Coffeeshop (Netherlands)

[1] Under the drug policy of the Netherlands, the sale of cannabis products in small quantities is allowed by licensed coffeeshops.

The idea of licensing the sale of cannabis was introduced in the 1970s for the explicit purpose of keeping hard and soft drugs separated.

A Dutch judge has ruled that tourists can legally be banned from entering cannabis cafes, as part of restrictions that were implemented in 2012.

Dutch coffeeshops often fly green-yellow-red Ethiopian flags, other symbols of the Rastafari movement, or depiction of palm leaves to indicate that they sell cannabis, as a consequence of the official ban on direct advertising.

[7] This aesthetic attracts many public artists who may be paid to create murals in the coffeeshops and use the Rastafari and reggae related imagery.

Rob van Gijzel, mayor of Eindhoven announced he intended to start a 'monitored pilot' of issuing licenses for the production of cannabis.

A majority of mayors and users have extended the wish to allow some form of regulated, legal, cultivation for sale to the coffeeshops as this would lower the crime/violence rate, solve the backdoor issue and can generate some income.

Strikingly, this has little to do with the view of their political party, from which NRC Handelsblad concludes it is based on practical considerations, rather than ideological.

Toward the end of 2013, Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan said that in 2014, some of the coffeeshops near schools will be forced to close.

Some do not allow any; most of these municipalities are either controlled by strict Protestant parties, or are bordering Belgium and Germany and do not wish to receive "drug tourism" from those countries.

A 19 March 2005 article in the Observer noted that the number of Dutch cannabis coffeeshops had dropped from 1,500 to 750 over the previous five years, largely due to pressure from the conservative coalition government.

The municipality of Terneuzen has put up road signs showing the way to the coffeeshops and decided to restrict local by-laws for cannabis from May 2009.

[12][13] Despite strong protests from coffeeshop owners, a judge in the Netherlands has upheld a new law to ban foreign tourists from entering cannabis cafes.