Amsterdam considers banning tourists from coffee shops as locals slam foreigners

Tourists could soon be banned from certain spots in Amsterdam after fed-up locals and business owners slammed them for having “no respect”.

Customers outside the coffee shop The Green House in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Picture: Peter Dejong

Amsterdam’s famous cannabis cafes could soon ban all tourists from visiting after a rise in anti-social behaviour.

The cafes are popular with foreigners, drawn to the city where the drug is legal to buy under a certain limit, The Sun reported.

However, visitors, who are only slowly returning after Covid restrictions were lifted, now face being stopped from entering the shops – a move welcomed by some fed-up locals.

Milan, 26, an Amsterdam local, said tourists had “no respect”.

“I was just chilling on my bed when I saw someone outside who just sat down and then he puked into the window,” he told local media.

“They have no respect. It’s a neighbourhood but they don’t see it as a neighbourhood where people live.”

Customers outside the coffee shop The Green House in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Picture: Peter Dejong

Earlier this year, the city’s mayor proposed the ban to prevent drunk and rowdy tourists from populating the areas.

The proposals, put forward by Mayor Femke Halsema, could see only Dutch residents allowed to enter the city's 166 marijuana-selling cafes.

“Amsterdam is an international city and we wish to attract tourists, but we would like them to come for its richness, its beauty and its cultural institution,” she said.

“The problem is: there are just too many of them. The drug tourists are the reason for an increase in demand for marijuana.”

Lawyer and councillor Don Cedar welcomed the move but warned there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“I think it is a very positive step when it comes to making the city liveable," he said.

“We need to change the international image of Amsterdam as the drugs capital of the world and if we do that I believe we will draw a different crowd and make sure the city becomes more liveable.”

Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most visited capitals. Picture: Peter Dejong

However, cannabis cafe owners have warned that it could result in their closure if foreign tourists are not allowed to visit.

“If they were to ban the tourists, 80 per cent of our customers would be gone,” owner Eve McGuire said.

“If you're Dutch, you buy your weed and you go home. The people that chill in coffee shops are tourists.”

Gary Gallagher, who runs the Amsterdam Cannabis Museum, warned that it will lead to “drug dealers on every street corner”, after it happened when the shops closed during the pandemic.

While cannabis is technically illegal in the Netherlands, possession of fewer than five grams of the drug was decriminalised in 1976 under a “tolerance policy”.

It isn't the only tourist ban Amsterdam wants to bring in due to bad behaviour.

The Dutch capital announced further restrictions tourists will face when visiting, including temporary alcohol bans as well as new rules for cannabis cafes and the red light district.

Temporary bans on booze, music speakers and laughing gas will also be enforced if crowds become too large.

Ms Halsema wants to move the red light district out of the city altogether, with a proposal to build a five-storey “erotic centre” with bars, 100 small rooms and an “erotic entertainment” venue.

Shop workers in the De Wallen area of the red light district slammed tourists who continue to take selfies in the area, while others said that they liked tourists visiting.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission