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#Amsterdam is banning foreign tourists from coffee shops to decrease the amount of tourists in the city
This may work to some degree, but will most likely cause more problems and fails to address underlying issues with Dutch #cannabis laws
Thread
1/10 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/foreigners-face-ban-from-amsterdams-cannabis-cafes
This may work to some degree, but will most likely cause more problems and fails to address underlying issues with Dutch #cannabis laws
Thread
1/10 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/foreigners-face-ban-from-amsterdams-cannabis-cafes
#Amsterdam has too many tourists. 58% of them come primarily to consume cannabis. Banning foreign tourists from buying cannabis is sure to dissuade some of them from coming, but many people will still travel to Amsterdam, and will buy cannabis, but will do so on the streets.
Mayor Halsema ( @groenlinks020) says that this will “make life more difficult for criminals”.
In reality this will push more cannabis into the illegal market and may even increase the income of criminals, plus it will bring them many new customers they can sell other drugs to.
In reality this will push more cannabis into the illegal market and may even increase the income of criminals, plus it will bring them many new customers they can sell other drugs to.
Illegal drug trade is extremely common in Amsterdam. There is no shortage of dealers trying to sell tourists drugs and this will only give them a new cash crop and a way to get people to buy stronger drugs, which may increase problems even more.
All the cannabis sold legally in the Netherlands is produced ILLEGALLY, because it is illegal to grow cannabis.
If you really want to put a dent in the income of criminals, you should take their business away from them through legalization and regulation.
If you really want to put a dent in the income of criminals, you should take their business away from them through legalization and regulation.
Maybe instead of claiming that closing coffee shops to tourists will make life more difficult for criminals, which it won’t, @groenlinks focus on the problems of budget tourism and how ultimately this drug crime problem should be solved by the state. They're separate issues.
There are attempts to bring #cannabis cultivation into the legal market, but the process is very slow and I don't see it moving properly forward on a national level anytime soon. @groenlinks should step up their rhetoric on this in the coming elections. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/03/dutch-high-hopes-for-legal-cannabis-farms-hit-by-nimby-protests?fbclid=IwAR0PvqVr8SGL3P9pyYDQ3ZbtEDPjo0x1WevekM-XJulx3tljbJGDpsHtVSA
Ultimately this is also a problem caused by the prohibition of cannabis in other places in the world. Perhaps over 10 million people would not travel to Amsterdam just to smoke legal cannabis, if they could do it in their own country.
Cannabis prohibition has failed in all EU countries.
Controlled legalization, regulation and taxation should happen everywhere.
Just look at these statistics and tell me that prohibition is a sustainable way to deal with this issue. https://twitter.com/CoelThomas/status/1316663244363358213?s=20
Controlled legalization, regulation and taxation should happen everywhere.
Just look at these statistics and tell me that prohibition is a sustainable way to deal with this issue. https://twitter.com/CoelThomas/status/1316663244363358213?s=20
People smoke #cannabis whether it’s legal or not.
Around a third of all Europeans have smoked cannabis at least once.
We’re talking possibly hundreds of billions of euros of income for criminals.
Nowhere is this problem more visible than in Amsterdam.
Around a third of all Europeans have smoked cannabis at least once.
We’re talking possibly hundreds of billions of euros of income for criminals.
Nowhere is this problem more visible than in Amsterdam.
