Amsterdam considers banning tourists from purchasing cannabis
Amsterdam is looking into banning tourists from cannabis cafes in a bid to combat over-tourism.
A survey of visitors commissioned by Mayor Femke Halsema revealed that more than half visited the 850,000-strong city because they wanted to experience a cannabis-vending coffee shop.
Most of the respondents (57 per cent) said the Dutch capital’s coffee shops influenced their decision to come, and 11 per cent said they would not return if they could not access the cafes.
About 29 per cent said they would seek out other ways to obtain their drug fix, such as getting a resident to make a purchase on their behalf or through street trading.
In a letter released in July 2019, ahead of the survey, Halsema suggested that the coffee shops can put “the quality of life in the city center under pressure”.
Following the publication of the survey results, Halsema said the city government should work on “reducing the attraction of cannabis to tourists” and making the Amsterdam cannabis market more transparent.
Earlier this month, the city announced that group tours of the main Wallen red-light district and other areas containing sex workers’ windows would be formally outlawed from April 1. Deputy mayor Victor Everhardt said the tours were “disrespectful to see sex workers as a tourist attraction”.