Amsterdam wants to ban foreign tourists from accessing coffee shops and thus the purchase of hash or marijuana. The city announced.
The public prosecutor, the police and mayor Femke Halsema want to stop drug tourism. Only residents of the Netherlands should then have access to the coffee shops with a pass. The city parliament has yet to approve the plans.
Coffee shops also open during lockdown
"Amsterdam is an international city and of course we want to attract tourists, but we want them to come because of the diversity, the beauty and the cultural facilities," said the mayor. In a letter to the city council, Halsema wrote that she hoped to make Amsterdam less attractive as a "place of soft drug tourism".
In the Netherlands, so-called soft drugs such as hashish and marijuana are legal to buy in coffee shops for personal consumption. They are also open during the current lockdown, but customers must take the goods with them.
In principle, only residents of the country are allowed to buy drugs in the coffee shops, but there is an exception rule in Amsterdam. To do this, however, the city had to significantly reduce the number of sales outlets. But drug tourism, especially from Great Britain, increased sharply.