Drug tourists travelling to Amsterdam’s infamous marijuana café’s will soon be banned from purchasing cannabis in an effort to end drug tourism to the Netherlands.
“Coffee shops”, where small amounts of marijuana have been legally bought and smoked since 1976, have become a major industry and a popular tourist attraction in many Dutch cities.
However, the Dutch cabinet is anticipated to introduce tougher measures to prevent tourists buying or smoking marijuana as a part of a major crackdown on the nation’s tolerance on soft drugs.
Ministers of justice, home affairs and health will propose for legislation to keep foreigners out of venues selling cannabis in order to reduce crime and social nuisances.
The proposed chances will see “coffee shops”, which are licensed to sell marijuana, to introduce a member’s only pass system to keep tourists from buying drugs.
A government commission in July concluded that coffee shops should again become utilised for their original purpose; vending for local users instead of large numbers of consumers from neighbouring countries. The report stated that the situation had got out of hand.
One of the major problems caused by drug tourism to the Netherlands is the influx in foreign ‘drug tourists’, which include a high proportion of young Briton’s, who visit the Netherlands in order to consume cannabis that is illegal in their home countries.
It has become a major problem in towns close to Dutch borders near Belgium, France and Germany.
It is estimated that the legal “coffee shop” trade is worth approximately £1.6 billion every year.
