The new cabinet has no plans to make an exception for Amsterdam in its plans to introduce passes for cannabis café users, justice minister Ivo Opstelten is quoted as saying by Nos tv.



All cafes, known as coffee shops, will have to use passes to make it practically impossible for tourists to go inside, Opstelten said.

‘No tourist attractions. We don’t like that,’ the justice minister is quoted as saying. ‘We have to get back to the original meaning: local use for who wants it.’

Tourism

Amsterdam city council is currently looking in to the effect of the crackdown on soft drug sales tourism.

Maastricht has already closed its coffee shops to tourists because of the nuisance while the border towns of Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom have got rid of coffee shops altogether.

The concept of coffee shops was introduced in the 1970s to separate hard and soft drugs. The country’s 650 or so coffee shops are permitted to stock up to 500 grams of soft drugs while users can have up to five grammes for personal use.