Tourist Ban For Coffeeshops In The Netherlands Will Come Into Effect On January 1, 2012

The new regulations will come into effect from January 1, 2012, but will not be enforced until May 1, starting in the 3 southern provinces of Limburg, Brabant and Zeeland. The rest of the country, including Amsterdam, will have to enforce the new regulations from January 1, 2013.

The situation in the south of The Netherlands, near the border of Germany and Belgium, is far from perfect. There's a lot of drug tourism and Dutch residents have long complained about the impact of this tourism including traffic jams, noise at night and a proliferation of drug dealers on the streets. The new regulations for coffeeshops are meant to deal with this problem.

“The Dutch drugs policy's appeal to foreign users has to be reduced. There will be an end to the open-door policy. Stricter rules will make coffee shops smaller, better controllable and reduce the attractiveness of Dutch drug policy for foreign users.” Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten said in a letter to lawmakers. Under the new system, only people who are officially resident in the Netherlands will be able to 'join' a coffeeshop. Coffeeshops will be allowed to have no more than 2,000 members and must be at least 350 metres from schools.

The Dutch government will use its embassies to notify tourists travelling to the Netherlands about the new policy.

The mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, is very unsatisfied with the new law. There are 223 coffeeshops in Amsterdam and they are visited by 1.000.000 tourists annually. Research shows that 1 out of 4 tourists who visit Amsterdam make a visit to a coffeeshop at least once during their stay in the city which used to be the 'most liberal place in the world'. It's totally clear the new law will hurt tourism to Amsterdam in many ways, but the Dutch government does not seem to care.

The city of Amsterdam is still in discussion with the Dutch government, adding that the border situation in the south of The Netherlands cannot be compared to the situation in Amsterdam at all.

Source: Reuters, DutchNews