Here we go again...

https://nltimes.nl/2022/04/12/amsterdam ... d-tourists

Seems like a very odd move, especially given that so many other places are legalizing cannabis now. Here in Canada, it’s now actually technically more legal than in the Netherlands. There are pot shops everywhere in Toronto. Hell, I get my stuff mailed to me. I suppose the notion is that tourists likely aren’t coming just for that anymore due to it being legal in so many other places, but still seems arbitrary and silly to alienate the tourists you are getting by telling them they can’t try the world famous coffee shops they’ve heard so much about.

Really makes me wonder what the hell this mayor is thinking. First wanting to move the RLD to someplace tourists aren’t going to want to go, now this. Seems like not a great idea in a city so reliant on tourism dollars.

I wish Germany would hurry up with decriminalization.



Maybe she should eliminate the laws that force coffeeshops to break the law by transporting cannabis. There is so much research about the lack of a link between hard and soft drugs when the soft drugs are decriminalized that I wonder who she is pandering to. Luckily the city counsel has some members strongly against this idea.

Agree with everything said here so far. This will also be a boon for Moroccan street criminals (i.e. Moroccans) since it creates a black market for weed again. This is exactly what we saw in the early days of covid when, during the first lockdown, the government forced all coffeeshops to shutter. Street dealing returned immediately to an extent that the government took only 3 or 4 days to completely reverse course on coffeeshop closures. Banning tourists from coffeeshops will have the same effect and make the streets less safe for everyone.

There is opposition from the city council and various political parties but, if this does go through, I hope smokers stop coming here entirely so the mayor can understand the consequences of this action. I mean, there's already simply no reason to come here to smoke weed when literally every other country/state where it's legal already has much better product. Amsterdam has been getting by on its reputation for many years but people will eventually wake up and, once that reputation is gone, it's gone.

Of course there's always a chance that I'm wrong. Perhaps people will continue coming here to enjoy the amazing food and great weather... :-D

The last time I went through customs, the guy at the desk noticed that I visit often.
"What brings you back to the Netherlands? Love of tulips and wooden shoes?"
Exactly!

Weasel

Yikes, looks like I'd better get my last visit in to Amsterdam in quickly then. Tragic what has happened to the old carefree liberal places I remember from 20 years ago. A lot of dour puritanism seems to be the order of the 21st century.

Can somebody please provide the legal definition of "Tourist"? I mean, if you are a resident of anywhere in, let's say, the EU, how can they define you as "Tourist" automatically? I think this is a red herring...Ooops, I know the Amsterdam Mayor likes to eat Maetjees....:) Bottom Line: I believe this is all a BS campaign on the good Bergemeister's part and it won't stand up legally or be able to be enforced. Forgetaboutit....

ST

This is simply NOT going to happen so don't bother worrying about it.

I hope not. I accepted twenty years ago the RLD was dead. Now this horse shit.

I just booked a week-long stay in De Pijp for early December to be near Park 118 and the quieter coffee shops. I hope I don't have to be a pathetic old man begging locals to pick me a bag of weed and a chunk of King Hassan. Plus won't this just bring street dealing of a benign substance back to Amsterdam?

Insipid.

Yeah, shortsighted.

We are a mid-50s American couple that has visited twice a year for 12 years. We spend $$$$ on hotels and non-coffee shop stuff, fly KLM, etc. Weed isn't the only reason we come, but lack of weed, with the widespread availability of legal stuff in the US, would certainly cut down on our number of visits. In fact, we now only holiday in places in the US where it is legal. Again, not that weed is our only interest, but the option to partake drives the decision.

NYC Diesel,

I highly recommend Farah when you visit Park 118. You won’t be disappointed. Check my recent trip report for more details.

hahahaha!

---------------
cant really see how they could apply this law. . tourists from other parts of NL? foreign people who are living/working in amsterdam? Im rather sure the list of expections would be long and hard to follow up for the police.

instead I think they will work around with harder fines / more cameras around the streets for people misbehaving. Tourists who are pissing/ puking / screaming all night etc...... because of alcohol not weed.

Exactly! Pissed tourists are the biggest problem and the biggest pile of trash that needs to be cleaned up. I have an acquaintance who runs a coffeeshop in the west of AMS and he was telling me in the 15 years of managing coffeeshops the only time he has had problems was with people who were drunk. Why the fuck doesn't the government tackle that problem rather than taking the easy way out and blaming any and all problems on the weed?

I’ve been saying it for years. Mongerers are not the problem, nor are the stoners. They don’t bother anyone by and large. The ones doing the littering, fighting, vandalism, and making tons of noise are the drunk assholes. Funny coincidence how shortly after they closed the police precinct in De Wallen, all this nonsense got way worse, huh?

It is, and always has been, a policing issue. It’s not the girls in the windows, it’s not the window owners, it’s not the ladies’ customers, it’s the police not doing their job and letting the drunk assholes run wild and do whatever the fuck they want. I’ve seen obviously drunk people openly drinking on the street walk right past police and they did nothing. Shutting down windows and preventing tourists from getting weed won’t do shit. If they really want to fix things, they need to start coming down on the drunk idiots. Simple as.

First of all, let me be clear that if this happens, I will use every one of my super powers to PROVE how easy it is to party hard. This wont work. It never does. They caved instantly during the first lockdown, when street dealing reappeared the minute the coffeeshops closed.

It. Wont. Happen.

Weasel

All I can say, Weasel, is that you wouldn't believe I made my first quasi-legal purchase of pre-rolled cannabis and hash joints last week and my first quasi-legal of bud yesterday with a credit card in Manhattan since I began toking in 1976. It's great, but the juxtaposition of a weed ban in Old Amsterdam being floated while New Amsterdam has finally gotten semi-sane is just fucking surreal.

Maybe when I'm dead for three or four centuries, NYC will finally permit prostitution?

NYC,

Yeah, I have seen some wierd shit over the years, but I never imagined that the rules could change to the point that Amsterdam wold be more restrictive than any part of the US. I can buy weed online in Michigan, and have it delivered to my cabin in the woods the next morning. And not just a little bit. 2.5 ounces, or 70 grams at a time! Makes that 5g bag in Amsterdam look anemic.
I have not figured out how to have a hot blond Dutch girl delivered to the cabin, but I'm not done trying yet.

Weasel