Netherlands to ban tourists from marijuana 'coffee shops,' concerns over Amsterdam to

[prepress420]

The Dutch government said Friday that it will ban tourists from buying marijuana from the Netherlands' famed "coffee shops."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...na_coffee_shops_worries_about_amsterdam_.html

 

[Dreamz_Of_Green]

Amseterdam to go broke in near future! is what it should read. if this happens

 

[RaNgEr RiCk]

Amseterdam to go broke in near future! is what it should read. if this happens

Seriously WTF are they thinking? Bad choice to turn away all those tourist $$$$.

 

[RetroGrow]

Brilliant!
Now I'll never go back!
Along with all the other tourists.
I wonder if this will apply only to Amsterdam, or all of Holland?

 

[Sun Ra]

I've heard about them talking about this for some time. If this does actually does go through by the end of this year, as these news articles state, what a truly great loss this will be for all us and our most beloved plant.

 

[Guest 18340]

Glad I went last year...

 

[tea]

the " wanna coke, crack, speed, ecstasy or maybe a little boy"street dealer army returns faster as they can see.

...poor amsterdam locals will become a big crime problem on the streets again omg
stupid conservative assholes

 

[Captain Ginyu]

I wonder if this is due to international pressure from...let's say imperialist USA, Britain, etc.

At this pace, if people don't take to the streets soon, we may lose our rights for free air!

 

[MurderDeathKill]

an end to cannabis events in a'dam?

 

[Chris1]

I was just talkin to my boys the other day and we want to plan Amsterdam into our "euro trip"...not if that happened

 

[stonedwarrior]

I absolutely KNOW they'll be losing tourist dollars - mine. It's gone from a "I'm going to get there sometime soon" destination to being an, "ahhh, fuck those guys."

 

[THC4SIM]

I wonder if the last amsterdam cannabis cup is still gunna be on in november?

Amsterdam has gotten way too expensive these days anyway!! its about time for a change of scene..
14-18 euros for a half decent gram of weed for a joint, 3 euros for a can of coke!!
100 euros for a hotel room that looks like a prison cell....
amsterdam has been taking the piss for years now, so fuck em, we will find somewhere else...

amsterdam started to fuck up in my eye's when the euro came along, i miss those days of the guilder when amsterdam was a bit more rough and ready...

 

[Mr. Beanz]

I guess I'll be making a trip to Cali this year instead of the dam. American weed blows Dutch weed out of the water anyways!

 

[Krull]

EU = lets make things worst everywhere

another epic fail

=K

 

[Strainhunter]

IMHO the whole deal about (American) tourists going to Amsterdam is WAY overrated and hyped up.
It's MUCH cheaper to go to Cali for the pot...or Spain if it has to be Europe.

 

[mr.haze420]

after speaking recently with the owner of the 420 cafe, he said not going to happen.

 

[McSnappler]

Surely there is going to be some action from the coffeeshops, weed friendly bars/hostels, and other canna-businesses, who will presumably go out of business if this happens? How many coffeeshops would survive if forced to just sell coffee? What about the employees, the lost tax revenue, etc etc?

It's madness.

Machteld Ligtvoet, manager of communication at the ATCB, explains: “Amsterdam Tourism & Convention Board agrees with the mayor of Amsterdam that we shouldnot implement a so-called ‘weed card’. We believe it is a solution for a problem that Amsterdam does not experience [and]? implies an act of discrimination towards foreigners. Furthermore, we fear that soft drugs will be sold on the street again, leading to more crime and dangerous situations. ATCB now never actively promotes soft drugs or coffee shops, but we consider the availability of soft drugs part of our famous Spirit of Freedom. And that is what people like about our city – you can be yourself in Amsterdam.”

At least there are some fairly mainstream dissenters ^. Hopefully for the business owners' sake they can find a solution.

Also things aren't very clear from media reports on the timescale for this to happen. Anyone know more about how soon this will become law? I've read conflicting info on the various news websites so far.

 

[Cry Tuff]

Im afraid this restriction is very much likely to happen. Plans are at an advanced stage and while its debatable that it will be fully in force in Amsterdam this year, expect the right wing christian coalition to have succeeded in their wish, early next. With respect to those saying it wont happen, this is a mixture of wishful thinking and bullish Dutch insistence to the contrary. And to those of you ( evidently Americans ) who content yourselves with a ' fuck you' smugness to the loss of tourist dollar and the pissing contest of 'Cali weed is better anyway', you are spectacularly missing the point. The loss of another freedom looms and the jackboots of the ' war on drugs' marches into Europe.

 

[Sun Ra]

Cry Tuff, you really sum it up very well and this exactly the way that I feel about all of this. Even if the laws were messed up in the US, it has always been comforting to know that Amsterdam is just an international flight away to freedom that the US or any other country does not offer. It was always a great way to begin and end a trip to Europe. Not all of us live in medical states. To think that we might look back on the good old days when this was possible. It's one of those things I thought and hoped would always be there. Well, it looks like it's time to plan another trip to Amsterdam for later this year. I guess they can still change their decision on this, but it's not looking very good at this point.

 

[mr.haze420]

amsterdam will look like detroit, if they close the shops. does the gov really think there are enough dutch people to support all the tourist business's here, there a 9 argentinian restaurants on the damstraat, how many dutch eat there, none. hundreds of souvenier shops selling the same shit, how many dutch people buying hats, t-shirts and stuff with amsterdam written on it, none. i hope some politcians crash this rightwing ant-people government.