The mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, says he will not ban foreign tourists from using the city’s famous cannabis cafes after the new government of the Netherlands said it would be up to local authorities whether or not to impose such a ban.
The Mayor believes that banning the sale of the drug to foreigners could lead to more crime. Around 1.5 million tourists a year, one-third of the total visitors to the city, visit Amsterdam to consume cannabis.
According to the Mayor, these 1.5 million tourists will not simply say ‘then no more marijuana’, they will go looking for drugs and this would lead to more robberies, quarrels about fake drugs, and no control of the quality of drugs on the market. All the hard work carried out by the authorities over the years would have been in vain.