Dutch tourist ban for cannabis 'coffee shops' to begin this ye

[Stix87]

spew have wanted to go there with mates in the future to get very high sounds like there goverment is shooting themselfs in the foot.

[everest]

they will never change the dam ..

 

they will just force it underground under locked doors ..

 

. this kind of trade will just drive prices up ..

 

ev

[Tsigle]

It'll be like the 1920s with the speakeasy's.

[returngrower]

here's hoping that's the last of the flaming ludites

[GUNBUDS]

Only just recently myself and the misses decided to travel to Europe but most of all Amsterdam.. Thinking of heading there at the time that the high times cup is on.. All that said i don't think we would be able to get there this November so next year "2012" would be the go..

 

Then a few weeks ago i started reading about the dutch ban on tourists at the coffee shops..

 

not sure what to think will this last long do you think? or is this forever..

 

Not Happy

[sirsmokealot420]

Someone told me about this this other day. I'd be shattered if it weren't for my Mum being from there, and having relatives there.

[hobsons choice]

I can't see this going through. I've spent a lot of time in Amsterdam and the feeling is it will never get passed. In any case even if the government passes this bill it still requires enacting at local municipality level in local by-laws and at least 14 of the municipalities have already stated that they're opposed to it, so the government can jump up and down all they like it won't make a difference.

 

They've also had a set back just today in the highest Dutch court which ruled that the temporary closure of a coffee shop in Maastricht that sold cannabis to foreign visitors was unlawful.

 

Amsterdam will never enact this, it's worth billions to them in tourist money and the last thing they want is a huge blackmarket growing.

 

I wouldn't be cancelling my travel plans if you want to see it.... but so get out and see more than the coffeeshops, it's a stunning city !

 

 

 

 

 

“Drugs tourism generates about EUR 10 billion ($ 14.3 billion). And that’s leaving aside the trade in soft drugs itself, which has an annual turnover of between EUR 1.5 and 2 billion ($ 2.1 billion and $ 2.8 billion). Those are significant sums, but apparently they are the wrong sort of tourist’, according to Brouwer. Huge economic interests are tied up in the trade in soft drugs in Amsterdam, an article on the website of the University of Groningen says.

 

“Tourists don’t only go there for the coffee shops,†Brouwer points out. “Precisely because they also do other things, they are an important source of revenue. The introduction of a “grass pass†will definitely cut away at that.â€

 

Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan has said that tourists in Amsterdam — including those attracted primarily by the availability of coffeeshops — do not cause much of a nuisance.

 

A 2007 report by Amsterdam’s Department for Research and Statistics shows that of the 4.5 million tourists who spend the night in Amsterdam during a given year, 26% visit a coffeeshop. According to the Amsterdam Tourism & Convention Board, 10% of tourists even mention this as a primary reason to visit the city.