A new proposal in Amsterdam is being supported by local Police and the city’s mayor. The proposal will ban foreigners in Amsterdam’s cannabis cafes and would only allow Dutch residents to enter Amsterdam’s Cannabis cafes instead of foreigners and tourists. The ban would be taken into effect sometime next year.
The mayor of Amsterdam released a statement saying that “The cannabis market was too big and had too many links to organized crime.” The announcement of the proposed ban has accumulated a lot of mixed reactions from local residents and small business owners. According to The Guardian, 58% of foreign tourists who come to visit Amsterdam consume cannabis from Amsterdam’s Cannabis cafe’s.
On average, Amsterdam has nearly 20 million visitors per year with a majority of those visitors being young tourists. By 2025, this number is expected to reach more than 29 million. Banning foreigners from Amsterdam’s Cannabis Cafes may hurt the countries economy, as the cafes are typically a hot spot for tourists and foreigners. It will be interesting to see if this proposal is passed, and how the residents and small business owners of Amsterdam’s cafes will respond if the proposal is enacted.
Feature Photo – Shutterstock
Source – The Guardian
