That's interesting for me as I've retired from going to Amsterdam and smoking weed.

That's good news for Dutch nationals as it means the VVD won't make them have to sign up for the weed pass to smoke at coffee shops.

That's not so good news for tourists that visit Amsterdam for the liberal atmosphere and to smoke weed.

I hope the Pvda don't allow that to go through. It won't solve anything, the tourists will have to go to all the street dealers to get their weed, and the street dealers and drug runners who popped up in the South of Holland and caused massive problems will still pop up in the North because they'll be able to profit.

I'm glad the Dutch News is now allowing comments on topics involving the wietpas again. Some of the people commenting don't think it'll be legal for coffee shops to refuse customers with passports other than Dutch, while some are doubting the VVDs credentials as a liberal party. The VVD don't have to appease the CDA anymore, so they don't have to take the sort of hardline attitude to weed which has proven unworkable the world over.

It might be a good time for US states like Colorado, Washington and Oregon to legalise the recreational use of weed as there could soon be a glut of potential tourists who've given up on the Netherlands and looking for somewhere more weed friendly to go.

Since we are talking about the idiotic and nonsensical behaviour of the dutch government, then the only thing left for them to do is to ban tourists from both bars and red light district then the objective of the Dutch Government will be achieved......Netherlands free of tourists. Of Course there will be long unemployment lines and the economy will suffer but I guess thats not important to them.

I think folks here overestimate both how big a hit tourism would take and how dependent on tourism the Netherlands is. This article quantifies tourism as a share of GDP for European countries and the Netherlands has one of the lowest percentages.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/04/ ... 1D20090407

That said, looking on wikipedia how much their 2011 gdp was (704.034 milions of dollars), of which according to neurosynth's link 7.4% (or roughly 55.618 milions) come from tourism, a decrease of just 25% of it would cost 13.905 milions.
The gdp would get to 690.129 milions, or a 1.02% point down just for that, quite a lot given the period...

Anyway, thinking about a last all in in late December.

Breaking news. According to this article...

http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1012/Nederland/a ... ijnt.dhtml

the wietpas will dissapear. Customers of coffeeshops however must prove residence in NL with dutch ID/residency permit.

In english

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... fee_sh.php

and

"However, the coalition agreement goes on to say that determining how this residency requirement is applied will be done ‘in discussion with the local councils concerned and if necessary phased in’. This will allow a tailor-made approach per locality, the agreement states."

so a good news, it seems

The grey area coffee shop posted this on their facebook page on the news.

What I think it basically says is that the weed pass is no more. In the southern provinces they will use the non-dutch clause to try to lessen the constant stream of drugs tourists. And the big city's like Amsterdam won't change anything.

That's exactly what I'm hoping to happen. De jure not allowed for foreigners but de facto cofeeshops not implementing the law. We'll know it soon so I'll keep my cheers for later.

Dear Grey Area Fans,

We promised to keep you updated about the Weed Pass, so here we go again....

Today's newly formed Dutch Government has decided the Following about the weed pass and soft drugs:
The Weed Pass itself has been abandoned, but access to coffeeshops remains reserved to Dutch residents with an identity card or residence permit along with an excerpt from the population register. The enforcement of these criteria shall be done in consultation with municipalities concerned and, if necessary, phased in, taking the local coffee shop-and security policies into account so there is local customization.
We will combat drug tourism and organized drug crime with force. Drugs-runners and illegal street drugs will be dealt with firmly. The level of active substances in soft drugs will be bound to a maximum.
Officially that basically means that nothing has changed and just the word 'Weed Pass' has been removed.

But unofficially I think it means that they will use the non-dutch clause in the southern provinces to try to lessen the constant stream of drugs tourists and that nothing will change in the big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and some northern bigger cites.

I base this on an interview with the Mayor of Amsterdam last week, who couldn't be the least bit concerned about the weed pass anymore. He's made abundantly clear that Amsterdam doesn't want the weedpass and sees no use for it. Amsterdam is completely happy with the way it has been going for the past 30 years and welcomes all tourists to their Hotels, Museums and.... Coffeeshops.

In other words.... as I've always said, the chance that Amsterdam will enforce these new coffeeshop criteria is i.m.h.o. very slim to none!

There will be a maximum set for active substances in weed, but there's no details whatsoever about how they plan to do that and when that should go into effect, so also that plan still seems miles away.

When new information on these subjects comes in, we will update you as usual!

So no more cancelations of trips now please! It's business as usual and nothing has changed! Until further notice everybody is still very welcome after January 1st 2013!

Hope to see you in Amsterdam soon!

Your loyal Grey Area Team

Thanks essexlad

Great news for all you stoners :D and great news for Amsterdam in general really!

Cheers!

I love the Grey Area blogger's confidence.

At a time of austerity when many people around the world are asking why marijuana is being banned in the first place, why so much money is spent on arresting and incarcerating people taking a drug that in a couple of recent studies has been rated safer than cigarettes and alcohol, a drug whose medicinal benefits are slowly being realised, the Netherlands shouldn't even be thinking about banning weed. There are far more urgent issues to address and southern towns such as Maastricht have learned why the Dutch tolerance policy is more workable than the disastrous prohibition policies that are in force worldwide when the wietpas made them prime territory for street dealers to exploit.

I'm glad that the major cities in the Netherlands such as Amsterdam look like they've been spared, and roll on the rest of the world going in the direction of liberalisation towards weed. The VVD are supposed to be a Liberal party, they shouldn't be clinging onto the unreasonable religious paranoia against weed of their former partners the CDA. I'm looking forward to November the 6th now, and what the voters of Colorado, Oregon and Washington decide about marijuana.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/dutch-weed-pass-plan-abandoned_n_2043646.html

woke up to this news story today, such excellent news! i had fears that amsterdam was changing for the worst. it is basically as you lot writing above said it would be, but it's nice to see it all official in a news article (not that the grey area blog isn't to be trusted, of course).

now if they'd just stop fucking about with the red light district, everything would be ok!

as this seems to have become the official topic...

http://translate.google.nl/translate?sl ... ml&act=url

There is also a new article in English about this - in DutchNews like before (apparently I am not allowed to post links :( ).

Can someone more privileged post the link please :)

I presume you mean this one.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... ourist.php

Fantastic news for Amsterdams regular tourists who enjoy lighting up in the coffee shops. The drawback is the justice minister who claims Amsterdam's mayor has misinterpreted the rules and jumped to conclusions . Hopefully, with the Pvda sharing power with the VVD, Amsterdam's tolerance policy will remain as outlined by Van der Laan in the article.

Yes - thank you! (had to cut out the actual link again...)

Thank fuck for that!

I'm so pleased as I have a trip booked next year and was wondering how I would cope with no weed for 3 days in the Dam!?

Good news (and it's a non-smoker who speaks, but I took the problem in this whole : tourism, economy, image of the city, atmosphere, etc. )

If the wietpass was decided to be adopted in Amsterdam a lot of things would have been simply ruined. Luckily it's not (even if kamer closing time is another big issue currently), at least for the five years to come...

Same thoughts as me Carice Liefde as a non-pothead :)
All we need now is a reversal on the closing of the sexyland kamers.
Lets cross our fingers AND toes on that ;)

Cheers!