, expect that some coffeeshops will go bankrupt, while others will continue to sell to tourists to keep up with running costs. 

The researchers said that the consequences for street trade are uncertain. They expect street dealers who now sell "fake dope" or hard drugs will quickly expand their offer with good quality soft drugs. Some tourists may resort to street dealers, but the researchers could not estimate how many. 

Still, the Amsterdam police and Public Prosecution Service are convinced that the residents-only criterion is "the best temporary measure to make the cannabis market manageable," Halsema said. 

According to Parool, the mayor may be heading for a clash with the city council. D66, GroenLinks, Bij1, and DENK are all firmly against implementing a residents-only criterion on coffeeshops. The PvdA will only support it if the municipality can guarantee sufficient enforcement to combat street trade. 

Halsema will present an implementation and enforcement plan later this year, she said.