Is there a more typically Amsterdam scene than seeing a world famous rap star bicycling to his favourite coffeeshop, like Snoop’s doing here during a 2008 visit? Yet, as I’ve blogged about two weeks ago, the current government wants to ban foreigners from all Dutch coffeeshops and today they confirmed that yes, even Amsterdam coffeeshops would no longer be able to serve tourists. Which means Snoop has to get his “chronic” elsewhere in future and with him some twentyfive percent of all tourists visiting Amsterdam, something even the rightwing VVD faction in the city council finds absurd. Not only would it be a serious economic blow to the city, it would also mean the soft drugs trade being driven underground, tourists getting their fix from the street rather than a licensed coffeeshop…
But I fear that these arguments, valid as they are, will not persuade the national government to change its policies. Its policies are driven by ideology, not facts and making soft drugs illegal to sell to tourists is just a new step towards a general ban. What’s more, even the economic arguments won’t stop them: they don’t care about Amsterdam — their voters live in the provinces, not here. Amsterdam is a leftwing city and these rightwing, provincial politicians do not care if their policies hurt it.
There is one ray of hope however. A pilot project with a wietpas, in which foreigners were excluded from coffeeshops, was set up last year in Limburg (the sticky out bit in the southeast of the Netherlands), but has been judged illegal by the Maastricht courts. It ruled that any such scheme, which priviledged inhabitants of the Netherlands above tourists, was against article one of the Dutch constitution, which prescribes equal treatment in equal cases for everybody in the Netherlands, regardless of race, creed, sexuality or nationality. An appeal against this ruling is in process at the next higher court, so the outcome is still in doubt, but if upheld, it does mean a national scheme is illegal too.
Until that time however, any of my foreign friends wanting to sample the delights of getting hassle free joints in Amsterdam, might want to hurry…