Non-residents face being banned from Amsterdam’s cannabis coffee shops as part of wide-ranging plans to discourage organised crime and cut back on drugs tourism that have drawn mixed reactions from residents and business owners. Backed by police and prosecutors, the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, has tabled proposals allowing only Dutch residents to enter its 166 marijuana-selling coffee shops, with the measure likely to come into force sometime next year. Government research showed 58% of foreign tourists who visit Amsterdam come mainly to consume the drug, Halsema said, while another study showed the city would support fewer than 70 coffee shops if only locals were served. annabis is technically illegal in the Netherlands but possession of fewer than five grams (0.18 ounces) of the drug was decriminalised in 1976 under a “tolerance policy”. Production remains illegal but the coffee shops are allowed to sell it. But Joachim Helms of the coffee shop owners’ association BCD said the plans risked driving the soft drugs trade on to the street. “Cannabis is a popular product that people enjoy worldwide,” he told the Dutch ANP news agency. “People want to smoke their joint. If that can’t happen in a coffee shop, then they will buy it on the street.” #amsterdam #amsterdamcafe #netherlands #amsterdamcannabis ——————————————— Follow us at @hemplife420 Log on to www.Hemplife420.com and subscribe to our newsletter ——————————————— #cannabis #marijuana #cannabiscommunity #hemplife420magazine #thc #hemplife420 #hemplife420news #mmjlife #cannabisculture #medicalcannabis #marijuanamovement #cbd #legalcannabis #terps #legalizeit #marijuananews #medicalmarijuana #mmj #cannabiscures #hemplifeisthebestlife #weedstagram #cannabisgram #explorepage (at Amsterdam, Netherlands) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ8uXZxJ2s_/?igshid=lqlp4fd1g1zg
