Amsterdam has decided to deprive the tourists coming from other countries of easy drugs. This was announced Friday, Jan. 8, by Femke Halsema, mayor of the Dutch capital, the Dutch Broadcasting Corporation reported.
“Of course, the plan will not be implemented tomorrow, I think it will take about a year,” the mayor said. Under the decision, only residents would be allowed to sell light drugs.
“We’ve seen more and more young people come to Amsterdam specifically to visit coffee shops,” Halsema said, stressing that some studies have shown that many foreign tourists will refuse to travel to the city if they can’t visit establishments where light drug sales are allowed.
The city manager has not yet discussed the issue with the coffee shop owners and wants to bring it before city council members, to begin with. “We would like people interested in the beauty and richness of our cultural institutions to come to us. Not tourists who come here to consume alcohol and drugs,” she concluded.
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The Dutch authorities have a policy of tolerating the consumption of marijuana, which is considered a soft drug, but in recent years they have made efforts to reduce the flow of “drug tourists. In 2012, a law was passed allowing only adult Dutch citizens to use coffee shops, but its implementation is entrusted to local authorities, and it has met with resistance at the local level.
