Tourists won’t be able to buy marijuana in the Netherlands’ legendary cannabis coffee cafes anymore, once a new law rolls into effect.
Beginning in January, the Dutch government will ban tourists from coffee shops – well known for dispensing soft drugs – but the rules are already in effect in the southern city of Maastricht.
Under the law, only Dutch residents with a permit – a so-called ‘grass pass’ or ‘weed pass’ – are allowed into coffee shops. Officials say the goal is to decrease marijuana consumption, and stop the flood of Germans and Belgians driving in from across the border.
“It’s a shame. You know, all my friends and I come over to Amsterdam for the weed,” tourist Simon Turner told Global National‘s Stuart Greer.
It appears the drug trade is also taking advantage of what shops have to offer. “The people of our city complain a lot about drug tourists and drug runners,” says Maastricht mayor Onno Hoes.
In protest, southern coffee shops warn the ban will encourage a resurgence of the black market.
Get breaking National news
“The street dealers are more than willing to sell their products to them,” says Mark Josemans, owner of the ‘Easy Going’ coffee shop.
Last month, Hoes received a petition with hundreds of signatures demanding the ban be lifted. Easy Going and other shops even closed their doors as a sign of protest at one point.
There are fears the ban will take a bite out of tourism, which officials acknowledge is a possibility. Willem Vugs, who runs a coffee shop in the southern municipality of Tilburg, told Reuters while it was business as usual, the law isn’t fair to visitors. “We are being forced to discriminate against foreigners.”
He said his shop served up to 800 customers a day, adding Tilburg will definitely feel the economic repercussions.
“They don’t just spent their money here, they buy groceries and fill up their cars, too,” he said to Reuters.
The new law means the cannabis coffee cafes can only admit up to 2,000 members, who need to prove they are local residents. But shops say there are certain people, such as medical and legal professionals, who don’t want to go on the record as being cannabis users, due to the stigma.
“My customers don’t want a membership list. For one thing, smoking cannabis is technically illegal and for another, people worry that police will have access to the list,” Vugs told Reuters.
There’s a possibility the plan could be eliminated, because the Dutch government has been forced to form a coalition with two small parties that oppose the scheme. The Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition passed the law in January. The coalition itself dissolved in April.
Until then, the ban on selling weed to tourists is being challenged in the courts, with many Dutch passionate about preserving their country’s openness to soft drugs.
It’s estimated the cannabis coffee shops rake in at least $2 billion a year, with tourists contributing a signification portion of that.
With files from Global National’s Stuart Greer
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.